Lightning strikes...but why here?

Two answers. The first is engineering - logical. Depends on your "logic"/knowledge. The second is "statistical". No matter what the actual result is, you are still someplace under the "universal" Gaussian curve. So chose wisely.

Have fun

Stanislaw Slack user from Ulladulla.

To answer any of your questions, first appreciate the big picture. Lightning is an electrical connection from cloud to earthborne charges maybe four miles distant. Will lightning take a five mile path diagonally to those charges? Of course not. Shortest electrical path is three miles down to tree, then four miles through earth to those charges.

If standing on earth with feet apart, then a shorter electrical path is up left leg and down right. Harmed human because human connection to earth was not a single point. This is why people beneath a tree can be harmed. This is also why four legged animals are so easily harmed by what was only considered a nearby strike to a distant tree.

Lightning rods on buildings have a typically 60 degree cone of protection. Lightning rods would not make lightning more attracted to buildings compared to a boat (that is not inside that 60 degree cone). Why would lightning strike the boat? Which direction were the earthborne charges? What was the electrically shortest path to those charges?

S>

Beside the tree with the tree rising about 60 degrees above the horizon squatting on one foot.

Standing close to a tree is particularly dangerous because the current heats up the water content of the heartwood so rapidly the steam pressure causes the tree trunk to explode - you're more likely to be impaled by large splinters than electrocuted!!!

Women are safe - they have a built in spark gap.