Local Knowledge

Smoke on the Water

I didn’t sail today; instead my wife and I took my young son to Nippers, an Aussie institution where the little tackers are taught the skills and techniques of surf lifesaving. His squad trains on Hampton beach adjacent to Sandringham Yacht Club and it’s usually a nice bonus to be able to watch the yachts racing just offshore. That was certainly not the case today as Melbourne baked in 38 Deg C (102Deg F) temperatures and was swathed in acrid bushfire smoke that has blown over the city and suburbs over the last couple of days from several huge fires raging upstate, greatly reducing visibility and casting a gloomy pall over everything. We arrived at the beach around 3.30 and somewhere offshore in the haze, 44 yachts were racing in three divisions on the Sandringham home course. Unusually for such a hot day the wind was from the south east and only blowing at about 8-10 knots, providing superb flat water sailing conditions but navigation must have been interesting with such poor visibility. A raging scrub fire was burning fiercely not a kilometer from where we stood on the beach and only about half a kilometer from the yacht club.

The leaping flames could be clearly seen by all of us on the beach and I guess also by those out sailing – a frightening sight to see and it was so close that we had ash from the scrub fire dropping all over us for a while. The fire fighters had the fire under control in a couple of hours but significant damage was done and the visible scars will remain for a long time to remind us of this strange day.

As usual, the trusty Nikon was at hand and I snapped some shots of the scene. The racing yachts, usually clearly identifiable from the beach, appear as ghostly triangular shadows in one of the shots.

SPORTSCAR

12/12/06