Sailing Under Smoke

Tully Rohrer

May 29th, 2007

This boater was one of the few people that were actually navigating towards the island during the fire. The amount of smoke that rose from this wildfire was unimaginable, as was the amount of ash that fell on everything downwind of the flames. As beautiful as this image is, it belies the ominous and threatening nature of the skies at the time. You can just barely see a boat in the bottom right of the photo that was moored off of Torqua Springs… and a mile beyond Torqua is our home of Toyon Bay, fully engulfed in smoke.

This is probably the last shot I will post of the fire itself. I will have some aftermath photos to post, especially after hiking the island tip-to-tip through much of the burn zone.

Song of the Day: Danielson - Cast It At the Setting Sail
I love Danielson’s album Ships, and this is one of my favorite songs from it. Fitting for the image, too.

that is a fantastic photo! i’m glad that you and your home made it through the fire. well done.

dezzaMay 29th, 2007

Wow, a really striking image. I didn’t realize it was actually smoke until I read the caption. Perfection composition and really captures the ominous atmosphere.

Peter FMay 29th, 2007

Scary photo.
My class has some questions:
Calvin: Did the astronomy stuff burn up?
Calvin: Did the ironwood grove burn?
Alaina: Did the night hike trail burn?
Wilhelm: Have you started taking schools again, or is the camp still closed?

Clyde — May 29th, 2007

Beautiful as well as ominous. It almost looks like an illustration.

Annie — May 29th, 2007

What an unbelivable and moving shot. Nice job T. I agree with Anns about the illustration - it could almost be some Romantic nature painting.

Becky — May 29th, 2007

looks like that boat is about to get ssucked in by the baddest storm of all time. fantastic shot.

victor — May 29th, 2007

For your class, Clyde: Calvin - Miraculously, only about 6 inches of 2 of the astronomy benches burned, and everything else is intact and good to go (though everything around it burned). The ironwood grove burned pretty badly, but it’s unclear now as to whether or not the trees will be able to pull through and survive. Only 1 or 2 trees burned badly enough to fall over. Alaina - The night hike trail burned pretty badly, and unfortunately there is poison oak in some of the ash, so we are not using the trail at present. And lastly, Wilhelm - we are taking schools again, and adapting the programs as necessary. Last week’s school, Chapparal, had a blast even with astronomy taking place on the soccer field! By the end of summer, programs should be back to normal. Thanks for your concern guys!

TullyDecember 16th, 2007

Looks like this ship is in for a rough ride!

ClausAugust 8th, 2008

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