From the Boating magazine "Fragrant Harbour" : August 2000
This is a true story, and one which every yachtie in the tropics needs to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest. And that's doubly the case for Southeast asia's yachties among whom a fair number wear specs. It's a tale of how a perfectly ordinary act aboard led to fire damage costing more than HK$35,000 o repair.
Imagine the scene. You've cast anchor in some blissful bay. It's a gloriously sunny day. You've got all the cushions out in the cockpit. There's a cold beer to hand. And you've at last got that quite hour or two to settle down to the bookyou've been wanting to read for months. But then, you've had a hard week. Lunch was delicious and those cold beers slid down very easily. And before you know where you are you begin to nod off. You put your book down. You take your glasses off your nose and place them near your book. And settle down for a rigour-restoring forty winks.
The sun arcs across the sky. It's rays glint off your specs...adn then through the lenses. Suddenly, on the cushion whre you carefully left your specs to stop them sliding about, two brilliant white pinpoints of sunlight appear. A few seconds later, a wisp of smoke begins to spiral upwards. And then flames...which reach the paper of your nearby book. Soon book and cushion are merrily ablaze.
And by the time you've woken up to all this adn managed to lay your hand on a fire extinguisher...which of course has been recently tested and is working (?!)you've $35,000 worth of damage to repair.
Far fetched ? Not according to Britain's Yachting World. In a similar incident last year the focussed sun managed to start a fire in asupposedly fire retardantcushion! And that then set fire to the teak deck an the GRP cockpit coaming.
But don't just be leery about where you put your spectacles. Remember that the bases of drinking glasses can also focus the sun's rays. So too can sine bottles.
Life's never easy when you're trying to chill out!
Quo Vadis ... where do you want to go??!!
Go Asten
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