The Cruise of the Viking

Day Five - Salt Spring Island

Fire Fighting

The quiet of the early morning melted with the distant but distinctive buzz of radial aircraft engines. We had encountered numerous single-prop float-planes on the voyage and were familiar with the sounds they made - these were different.

It appeared as if multiple World War II multi-engine aircraft were taking off some four miles away. Then we saw the smoke; a forest fire was blazing away on a steep hillside in sight of the water. The flotilla of aircraft turned out to be a single overworked vintge flying boat* repeatedly landing and taking off. It was touching down just long enough to fill its tanks with water, before throttling up returning to the fire to dump its load.

*A float plane rests on pontoons - usually in pairs that look as if they take the place of a standard landing gear. A flying boat actually rests on its hull-shaped fuselage, with a pontoon on either wing to provide stability.

[ Fire Fighting ][ Playing Cards ][ Saltspring Island ][ Doing Dishes ]

M/V Viking: The Voyage | Home