The World's strangest yacht club to sail again
by Tim Dornin, Independent Weekly/Sail-World on 27 Feb 2009
Lake Eyre Yacht Club SW
They sail on pink oil, they fly from every corner of the world for the opportunity, they sail only catamarans, and they're delighted if they only get a sail every couple of years. It's the Lake Eyre Yacht Club, and they just might get a sail soon.
The Commodore of Australia's Lake Eyre Yacht Club, Bob Blackway, is watching Lake Eyre for signs that he can raise the flag and declare race entries open for the next opportunity to sail on one of the driest and most isolated lakes on earth, Lake Eyre.
Water has just started pouring into the lake after an amazing seven week, 1300 kilometre journey. The deluge comes after the recent devastating floods in Queensland. The Diamantina and Georgina Rivers, that spend most of their lives dry, are rushing with water, heading inland for the lake which is 15 metres below sea level.
The sight of headwaters rushing down Warburton Creek, which is 300-400 metres wide in some places and into Lake Eyre, seven weeks after flooding began at Camooweal in northwest Queensland, is a marvel few people have witnessed firsthand.
The water has already flowed almost the length of Queensland and passed between the Simpson and Sturt Stony deserts. Water reached the Warburton Groove, the main channel into Lake Eyre, on Monday.
So salty is the Lake Eyre basin that even when the water reaches a metre deep it remains thick and heavy, and it still crystallizes around anything that breaks the surface.
And when the floods come, the shimmering pink hue spreads far into the distance, engulfing thousands of square kilometres in South Australia's north and bringing life to the normally parched, barren landscape. Up to 50 species of bird will head for the lake to breed, as well as insects, invertebrates, frogs, crustaceans and fish.
For Backway, it could be his first chance to take his 14-foot catamaran onto the relatively small area of Belt Bay since the last flood at Lake Eyre in 2004.
Sailing further on the vast expanse of Lake Eyre North has not been possible since 2000. Backway says it's worth the wait.
'It's just so different to sailing anywhere else in the world,' he told AAP.
'With shallow floods you tend to be becalmed when you're out in the middle of the lake. There's a weird effect that happens. The prevailing winds tend to be south-easterlies.
'But the evaporation from the lake is so great, that you get an updraft and the wind is actually deflected up and over it. It's like a bubble in the middle of the lake, where everything is still.'
With stronger winds, the effect is lost but Backway says even then the biggest waves are only 200mm high. That's because the water is like oil, very heavy because of the salt,' he says.
'The pink bacteria that live in the lake also produce glycerine ... it's like sailing in pink oil, that's what you feel like you're doing.'
Located about 700km north of Adelaide, what is commonly known as Lake Eyre is actually made up of two lakes, the largest 144km long and 77km wide.
The lakes were named after Edward Eyre, the first European to see them in 1860. Only a handful of times since then has it filled to capacity, the last in the 1970s.
Currently the Lake Eyre Yacht Club has about 50 paid-up members with some, almost unbelievably, coming from as far away as Scotland and the United States.
Most sail catamarans, the shallow waters causing difficulties for any craft that needs a keel.
But on occasions, like in 1984 and `89, water levels have exceeded four metres.
Backway recalls some taking larger yachts onto the lake and organising races in the 1970s, especially when water levels peaked in 1974 at 5.7 metres.
With the publicity surrounding the Queensland floods this year, interest has grown, with the club taking inquiries from prospective members and sailors every day.
It has Backway worried. Getting to the water can be tricky and only those experienced in outback travel are advised to make the trip.
When water levels reach 1.5 metres, it will still take a day of driving to get from the beginning of the salt pan to the water's edge.
Anyone attempting the journey is urged to take a satellite phone and an emergency beacon.
Nevertheless, if the levels continue to rise, Backway expects as many as 100 yachts to hit the water.
'That would be fantastic,' he says.
But it will be short-lived.
In the heat of South Australia's north, water evaporates at a prodigious rate.
Even if the lake reaches more than two metres deep, the water will be gone by October. If it gets deeper than that it will last until this time next year.
By that time Backway and his colleagues will have packed up their sailing gear and be heading home, privileged to have savoured one of Australia's most elusive natural wonders.
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/54354