Just before the storm kicked up on Saturday, I went out to the Temple of Rudra to take some shots with the hopes that I might get some lightning striking from the approaching thunderheads in the background of my shot. Instead I was an eyewitness to something very unfortunate. I took my camera pack, my tripod and a beer and started taking some shots of the Temple. No lightning. A big gust hit me from behind and I turned around to see the land yacht, which had been cruising the playa all day, turning downwind, like stupid fucking idiots. Why weren't they bringing their sails down, like any sailor worth his salt would have done? And why were they turning with the wind, coming my direction, instead of heading up? I took a picture of it about a 100 yards away, unfortunately it was the last shot on that roll of film. What happened next was that I got out of the way. But my tripod, and the Temple of Rudra, were stuck in their places. The yacht was going full speed, about 25 mph or more I'd guess, when it barreled into the Temple. People were jumping off both the stage and the yacht. One guy jumped off the yacht right at impact and busted his ankle on landing, or else he was run over by the tire, I wasn't ever sure about that. But he was in pain. I ran to help him, though there wasn't much I could do until the medics brought out the stretcher. Two miracles happened at impact though: 1. My beer, which was next to my knocked over tripod, was safe, upright and still half full, and 2. The land yacht had stopped from being blown uncontrollablly at full speed into Tower Camp and had not killed anybody, most notably the cast of the opera. I think I may have suffered a bit of shock at seeing all this, but not nearly the emotion that engulfed Pepe, the director of the opera - rarely have I seen a rage such as his. I heard he took his cutting torch out there later that afternoon and demolished the land yacht. So it goes. The opera was postponed and didn't start til 3 am Sunday morning. If you have any Rudra-wreck stories of your own, send me a note.