Birth of a huricane - death of a catamaran
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Wed 2 Jul 2014 22:59
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In Titusville Municipal Marina
These two events are not in any way directly connected with
each other. It's certainly not our catamaran and fortunately not
our hurricane either. The weather Gods have been deliberating as to where
to start the first hurricane of the 2014 season. They chose
to place a tropical depression just north of the Abaco islands of the
Bahamas and to the north-east of us at Canaveral a few days ago. It became known
as Tropical Depression No.1 which then slowly drifted southwards until it was
centred around the West End area of Grand Bahama. Yesterday it turned slightly
westwards towards Florida before turning northwards and being renamed Tropical
Storm Arthur.
Today it is offshore of Canaveral heading northwards and makes
an impressive sight viewed from GOES satellite imagery. Later in the
week it will become a hurricane wending it's way along the Gulf Stream before
turning north-eastwards as it approaches the Cape Hatteras area. This
is what everybody up there wants to happen. The most destructive winds are in
the north-east quadrant which in Arthur's case means out at sea and not
threatening any of the coastal areas further north - but should it forget to
make that turn to the north-east then it won't be to pleasant for those on
the coast. As for us, our weather today with the storm offshore is a dreary,
rainy overcast day with not much wind. Thank goodness!!
  Tuesday
a.m Weds
a.m (blue star is Titusville area)
...........And the catamaran. Well, a walk round the yard at
Westland Marine next door revealed that somebody has probably not paid their
yard bills recently and this 1980s 12m Catalac is taking up valuable space so it
has to go. Unfortunately, the previous owner took it into their head to try
and modify the sterns sometime in the past and to be honest, not being too
unfair or critical, well we reckon they would have probably fallen off on the
first trip out to sea. But it's still a shame to see a British built boat (made
in Christchurch) being cut up for scrap and placed in a skip. Only 27 made
apparently - so that will be just 26 left then - unless others have
suffered a similar fate which we can't believe as surely this boat would have
been worth something to someone with just a few thousand to spend? And
removing those hideous sterns! In fact there's one just a few miles away on the
market for £100,000. Tom & Mary Lack the original builders are probably
turning in their grave as we write this!
  The dodgy stern extensions - what was that
about?! It's
the special anniversary edition Sir... oodles of standing
headroom on the bridge deck
  Just a little more work required and she'll be
'good to go'
R.I.P 12m
Catalac
More on June to follow soon - must do some
work!
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