About 1pm on Wednesday, March 15th, a catastrophic fire broke out on a 44′ catamaran docked 2 slips over from us. Started out as a lot of smoke, but within 60 seconds, the entire boat was engulfed in flames. I was on the dock at the time – I ran back to the boat and got Marty off, and we both quickly left the dock. Firefighters arrived quickly, but the only way they could put out the fire was to sink the boat. It probably took an hour and a half to sink it. Once fiberglass gets going, it doesn’t stop.
You can see the stern of our boat on the left in this picture (Ermelind). There is 1 boat between us and the fire. Too close for comfort…
Not much left….
They brought a crane and barge into the harbor to do the salvage work. Took a day to lift the boat out from under the dock and pump water out. Then it was towed to a nearby boatyard where is was hauled waiting for the insurance folks to inspect. 
We had some minor damage to our boat from the intense heat. The new wind indicator at the top of our mast no longer works, and the radar dome no longer picks up any targets. We’ve put in a claim against the damaged boats insurance – will see what happens. All in all, everyone at the marina was very lucky. No one was hurt, and the wind was blowing in such a direction that flames and intense heat (and smoke) were blown away from the dock and the other boats. Had the wind been out of the north (as it has been for 90% of the time this trip), the story would have been completely different. We’d probably be writing this from a hotel room somewhere and driving home with only the clothes on our backs…..
Marty & Doug's Travels 
