The Continuing Biodiesel Adventures in
"Putting the 'Bean' in Caribbean"
"Putting the 'Bean' in Caribbean"
Lightning strikes the yacht "Beyond" Fire burns
for two hours; locals help save the ship
(LUPERON, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC) - No one was aboard
the sailing yacht "Beyond" when a bolt of lightning struck
the top of the mainmast, sending a powerful charge through
the electrical system and starting a smoldering fire in the
port side of the 41-foot ketch. 
The strike, sometime between 6 and 9 p.m. Sept. 27, vaporized weather equipment, antennae, and navigation lights before traveling through the wiring to the electrical panel, shooting three of the fuses across the cabin "like they had been fired from a gun," according to Capt. Jim MacNeil of Beyond. MacNeil, and Rebecca Payne, both of Salisbury, Md., have been cruising in Beyond since November 1996, using a blend of new soybean diesel called "biodiesel" with regular petro-diesel, in their boat.
The Maryland Soybean Board and Florida-based NOPEC, manufacturers of the fuel, have provided fuel for their trip, which has been one of the first long-distance demonstrations of the 20 percent biodiesel blend. Brian Peterson of Iowa navigated the globe on 100 percent biodiesel in 1992 in the Zodiak "Sunrider."
The blended fuel may be the reason there is still a "Beyond" today. Biodiesel's a flash point - the temperature at which the fuel will ignite - is more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit, more than twice that of petroleum diesel. MacNeil and Payne have previously reported that they liked the blended fuel because it burns cleaner, adds lubrication and the neat fuel is safe to store, non-toxic and biodegradable.
No one - except Brewser, the sailors' cat, who survived the ordeal - knows exactly what happened that night. MacNeil and Payne were having dinner at a cafe on the island of Hispaniola at 6 p.m. that night, admiring what MacNeil remembers was a "spectacular light show" put on by Mother Nature. The thunderstorm soon caused a power outage, and the couple finished dinner by candlelight.
"It was around 9:30 when we motored across Lake Luperon
to our anchored boat and noticed a sinister fog across the
water," MacNeil recalls. "We remarked that fog must be
terribly infrequent in the Caribbean. Then we detected the
smell of smoke. Rebecca wondered if a local farmer was
burning trash in nearby fields. I prayed she was right. 
"In the dim light, however, I noticed the smoke led to our boat but went no further."
As they drew alongside Beyond, Brewser met them at the rail, whining. MacNeil leaped aboard and sent Rebecca after flashlights and fire extinguishers from nearby anchored boats.
The fire had already had a chance to burn and smolder for perhaps two hours. "I was lost in a noxious cloud of thick black smoke when I threw open the doors," MacNeil says. "Holding my breath and feeling in the dark, I shut off all the batteries and barely made it to fresh air again."
Help arrived quickly. Nearby boats shone floodlights on the scene as the firefighters donned SCUBA gear to re-enter the cabin. Fellow sailors in dinghies pulled alongside Beyond shouted that the port side felt hot, and MacNeil entered the cabin of the boat he's lived on and lovingly restored for eight years - into a cabin that now seemed so hostile, so unfamiliar in the swarming black smoke.
"When I learned to SCUBA dive 18 years ago, I never dreamed I'd use the gear for this: the scariest descent and the darkest dive of my life lay ahead ... and it was not even into water," he says.
Unable to find the fire, he returned to the deck, just as Annapolis, Md., sailor Jack Snyder of the Dolphin, noticed the paint beginning to blister on the port side.
Several fire extinguishers discharged into the area only
momentarily cooled the fire. Then enforcements arrived from
shore: the cafe where they had eaten had heard the distress
call, and enlisted some local welders and the Marina de
Guerra (similar to the Coast Guard). 
"My head was spinning from the smoke and everyone's frantic questions when someone yelled, 'We got flames!'" MacNeil says. The intense heat had ignited the upholstered seats of the dinette, on the port side.
The local welders took over, Rene Williams wrapping his head in a wet T-shirt and Rafael "Felo" Urena donning the SCUBA gear. Manuel Jiminez, a night watchman on a nearby fishing vessel, fired up a powerful water pump. "I helped prime the pump," MacNeil says. "But I couldn't look, as they discharged a powerful wall of water into the cabin, flooding the boat until things were floating around the cabin and the deck was almost level with some of the dinghies tied alongside. By midnight the fire was out, but our world was upside down. Thankfully, there were no injuries."
Damage to the boat, which is an unusual CT with elaborate woodcarving below deck, exceeded $30,000. Clean-up and repairs are still in progress. MacNeil believes the biodiesel blend helped save the boat from worse damage, and possibly an explosion. "If you could see the proximity of the fuel tank to the most badly damaged area, you would understand how important any gains in the flashpoint of the fuel was," he says. "The fire was hot enough to burn fiberglass. It may be because of biodiesel that we still have a boat." Stay tuned for more adventures aboard Beyond, as the crew makes repairs and prepares to move onward.