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On April 5, 2004 the 125 foot Catamaran Cheyenne (upper right), skippered by American adventurer Steve Fossett, and navigated by Australian sailor-meteorologist Adrienne Cahalan (middle right), with a crew of 11 (lower right), set a new round-the-world sailing record of 58 days, 9 hours, 32 minutes, 45 seconds Ð thereby beating the previous record by nearly 6 days, for which Fossett and Cahalan have been nominated yachtsman and yachtswoman of the year by the International Sailing Federation .

On March 21, however, as Cheyenne sailed off South America south of Buenos Aires, heading towards France and the finish, the ending was in some doubt. The problem they faced was a tropical depression that eventually grew into Hurricane Catarina, the first hurricane ever recorded over the South Atlantic Ocean. As Brian Thompson wrote in the watch captain's log that night: ÒWhen we arrive off Rio we will have to avoid a low-pressure area that will be parked 500 miles offshore. We can choose to go inshore to the west, or offshore to the east. At the moment we are undecided on the option but during the night we will have to make the choice. As more up to date weather info comes in, it should become a clearer decision.Ó By the next night, the disturbance had moved well offshore and had not increased its sustained winds of 30 knots, so the decision was made to sail close to the shoreline, shown here by the arrow. Over the next 4 days, however, the depression looped back towards shore, and began to move toward Brazil along the 30 S parallel, doubling in strength to 60 knot winds by March 26, and 2 days later plowed into Brazil, killing 2 people and damaging 2000 homes according to FEMA. After the fact, Hurricane Catarina was finally named after one of the damaged villages. During this time, catamaran Cheyenne raced to the North, managed to repair damaged parts, and found a significant tailwind that eventually propelled it across the equator towards home.

Not only was Catarina initially unnamed, but also its development was unpredicted by meteorologists. Looping hurricane paths are in any case extremely difficult to predict at present. Catarina was the strongest of the three tropical cyclones ever observed over the South Atlantic, and the first to attain hurricane strength. Whether this was the single rare natural event of several centuries, or the first of its type, which may become an annual threat in the South Atlantic due to the changing climate of Earth, that remains to be seen. The next opportunity to observe a possible South Atlantic Hurricane will be in early 2005, during the southern hemisphere fall hurricane season.

(Submitted by Robert Cahalan.)