Premature Arlene puts Cayman on alert
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from May 1981.
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However, the threat was relatively short-lived - by last night the alert was called off. Arlene had headed out of Caymanian waters, a fact which became obvious this morning as residents of the island were greeted by bright sunshine and blue skies.
Yesterday, small craft in the Cayman Islands were put on the alert and warned to stay in port. There was one report of a dive boat in trouble. Soto pumped out a boat which had filled with water, and two employees felt the effects of diesel fumes.
At George Town, a yacht was buffeted against the dock, but was not badly damaged.
Weathermen today had Arlene weakening as she crossed Cuba in her Atlanticbound trek. On Wednesday, the dry spell was broken as rain fell on all three islands. And, that same night was marked by brisk, gusty winds reminiscent of days later in the summer. Bothwell goes
Avacados-Page 6 by Bob Berggren John Bothwell didn't go bananas when Hurricane Allen "mashed up" about a thousand of his banana trees last summer in Batabano.
He says he got to thinking about it and decided to grow avocados instead.
"Can't make a little thing like Hurricane Allen discourage me," he remarked last week, as he was putting the tail end of a shipment of young avocado plants where his banana trees used to be. "It's all in life."
He still has about 2,000 banana trees, and he said possibly the others could have survived.
"But once they get mashed up by a hurricane like that - disease is likely to set in."
He got about 300 plants from Miami last Monday and had them all planted in two days. There are six varieties, he said, three of which bear avocados from early July to late September, and three from early October to mid-February.
"So that way I figure I'll have avocados about eight months of the year," he said.
But not until they grow a bit, "I figure in about four years time I should average 25,000 to 30,000 avocados yearly."
Sizes should range from about two to three pounds, he said, adding that the kind he has "are supposed to be exceptionally good avocados." He estimates that local merchants should be able to sell his avocados for about 50 cents less than imported ones.
"So if my life is spared, in four years time the island'll have all the avocados it can consume."
In the meantime, he will still be raising bananas, chickens, goats, cattle and whatever else he might think of, on the Bothwell Ranch.
