When Michael Fearn pulled into the harbour in Alexandria, Egypt, he recognized two tied-up vessels.
The Sunshine Coast resident took photos on Aug. 21 and sent an email this week to the Coast Reporter newspaper.
The original names are still on the vessels — PacifiCat Explorer and, although it is difficult to make out the second name in the photo, Fearn said it is the PacifiCat Discovery.
Fearn wrote: “We pulled into Alexandria Egypt to get some things and I came across these.
“They are in very bad shape. Basically scrap it looks like.”
Fearn said he had not been expecting to see B.C.’s former fast-cat ferries so far from their original home.
“What are the odds? It is a big planet. And for me to just come across them was quite the surprise.”
In a Friday email to the Times Colonist, Fearn said, “I had been going to marine school in North Vancouver during their construction and I have an affinity for them.
“It was sad to see them in the condition they are in.”
Fearn is employed by Horizon Maritime out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is on the Horizon Enabler, a light construction vessel, which had been in Egypt to carry out underwater work for another company. It completed its work in Egypt shortly after the photos were taken.
The vessel arrived in Portland, U.K., on Friday and it will be doing work in Europe.
A trio of aluminum PacifiCats were built at B.C. shipyards to serve on B.C. Ferries’ routes between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
But the first two went into service only briefly starting in 1999. Billed as shaving travelling time off the 95-minute journey, they were beset by mechanical problems and left large wakes, and their construction budget ballooned to about $450 million.
By the following year, the program was cancelled and the third ferry, the Voyager, never went into service as a B.C. ferry.
The Washington Marine Group bought the ferries and moved them to North Vancouver, where they sat before moving on. It is unclear who owns the two in Egypt.
