08/14-20/2006
Chaguaramas, Trinidad
10.40.822N
61.37.899W

Happy Birthday to our daughter, Michelle and my sister Pam!!!

Well, the luck for our anchorage wore out. In the wee hours of Thursday morning, a new boat to the anchorage (Vespa) was boarded, attacked and robbed.

Six young people had just returned from the airport when a fishing boat with 3 men approached them as they sat in their cockpit catching up with their friends. The description of the thieves (except for the different dinghy) appeared to be the same as the previous armed robbery in the next harbor over. They were robbed of radios, cameras, computers, cash and credit cards. A couple of the men were hit with the handles of the guns and machetes and their dinghy was slashed dropping their engine into the water.

They radioed a mayday over the radio as soon as the thieves left. Dale and I both heard it and were scrambling for clothes when we heard that the thieves appeared to be heading towards the fishing village, which is just past us. Our slip is directly across from the customs dock in the area which naturally narrows before you enter the fishing village.

I grabbed the flashlight and ran topside ready to catch the bad guys as they entered their lair but suddenly realized that I made myself a target to thieves who were reportedly carrying guns and knives. I suddenly understood why people stand by when crime is being perpetrated right under their noses. What was I going to do if I did see them? Shine my light on them? So I sat, watched and listened to the updated information coming across the radio. No boat ever approached from the direction of the anchorage; however, 5-6 boats did leave from the fishing village; none fit the description of the thieves’ boat. I still don’t know what I would have done if I had seen them, I feel like such a wimp.

Of course, by daylight the radio was buzzing. The biggest concern being that it took a couple hours for the Coast Guard to respond. It was even considered that it wasn’t the “real” Coast Guard who responded to the radio call and directed the victims to another radio channel. Whoever answered the call wasn’t as professional as the ones who responded to the previous robbery the next harbor over. Was it just a coincidence that the Coast Guard showed up 10 minutes after a telephone call was placed?

At this point, a lot of us feel trapped. If you have insurance, you are required to be outside the “hurricane box”. That means, here, Venezuela (which is worse), or further south or west which doesn’t have the marine support most cruisers are looking for. Dale and I have decided that if things don’t resolve themselves soon, we’ll head back to Grenada and take our chances that a hurricane doesn’t head in that direction again and force us to take to the sea heading south.
Another problem was that people tend to turn off their radios when they go to bed. So, we’ve all decided to sound our air horns in addition to radioing a distress call. I’ve put our air horn right next to our floodlight so next time, hopefully, I’ll be braver and shine my light and sound my horn if I really do see a bad guy. If nothing else, I’ll wake up everyone on our slip and get everyone shot at!

Also, we’ve finally been able to get the local American Embassy to at listen to us. A meeting has been set up for Thursday of next week.