Pirates, Opportunistic Fisherman, or Just Thirsty? A Quiz…

Leave a comment

Pirates or Opportunistic Fisherman (or thirsty, innocent fisherman) and a quiz…

Pirates? Opportunistic fisherman? Innocent fisherman just looking for water or booze? How do you know? What do you do when you feel you could be in a position to be attacked? You can’t just over-react, be paranoid, and shoot anyone who comes around…But you have to be ready to protect yourself, to keep people away from your home. It’s hard to tell where, when, and what, and you may never even need to know. The majority of cruisers never have to deal with anything bad happening, or anything being stolen. But what if you are the unlucky one? We can’t just “stay away” anymore from dangerous places…dangers lurk everywhere, and we have to be more vigilant than we used to be…Take the quiz, and ask yourself what you would do…

QUIZ

There are 4 potentially dangerous situations we have personally had in the last 12 years of sailing around the world.  They could have gone either way…can you guess which one or ones ended really really badly for our friends?

And later, there is a professionals advice on a few things as well…

But what would you have done in these situations…would you known which one really was dangerous? When does both or one of you lock yourself in a cabin?

  1. 10 people hiding under a tarp, one guy in a black hood and face mask, in a small open boat, coming fast up behind us. Waving his hands claiming to need help, we think, in a foreign language….Pulling up to side of boat, desperate to jump on. Do we let him on? Did we even have a choice? Intuition was used, judgements were made, and when we saw one lady and one kid pop up from under the tarp, we let one and only one guy on…how do you think it turned out?

2.Fishing boat anchored. You slowly sail by. They fire up the engines and start coming towards you with their small 3 boats tied to the back. There is a tradition in this area to pass one’s boat in front of your bow and get their bad fishing luck wiped out for the day.  They believe in it strongly. The 3 small fishing boats are empty but on long tethers that go out like water skis and start to surround you…The men are not smiling…in fact they look quite scary and aren’t saying anything to us, only amongst themselves. What do you do with these punky looking fisherman, now standing on their bow, coming so close to your boat, in the jump position? You maneuver your boat just well enough to stop them from boarding…you let out the rest of your job and fire up your engine too. You sail, and maneuver…they speed up… and repeatedly try to get close enough to jump. They don’t communicate anything verbally.

3.A young fisherman with all his nets is out 6 miles from land as you are sailing along in the daylight. This is the same fisherman you saw back in the anchorage who that you asked, somewhat impolitely, to move his nets because they were put down on top of your anchor and you really needed to leave. Hooks and poles had surrounded your boat. He had not been happy but he had finally picked up his nets and left. Now he is throwing nets and floats aggressively in front of your boat, 6 miles out to sea. When other boats comes around he speeds off, but then comes back when they are out of sight, and does it all again. You fire a flare in his direction. He leaves, and then comes back 15 minutes later, and does it all again despite you yelling and telling him to go away.  He is now putting lines around your boat, within 10 feet of the boat, cursing, and ignoring your requests to remove his nets and fishing gear. Luckily you are sailing so they probably aren’t gonna get in your prop. What would you do? 

4.You are anchored and have just had an early dinner. The sun is setting, and it’s been a beautiful day. The police, with their official Police shirts and badges come up and ask you for your boat papers to be sure you are anchored there legally…standard stuff. They climb aboard. What do you do…unhappy with their black boots scuffing up your deck, and the lack of politeness?

———————****************————————-

COMPILATION OF IDEAS FOR SELF DEFENSE ON A SAILBOAT

After all of the thoughtful comments on the last defense video, (and not so thoughtful ones too), we still aren’t sure what we want to have on our sailboat. Some we already have, but still don’t feel 100% decided and protected…maybe you never are 100% safe….

What would you have on your sailboat to protect against thieves, intruders, or pirates…hard core pirates with guns, or just from pirates who want to steal something from you?  Here is a compilation of suggestions we had in the video…Other ideas? (Please go to our Video, listed below for comments as I am unable to manage comments on this here)

-Flare gun (More info on Amazon)

-parachute flares (More details)

-Molotov cocktail

-Pepperballs

-Pepper spray

-Pepper Gel (More Info on Amazon)

-AR15

-Loud PA announcing intentions

-Bow and Arrow

-sword/machete

-glass breaker balls

-Laser light

-fire extinguishers

-Blinding light

-trench knife

-Flame thrower

-a 308, a 45, shotgun, or other

-slipper/soapy deck

-barbed wire, thumbtacks

-Electric lifelines/stantions. Minimum of 1 joule suggested by Geoff Gentil, on SV Arnak in South East Asia… (Surveyor and Sailor) Here is a photo of his unit, with tester and copper ground pole which he puts in the cockpit drain…. He cautions to make sure whatever you have electricized…lifelines, stantions etc are all isolated from anything and everything else electrical on the boat, or pay the price…he has used the system for 2 years, and it has been useful! (BTW, his beautiful boat is for sale…contact me if you want details)

Here is one on Amazon’s that matches the specs

A comparable unit on Amazon

-weed sprayer with flammable liquid (on amazon.com)

-lock yourself in and let them take it all

-grenades

-wasp spray A good one on Amazon

-spear gun

-taser, tazer, tazer gun, taser gun, stun gun

-knife

-potato launcher

-escape by scuba

-frozen paintballs

-greased pole

-buzz gun

-safe room on the boat with lock, radio and epirb

-stabilized binoculars (Nice ones on Amazon)

-avoid all areas that may have any crime  (ie stay at home)

-cricket bat or baseball bat

-slingshot with pepperballs

-pump action shotgun

-ammonia squirt bottle, or under pressure

-Sail fast, in to the waves and hope their boat can’t keep up with that

-Sail out further from land

-party poppers filled with pepper

-water gun filled with gasoline.

-Just a really good security system with the Cloak or the Sound Barrier (The Cloak)

-bars on the windows, with locks, and bars on the companionway, and stay inside, and pull Epirb, call for help on VHF, SSB, Sat Phone, GEOS Safety Solutions, Panic button on the Iridium GO, or other. West Marine for Epirb, and more…

———————-*************—————————

Tips from a Pro

Now, meet Jesse McNeilly…a recent poster on our Sailboat Defense video with some good ideas. (Video below in case you have not seen it) While we don’t feel all of his advice is perfect for every ssilboat, I’m not sure there IS any perfect advice out there. You must make the decision yourself, and prepare yourself according to what you feel will work for your skills, comfort level and cruising area. We can’t tell you what’s right, and neither can anyone else. You must think about this, and plan , and decide how much you want to leave til the moment it happens, and how much you want to do ahead of time…

 

 

 

 

He writes:

“No equipment will do much of anything without training. For evidence – check out First Person Defender (FPD) on YouTube. Proves the point.

The individuals in the video may lack the real-world experience of being under immediate life threatening danger – I’m highly sceptical of the gentleman in the store, he’s a sales rep by observation, he wants to sell products. The authors are keen but at first glance aren’t trained. Training and experience makes the outcome of a battle you pick on the ground of your choosing, that’s is; Once you step off into being a victim to being a defender, it’s all or nothing, you fight or literally die trying. The second anyone (who you target) figures out your weakness, lack of skills, non-lethal capacity… you’re fu****. They will tactically exploit your fear and previewed weakness and use it against you, inviting harm or worse as you may just piss them off in your attempt/s to protect yourself. In my view; you simply don’t know what they want – your stuff or your life essentially. In any case, I’m not waiting to find out. I’m currently in the process of developing a range of common items which on there own are innocuous – simple items you’d find around the home/boat. These are perfectly legal and on their own simple. When combined you can have a non, to lethal option. You can easily construct tools mentioned in the comments, ideally make it hard, impossible or lethal for these pirates to board your vessel and conduct their operations. In most cases they want things from you, in others they’re looking for a ransom and in others they may want to kill you (such as religious extremists). To come back to my original point. Don’t wait to find out. They MUST understand that if they are to board your vessel, they may be hurt badly, or even better killed. Some items to consider:

-Blinding lights mounted to your vessel

-Speakers which warns them that you are armed and will defend yourself. Also with an audible recording (In their language) broadcasting that you have activated emergency distress and are declaring an emergency.

-Directional blinding lights, preferably with a strobe function.

-Slippery deck soap, or, solution to make boarding difficult.

-Weed sprayer which can take flammable liquid, I’ll let your imagination work that out.

-Pikes/axes/long arm edged weapons and/or a combination

-Several fire extinguishers (Dry Chemical Powder) – careful of wind, speed and direction

-Gas masks/respirators

-Hardened openings, lockable from the inside, window covers/black out shades

-Any incendiary; liquid, solid or gas which can be used for a variety of audible, concussion, directional kenetic options and more.

If you’re gonna go ‘full pirate’ COMMIT, amp yourself up, put on some bagpipes fuken war paint and get into it, you’re (if you decide to commit that is) in a fight for your life to defend your mates, loved ones, life, kids, home etc. do it right and go 110% if you’re going to get into a brawl

-Home made body armour, thick paper, ceramics, stab vests etc etc. Look the part and play into the role you want to display – don’t go at it half arsed. Of course, these are options, you MUST practice and drill and be CONFIDENT that when push comes to shove you COMMIT. If you’re not sure, then follow standard guidelines for being a hostage; don’t resist, given them what they want, comply, comply, comply. Sus out the situation early; if there as 2 or more fast boats, 5+ pirates etc. don’t think you, your Jack Russle and your wife 50+ years in age are gonna do much of anything. It’s not home alone the movie, shit just got real and you need to work out your options in seconds. Trust your gut. Activate a distress call, EPIRB etc.

Personally, I’d never use something like a BB Gun, because if it fails you – if they (pirates) decide to board, you’ve now shown them that you’re armed and they are going to match the lethal ‘perception’ and you’ve created a false sense of security you’re now obligated to match. So what do you do now? All said, avoid areas of high threat. Plan your route and voyage. Simple practices of: ample crew, defence skills, kinetic options and a watchful attitude, hopefully, will avoid any conflict. If required commit fully to defending yourself. Rarely do attackers go for you if they think they will die or be seriously hurt, remember, they’re looking for weakness – don’t give it to them.

On a final note; STUDY, stay up-to-date with your threat landscape, the methods and behaviours of local pirates and their capabilities and general intent. This will help you plan and prepare.

Thanks for sharing guys and opening up discussion on an important topic. Respect.”

We like thoughtful comments like the one above, and hope you will let us know what you think, and which situation above you think didn’t turn out so well…and which ones were OK, if any…Any of them could go either way in real life out here cruising…What would you do? How prepared are you? Or do you feel we should just trust everyone and take what comes?

Quiz Answer: Any of these could turn sour. Any of them could end very badly. And all could end with making good friends and having a nice story to tell on your blog or YouTube channel. All of them could restore Your faith in humanity…all of them could end in a injury, death, or mental trauma.

In our friends case…the one that ended badly was #4…the one with the police…they were not really police at all, and before they could do anything at all…gun or no gun, Plan A or Plan B..their legs were tied and they were chucked overboard in to a small boat, and transported 400 miles in an open boat to a small island where they were held for 6+ months as hostages, being threatened every day by Islamic militants. Only the women made it out intact. The man suffers to this day, and the marriage is no longer…a sad ending to a love story….

Paintball Guns:Alternative Self Defense Weapon on a Sailboat Against Un-Armed Thieves and Intruders: Tips and Tricks

Self Defense on Sailboats, against Pirates, Intruders, Thieves…

Is Cruising Safe? Panama Pirate Attack in Guna Yala/San Blas Islands

Vietnamese Pirates as seen in Blue Water Sailing, Cruising Helmsman, magazine

Scare the Hell out of those pirates, reef hooks, scuppers

Sailboat Security Systems: GOST… always watching!

Sailboat Security (GOST on a Valiant 40 )

Female Crew on a Sailboat: Sailing Safe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is Cruising Still Safe?

Leave a comment

Is Cruising Still Safe?

(As seen in SAIL Magazine on August 23, 2019)

NOTE: We have since purchased a full fledge security system since this was published. Security is a big concern for us.

The authors have sailed to many countries off the beaten track

The authors have sailed to many countries off the beaten track

It is with great sadness that we read of the murder of New Zealand cruiser Alan Culverwell, and the attack on his family, by criminals who boarded their boat in Panama’s Guna Yala/San Blas Islands early in May. The San Blas were known as a “safe” area to cruise. Aside from petty theft, there had never been reason to believe the region was unsafe, especially when compared to some of the area’s cities.

Many cruisers feel that living aboard, even in exotic locations, is safer than living on land, but is it really? As cruisers, we generally anchor where nature gives us the best protection from wind and waves, not from humans. The human element is far more unpredictable than any weather forecast. What was once a friendly area can have sudden, unheard-of aggression perpetrated by desperate locals. Whether in a city or in a faraway anchorage, vigilance and security should be always in a sailor’s mind. Thieves—both the opportunistic kind who steal when no one is looking and those who aren’t afraid to board an occupied boat—have been stalking cruisers since the day the first boat circled the world. Remember Joshua Slocum sprinkling tacks on his deck in the Straits of Magellan?

You’ve got to be careful out there... the authors with their companionway screen

You’ve got to be careful out there… the authors with their companionway screen

It only seems reasonable that if you lock the doors of your home on land, you should be just as cautious when anchoring in a pleasant cove, especially in remote or impoverished areas where you can never truly know the constitution of every individual. We ourselves had a close call with some pirates off the coast of Vietnam a couple of years ago, eventually driving them off by firing flares at them.

We think that cruisers need to get with the times, and indeed, many are now becoming aware that there are thieves and robbbers in “paradise” and that there is a definite need to lock up at night and have security cameras and alarms, and deterrents like automatic lights, signs, shoes on deck or radios playing. Some of us also carry bats, knives, spearguns, pepper sprays, flares and even guns, although in some instances, even having an AK47 would be inadequate against an ill-intentioned intruder. Still, anything is better than nothing, and even just locked doors and lights may convince a potential attacker to look elsewhere.

Of course, those intrepid cruisers who sail in advance of us are our eyes and ears, reporting on where and where not to anchor safely. As cruisers, we can then do our best to stick to where there has been no reported violence or crime, at the same time relying on intuition and awareness to guide us. Still, we need to be more cautious than we are at home because we don’t have that “home advantage.” We may not, for example, recognize that the innocent-looking village we’ve anchored off is a place even locals avoid for safety reasons. We must also hope that karma and luck are on our side: dressing down, acting poor and trying not to cause resentment of our richness as we go. We must try not to perpetuate the myth that people on boats invariably have lots of money and possessions to spare, and hope that others before us have taken similar precautions.

Security cameras can be useful

Security cameras can be useful

To 90 percent of the world, most sailboats, even our 43-year-old, cosmetically challenged Valiant 40, are “treasure ships” when the anchor is dropped. We have cruised extensively in African and Asian countries and know that the simple act of hanging our laundry out to dry can demonstrate just how much we have compared to the local who feels lucky to have only an old T-shirt and a patched pair of britches. Even though most people in poverty-stricken communities have good hearts and respect others, the odds of experiencing crime, dishonesty or aggression increase as the population becomes familiar with the relative abundance that even the poorest of cruisers possess. There is always a tiny minority that a cruiser either has to guard against or roll the dice and take their chances with. The consequences can run the gamut from the theft of an outboard engine to being physically accosted with a serious outcome. We have taken measure to protect our boat and ourselves from thieves and pirates; there are details on our website (see below).

Many cruisers feel that their hard work earned the nice life they live afloat. We are also fortunate, though, to have been born in places that allow hard workers to get ahead the way we have. That guy who paddles up to you in his beat-up canoe likely worked just as hard as you and has taken advantage of every opportunity he had. But even having many successful days of fishing doesn’t bring the same material rewards.

Certainly, most cruisers can spare some of their possessions. We always have some trading items—sunglasses, shorts, shirts, fishing line, hooks, old pots and pans—on hand to exchange for the fruits, vegetables, fish and handicrafts that most islanders have for barter. Even if we don’t really need these goods, we see the effort they are making and try to help.

Unfortunately, as the world population grows, and the world’s resources remain the same (or even degrade) the resulting economic pressure will inevitably cause at least some people to want to squeeze even more from the passing treasure ships that cruise the world. What begins as their simple attempts to steal the possessions we cannot afford to share, and our attempts to guard against them will sometimes result in dire consequences.

Worse yet, away from daily television reports of crime, and with only intermittent word-of-mouth reports of crime in far-off anchorages, it is easy for cruisers to get soft and let their guard down—whether by leaving the dinghy tied alongside rather than hauling it out of the water every night, or worrying about power conservation instead of leaving a bright light on in the cockpit. Granted, it’s a lovely way to live, but sooner or later, there will be trouble. Are those friendly, smiling fishermen rowing by and offering fish actually sizing up their victim? We should not believe that we leave all our worries behind when we leave our homeland.

We have cruising friends and acquaintances who have been attacked and robbed. We’ve also had friends who have been taken from their boat and held hostage. Some made it out alive. Others did not. That makes us, as cruisers, more cautious about where and how we cruise, and where we anchor. As cruisers, we need to take more precautions like those living on land already are. We need to face reality, beef up our security and not live in the daydream we enjoyed in the past.

NOTE: BBe sure to subscribe for our next blog that is being written right now about Rebecca’s struggle back to South Africa with a full security in her carry on luggage!

At the time of writing, Patrick and Rebecca Childress were refitting their Valiant 40, Brick House, in Tanzania, Africa, before heading around the tip of South Africa and into the South Atlantic. You can keep up with their adventures on whereisbrickhouse.com

Patricks Home brewed security traps:

 

 

Is Cruising Safe? Panama Pirate Attack in Guna Yala/San Blas Islands

6 Comments

Advertisements

 

Is Cruising Safe? Panama Pirate Attack in Guna Yala/San Blas Islands

Is this a ghetto, or a simple country home? How are we really to know?
Or how about this one?

I just read the news of a family on a cruising boat, a trawler attacked, with resulting death of the husband, Alan Culverware, and injury to his daughter, in a previously considered safe area to cruise in the Guna Yala/San Blas Islands, in Panama. I read this with great sadness. We cruised this area more than a decade ago, as do many cruising sailboats, and like in many anchorages, we “felt” very safe there.  I have read many comments from other cruisers that “cruising is safer than living in the US”…

Here is my view on it…12 years in to our circumnavIgation. It’s with mixed feelings I say any of this, because we all like to feel we are living safely out here, or anywhere we choose to live. It’s human nature to argue one’s life choices, and defend where one lives.

Crime happens everywhere for sure. I often meet well travelled people out here, in areas I consider less safe than the US, that refuse to travel to the US…”Too dangerous” they say…”I watch and hear American news, and people are getting killed, bombed, and raped every day there. … I rather stay here and be safe!” This is so very true about the US…but because nobody in my family has ever been affected by this, I feel like the risk is minimized for me personally, when I travel back to my family in the US. I feel like my family lives in a safe area and stays away from the bad areas, that these things happen in other places in the US, not where we lived, and not where my family lives. But I suppose every town and neighborhood is safe until one day, something happens, and it’s not considered as safe as it once was.

I am a bit scared here in South Africa to be honest. It’s a bit like the US in that bad things are in the news each and every day here. We are warned to be careful, and not walk places, and lock up our boat tight. I’m not even entirely sure exactly where here I need to stay away from, and I haven’t come to understand exactly where and who to be afraid of. Not go walking in the beautiful lake side greenbelts? Not walk on busy highways in broad daylight? At home in the USA I would know where not to go, how dark of an alley not to walk down depending what town or city I was in. My senses would be keen, and my intuition would be fairly spot on about where I am safe or not safe, short of an ourright surprise. But in this strange land, my senses are dulled, whether I admit it or not, and I must learn, hopefully not the hard way. Even after 6 months of being in this one spot, my senses and knowledge won’t be as keen as a local who has spent their life here. “Feeling safe” somewhere is just that…a feeling, not necessarily the reality of it. Have we Cruisers left our country because it doesn’t feel safe there, and entered another where our ignorance is bliss, until it’s not so blissful anymore, and someone is attacked in the very neighborhood we all felt safe in before?

Bars on our Hatch…

It is without doubt, prudent to do our research as we travel around. But As Cruisers, we face this lack of true knowledge, awareness and intuition because we are in a strange area to us, with nuances we can not know in time, or in some cases, ever. Sure, we gain a bit of insight as we go, and traveling in different places we learn things we aren’t even aware of, to keep ourselves safer…but our knowledge of each area we go to can never be quite as sharp as where we spent the first 20, 30, or 40 years of our life honing that sense and knowledge. All we can do as cruisers is stick to where violence and crime against cruisers before us has not happened. Use our dulled intuition and awareness to guide us. Be more cautious than we are at home because we don’t have the “home advantage”. Assess the situation with our own brains and previous experiences and interpretations. Pray that karma and luck is on our side, dress down, act poor, and try not to cause resentment of our “richness” as we go. Don’t hand things out and perpetuate that people on boats have lots of money (and hence possessions) to spare. We are operating a “treasure ship” here. Our predecessors have willingly handed out an abundance of used clothes and household items…it’s no wonder we are viewed as such. An act as simple as hanging our laundry out to dry can display just how many shirts we have compared to the person on shore who feels lucky to have one with holes in it. How unfair that they have worked hard their whole lives, and do not have this abundance to give away, shirts and shoes and sunglasses to choose between, money to spend on meals at resorts, and a nice boat to travel the world on !? Is is any wonder that the very few bad seeds at any one location come to harm us, albeit it rarely?

For sure, We have to madly research, and be aware of where the hot spots are, and give these areas a wide berth. But those hot spots are sure to spread as time goes on, just as crime in the US or other areas previously safe are spreading. The world is NOT getting safer over time, nor are the seas, or anchorages, or marinas.

Security Cameras New this year on Brick House..

As Cruisers, the difference between being on land versus on the water, in a foreign country, is that we, with a boat of 40 feet “look” rich and are hence targets. There are only 5, or 10 or 100 of us “rich” targets to choose from in each given area. Back in the US, we blend in more, we are not one of 5, 10 or 100 and don’t look “rich” to the majority of people around us. And in the US, we aren’t in a place where we are alone for miles around, as that “rich” person. Rich people who do live in the boonies, far from anyone in the US have to boost their security measures because they stand out to the more average people. So, as “rich” Cruisers (ie anyone with a boat), the odds are greater, and our TRUE knowledge of our neighbors in any one given anchorage is less known because we are the new guys on the block. We are often “strolling through the ghettos”, which we wouldn’t do at home, but we may not even always be aware of in new locations we visit in the world, because it ALL looks “poor” to us, compared to where we originally lived!

I certainly am feeling more at risk these days than I did in the beginning, 12 years ago, and I seek new ways all the time to TRY to be safer both on the boat and when exploring the beautiful places we go. Nothing I have done hence far truly makes us much safer though, I’m afraid. The fact remains… My risk as a “rich” person out here is 1 in 10,000 … My risk back home is more like 1 in 330,000,000. If the odds for two lotteries were this, which would you play?

Another statistic to consider…in the US, to this day… I know of 1 person, personally, who was attacked in his hotel room, tied up, gagged and lost his hand due to it. I know of not one person, personally, who was killed, murdered, raped, or even held at gunpoint..only strangers on the TV, in the 41 years before we left. I personally knew just 2 people who were robbed in their home, nonviolently, while they were away or slept.

Since cruising, I’ve known 9 people personally who were kidnapped, 5 who were mirdered, 3 that were held at gun or knifepoint on land, and 6 who were attacked violently on their boat. That’s in just 12 years, not the 41 I had on land, in the USA.

We all want to hear that we have a safer lifestyle, living aboard. I think the truth of the matter really,is that the dangers are shifted, and that we should all take measures to secure ourselves, maybe a little more than we currently do, so we can keep being safe. Also, new cruisers should not think that they leave all their worries behind when they leave land. Violent crime still exists out here, and if you stay out here long enough, you WILL know someone who has been violently attacked, and hopefully it’s not you or your family. As the whole world deteriorates and becomes less safe, I think cruising will follow suit.  Take care, and stay safe everyone, and enjoy this beautiful life while we have it!

These are the statistics and risk that I choose to live with, for the tradeoff of seeing the world, and living each day fully. Hopefully I can keep my head low, blend in, and stay off the radar of the bad guys. Hopefully I can keep having fun, staying healthy and living my little life unharmed.

Hopefully I die having an adventure rather than in the monotony of the white noise in a house, trapped on land in the monotony. Everything in life is a trade off.

 

 

 

 

 

Indian Ocean Emergency Contacts for Sat Phone