Somali Pirates sieze yacht with Americans aboard/ It continues!

sorry to say, they have been killed!

 Piracy seems to be on the increase and sometimes deadly for sailors.

IT CONTINUES: 

.....DANISH VESSEL WITH CHILDREN ABOARD, TAKEN HOSTAGE 2 DAYS AFTER SOMALI'S MURDER AMERICANS.

NEWS STORY ON DANISH VESSEL 

Rio Dulce, Guatemala. We were just across the river at the time    ..................2008
Canadian murdered by locals in Honduras, while at anchor. .............................................. Late 2010
Kidnapping for $........................Guatemala's Lake Isabel...............................Late 2010
Piracy, Puerto Escondido, north coast of Honduras.........................................Late 2010
MISSING YACHT AND OWNER/GUATEMALA'S RIO DULCE ...........vessel located. towed in by Nicaraguan Navy because of total electrical failure.  We are glad he is safe.

News from the Rio Dulce online newspaper, RIODULCECHISME, CLICK HERE  provides cruisers current info on Piracy and all kinds of good local stuff.  However,  the news of  a Canadian sailor murdered in front of his daughter(crew) aboard their boat, anchored in a bay of Honduras and other such serious crimes should be followed by cruisers anywhere and everywhere, as we sometimes are a small close knit family.

Others have been boarded by pirates in the same country off the NE coast several times this season, possibly near where the latest missing boat has had to pass, out near reefs of Media Luna.

Still more reports filter through the cruising community and I wonder how many are repeats or how many of these NEVER hit the news media.

This month, here in Panama, we have been glued to email reports and online postings from the Panama Guide.com's editor.  His persistent assistance in alerting the boating community and authorities of a possible serial killer on the loose in our area.  Well, he has culprit has been caught.

JAVIER MARTIN CAUGHT     ..........numerous articles Feb.10-19 so far and ongoing!

Now online Reuters news article of a large sailing vessel captured with Americans aboard.

SOMALIA: PIRACY OF SAILBOAT 
(click on the links for more info)

It's not important each and every time who is onboard.  To me it's important that this is occuring at all.  The cruising community is  made up of all nationalies, but we often 'pass in the night', moving on without much contact.  We need to stay focused on the problems we all face and not just when it's our countryman. Out here, we are all from the same place.

Guatemala to Honduras

Leaving Guatemala: Part 2

The Eastern river of the Rio Dulce(sweet river) behind us, we anchored with the pack of boats that left with us, at Cabo Tres Puntas. Well tucked in behind the prevailing winds, the south shore of this peninsula offers many miles of protected anchoring water. Depths of up to 10’ can be found all along this shoreline without hazards. A calm and restful night was had by all, but in the morning, we were up at first light having coffee and prepping to leave. The goal was to make easting as much as possible and to pick up 2 canisters of Bear Spray from a friend in Cortez.

SOMETIMES 5 ON A MOTORBIKE!

Jack and Nicole Midence are currently preparing their CSY 44’ W. O. “Kitty Hawk” for their adventures. As always, the preparations take longer than expected, so Kitty Hawk is still up on land at the Naval Base, boat yard in the port of Cortes. We circled around off the base trying to find a wi-fi connection so I could look up their phone number. Stupid me, I did not pull it out of an earlier email they sent so I would now have it on hand. Oh well.

Surprisingly, the VHF radio comes alive and the words, “Memory Rose, Memory Rose, this is Kitty Hawk” shock us. THEY, have spotted us circling and called us on the radio! How wonderful.

Charts often wrong....we did not put the boat ashore!

We quickly agreed to head in to the concrete wall of the yards basin to do a handoff of the spray canisters, as we were hoping to make it east that evening to Puerto Escondido, a small uninhabited harbor along the coast, for the evening and time was running short for the passage. All went well except for the last second of the handoff. A final couple of waves slapped the butt of Memory Rose and my loss of steerage while nearly stopped and attempting to back up, allowed my bow to move left and the concrete kissed my bowsprit. Twenty tonnes of boat in motion, does nothing to move a naval concrete pier, so Memory Rose has a ‘ding’ in it’s nose.

We waved goodbye and headed back out to sea. Winds were blustery and the wave action from a strong front ending only a day before, left the sea large with swells running against our planned route. We motor sailed again to make headway. Not difficult and we can easily average 7.6-8.6 knots, as there was some counter current in our favor, even though we had to go UP and OVER the 10-14’ swells. The shoreline was often just a mist with the spray of these big guys, crashing on the rocks, but out here, it was just a roller coaster ride.

At 5:30 p.m., the sun was set and we were just coming into the position to prepare for entering Puerto Escondido. Our N.W. Caribbean Cruising Guide, by Nigel Calder was in hand and the approach was simple. A cruiser, one of the 3 already inside the harbor gave me some concern as ‘she’ was interpreting our position differently from the way I was seeing it and gave me some extra grief in decision making at the last minute of approach.

Fish drying in the sun.

Finally another boat came on the radio and said your “Fine”. Good thing, cause I saw what I needed and having made my decision, was now 90% into the anchorage.

It was a sloppy anchorage, with waves not aligning to wind, so we rolled side to side a bit. But there was no doubt that we slept soundly. We had traveled a good distance that day and were now safe, well fed and sleeping on clean sheets. It’s been a good day.

Leaving Guatemala

On Feb. 2nd, 2009, Dorothy and I met up with a friend in Ft. Lauderdale who would be our crew from the Rio Dulce River in Guatemala, to the Bay Islands of Honduras. Terry, an avid fisherman/boater on Long Island Sound, NY, and long time family friend, let it be known a year or so ago, that he was interested in crewing on one of our passages. A couple of months ago I thought this particular trip would offer a wide spectrum of the cruising life to him, so gave him a call. We could embellish it with a side trip to Antigua, up in the mountains of Guatemala before we even get far from the Guatemala City airport on arrival.

Spirit Airlines even decided to play an important role in our never ending "Problem Solving" lifestyle, by seeing how many "Solutions" we could come up with! At the ticket counter in Ft. Lauderdale, after standing in line for 2 hours, they refuse to let us board the aircraft with our One Way Tickets. After a short argument and offering 10 pieces of printed material showing our boat location, clearing in papers, documentation, etc. and clearing out paperwork from the agent in charge of our departure, with clarification every minute that we were flying to Guatemala to take OUR boat out of the country and heading to Panama. The logic did not seem to get through, that we did not need a return trip ticket. They certainly seemed happy to sell it to us, but NO, we could not use it! Why is that? Nope, we had to buy a $604. return ticket (note: the expensive ones are Fully Refundable- the cheaper ones are not, so I put it on my card and cancelled it later) I bought the ticket while precious airport time was evaporating. We had to then, boarding passes in hand, run for the last security checks, run to the aircraft where they were calling our names over the P.A. system at the gate, and Terry was standing there with crew, OUTSIDE the aircraft-- refusing to board unless we were there! Good for him, he might have saved the day!

Oh, it gets worse. We arrive in Guatemala City, to find only ONE of our THREE suitcases left Ft. Lauderdale.. To add to that, the bags were full items necessary for the boat. Not clothes, but electronics and parts procured over 6 months of careful shopping. Worse still, Spirit would not have another flight into Guatemala for 2 days. I was livid.

We accepted life and headed for Antigua, to follow our original plan of an overnight there, then heading down to the coast(Rio Dulce River)in the morning-a 5 hour bus ride. All 3 of us did that and with the One bag that did arrive, I had enough parts to effect some needed repair projects, windlass motor electrical brushes and an impeller for the engine water pump, that the ride back was worth it. However, the next morning, Terry and Dorothy would go grocery shopping....provisioning. "I" however, would catch an early morning bus and ride 5 hours back to Guatemala city, cab it to the airport, secure my missing 2 bags (Hopefully) cab it back to the bus terminal and enjoy another 5 hour bus ride down to the river. yup, that's the way it played out, except the bus took an extra 3/4 hour going and another 1.5 hours returning. Call me Numb Butt.

I got in at 11 p.m. and fell sound asleep. The next morning after clearing a clogged toilet aboard---another shitty story---we left Catamaran's Marina/Hotel and headed to the Shell station for fuel, did a short visit to the Spanish fort at the juncture of the river and lake, then headed downriver to Texan Bay for dinner and rest. The 15 mile boat ride was relaxing yet we were all kind of exhausted by now. At Texan Bay, the owners have a launcha that will take you downriver further, to the town of Livingston at the mouth of the river, so we could do the essential 'clearing out procedure'. The officialdom there is kind of relaxed and I set things up before hand by email. Raul, the agent in charge was wonderful as always and we got to walk the town a bit, while he took care of business. Twenty minutes later, we were ready for the return launcha ride and some rest time. Dorothy cooked a wonderful meal and after some chatting, we hit the rack early.

Small boat projects were still on a list, and although it was raining lightly, I managed to get some of the deck work done. We headed down river at 3 p.m. and by 5:30, staged and ready to follow the first boat game enough to try to cross the shallow bar. IT was a full moon, highest tide of the month attempt. IF you cannot do it now, you can't do it. Arranged by Raul also, was Gaviota, a fishing boat owned by Hector. The $50. charge (in U.S. currency) covered Hector taking a line from the top of your mast and pulling your boat over sideways, far enough, that your keel would be up a bit off the bottom of the river bottom and bar, going out to the sea bouy. Several boats used him and several of us powered our way through the muck. IF I ever do it again, I'll pay the $50 and save more than $200., in bottom paint!!

Anyway, we were off and in 2 hours were anchored offshore, in safety near Tres Puntas for the night. Our next journey had begun................and yes, more ;) ..."Solutions" to come.