It is difficult to imagine how anyone blessed with the human form of life could be so demoniac as to harvest the lives of others like some kind of crop.  It occurs on our city streets daily as armed robbery which ends in the murder of the victim with only a paltry monetary gain for the perpetrator.

I will make this unpleasant discourse on the current piracy situation as brief as is possible, including only general methods and approximate locations.  Drop me a message for more details.

Piracy is a multi-billion dollar per year problem.  Most of this money is in freighter theft in the Phillippine-Indo-Chinese areas.  Yacht piracy has its own areas of concentration and any cruising party should be aware of them.  These localities are listed in order of their threat:

1) The Carribean    2) The Phillippines   3) India    4) Japan

Sailors must be careful in these waters, keep radar on and eyes open to be forewarned of the approach of  high speed offshore craft.

I have a collection of some very interesting incidents and how calamity was averted, but my favorite is a testimony by an aware sailor and his understanding of the laws regarding high seas boardings.  His story was printed in Cruising World magazine which I have in archives; but I don't remember which one, so if details are wanted it will take me a little searching to find it.

While passing Haiti at a distance of over 200 miles, a Haitian patrol boat was spotted fast approaching from the rear.  The hull appeared to be smashing violently into the sea, so the reason for the approach was important enough to put the crew of the approached vessel at considerable discomfort.  The wary sailor aboard his 30 foot sloop had his radar alarm set and was able to view the approach at extreme distance.  This gave him time to hail the approaching vessel with every means at his disposal.  His hails were in English, but no response came.  Due to the political situation in Haiti at the time, the patrol boat was considered to be quite dangerous.   The chances of a fatal encounter were high.  The skipper of the little sloop then proceeded to set the stage for the encounter.  The first preparation was the HAM distress call.  Second was the heading change.  His yacht, although small, faired well into the head seas.  His bearing was adjusted to a hard beat to weather (into the wind and the seas). This made the approaching vessel decelerate to a speed not much greater than the sloop or it would have broken up in all of the violent slamming.  The bow of a ship is the most up and down part of the ride.  The stern section is much more even and steady with reduced and gentle movement.  That means that the skipper of the target vessel was at a considerable advantage when it came time to aim and fire a rifle. He would be firing from a steady transom, whereas the patrol boat would have to aim from the slamming bow section.  For the remainder of the day and all through the night the patrol boat advanced.  It must have been only a few hundred yards off of the stern when the sun rose the next day.   With a hailing horn in hand, they waved at the yacht and in Spanish commanded him to hove to.  They had a 50 cal. machine gun on the bow of the ship.  Now, if this was war, then our friend is a dead man; but its not, its piracy.  The idea is to make a profit.  The man appeared on the stern section with a 30-30 loaded and ready for the assault.  When the approaching Haitian pirates saw this, they immediately slowed to give some clearance.  The cold standoff lasted through the day, and at dusk the machine gun on the patrol boat put a few rounds through the sails and rigging of the target vessel.  No major damage, no fatalities.  We suppose they realized how stupid it would have been to get killed over a radio and sextant.  They must have been a little upset, however, after following through such a pounding sea for so long, spending fuel, getting wet.

I will not allow piracy to destroy the "JAI NIMAI NITAI" program. Click on the graphic button above to view my selected tool.

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