The talk of the town
The talk of island the past couple of weeks, if not the entire Caribbean, has been the two vessels that were boarded and robbed while sailing between Grenada and Trinidad. Both incidents took place just off the Hibiscus Oil Platform which lies approximately on the rhumb line between the two islands.
Apparently, during daylight hours, several heavily armed men in a fast pirogue approached and boarded the sailboats, robbing them of everything from cash to toilet paper. Fortunately, no one was hurt in either incident, but this still hits a bit close to home. We have been paying particular attention to any developments as we have plans to sail to Trinidad in just a couple of weeks to catch our flights to Panama.
It has been reported that the authorities are taking this very seriously, and have increased patrols in the region. I’m not sure how much that is worth though. The general strategy being promoted for those sailing between the islands is to make the passage at night, sans running lights and AIS transmissions, and to head at least 5-10 miles east of the oil platform. None of this is fun or easy to do, so needless to say, we’re not very happy about the entire thing. We could opt to leave Frost in Grenada and simply fly to Trinidad. That’s not what we’d prefer to do though as we had planned to have some boat maintenance done in Trinidad while we’re away. At the moment, we’re leaving our options open.
Slimy bastards.
Quite desperate, it seems.
Not good, not good at all…
Stuff happens.
POS
Fortunately no one was seriously hurt.
Not surprising considering how close they are to Venezuela. In a previous career at Canada Post mine was one of 5 names submitted in an RFP response to take over and run the Trini Post Office. (we had a similar 10 yr contract with Lebanon) The soccer coach of one of my sons was a Trini and he offered to have his family search for a place and schools. The houses all came back as either being in gated areas or you had an armed, live-in “gardener”. A neighbour in Ottawa worked for CSIS and he pulled off their risk assessment with all of the history of black vs east indian violence, parlimentarians shot, banana republic rules. Basically Tobago is perfectly safe; Trinidad is a cesspool. Fortunately our negotiators were asked to pay a bribe to a Trini government official and that was our cue to back out of the RFP. The kiwis were awarded the contract but it is unknown if they paid a bribe. Corruption is a way of life on many of the islands (e.g. the handful of families who control commerce in the BVI’s) and my $0.02CDN is that the Trini govt knows exactly who the pirates are and those officials take their cut. I struck Trini off my “to do” list . Will.Never.Go.There.
I’ve not been there but my husband spent quite a bit of time there in 2006-07. He pretty much said the same thing about the place.
Was he there on a boat?
I remember you posting this story before. It seems logical that the Spanish speaking thieves were from Venezuela.
Sounds as though you might want to change plans and have the work done elsewhere. I suspect that if the rather cavalier attitude of the authorities toward piracy results in many people avoiding their country, they may make a swift change. Whatever you do, stay safe. Boat work can be rescheduled, as can airline tickets. People are rather harder to replace, and the fact that no one was hurt YET can change in an instant. Be safe, please, both of you.
I never said that the authorities were being cavalier. In fact, I implied the opposite. We’re talking about incidents that occurred in the middle of the ocean. The fact is that the coast guard here doesn’t have the resources that the USCG has at their disposal.
We spent a short period of time in trini last summer. Still quite amazed that people go there…I suppose if you have a chunk of work you need done and want to be 100% certain of no hurricanes. But the place is a dump and the people are not nicer than anywhere else in the caribbean. But mostly it reminds me of the worst parts of California (think Sacramento or Reading)….and perhaps that is exactly why some people really like it. It feels like home for some Americans.
Why do people go there to have work done? This explains my thoughts:
http://www.zerotocruising.com/competent-workers-ease-concern/
As for the anchorage in Chaguaramus, I’d agree, there is nothing nice about it. If I wasn’t going there to have work done, I wouldn’t go.
As far as the people though, every Trini we came in contact with was extremely pleasant to us.
From the article on the robbery: “The people in the pirogue used what appeared to be a rifle but the captain could not say for sure as it was hidden by a piece of cloth.”
Forgive my American attitude here, but MY guns wouldn’t have been hidden by cloth. These bastards should be shot before they do decide to hurt someone.
And I’m betting that you’re still in the US and not sailing down here, right?
Is there any way to radio for help, and what is the likelyhood that the authorities would quickly come to the rescue? Are you dusting off those heavy security grates your boat came with? Good luck.
They would likely be long gone before assistance arrived.
If I were to sail in that area and bring guns aboard to defend myself, what kinds of bureaucratic hassles could I expect from the Grenadian and Trinidad customs & immigration officials?
Do your research. To my knowledge, you can’t have guns on board in either country. In the open water, sure, but what are you going to do when you enter the waters of one of the countries? You’ll have to turn them over to the authorities.
Mike – if it were me, I’d sail to Chaguaramas, haul, fly-out, get the work done – and sail back when ready (agreed, the anchorage is poor). Yes, these two incidents are a detractor, no doubt about it, but don’t confuse the murder rate in the Port of Spain with pirate incidents against cruisers. You know that the waters are BIG and particularly at night-time, its tough to see even a sailboat more than a mile away. Run on a moonless night with no lights and no AIS transmitting. You might even want to head first North a bit, towards Union Island – so that you can get your angle right. Sail as far East of that rhumb line as you can afford. Its still an enjoyable sail and with NE winds this time of the year you might even get to Charlotteville Tobago first. In fact, I doubt you’ve been there. That little sleepy hollow place is our favourite spot in the Caribbean. Sail to Charlotteville, clear in – and then head for Chaguaramas – again, transiting that area along the coast during the night. That’s my opinion.
We’re not all that concerned. I’m more worried about the numerous fast-moving ships that we pass during that transit. 🙂
Some people are men of destiny, others are men of circumstance.
Frankly, why would anyone visit any place where you are required to give up God given rights?
God given. 🙂
So, could you list the countries that you could/would cruise in?
I vote for going in really crappy weather. Not fun, but I bet you would be OK with weather that will have the bad guys taking a day off, drinking beer at the local dive. Go at night, no AIS, no RADAR, no RADAR reflector, off the rhumb line. Poor visibility, no moon, can’t see where you are going.
Can you really imagine pirates out in the shit? In general I suspect they aren’t real seamen, and they wouldn’t expect many cruisers to be out in the shit either. Never heard of an attack in bad weather. Even heavy rain would help.
I sure wouldn’t want to be in an open boat in the rain!