|
|
|
|
|||||
|
||||||
From: Rick Kennerly (no email)
Date: Sun Dec 09 2001 - 21:23:44 EST
=Personally, if I have to go out, I'd rather do it fighting.
=
Actually, the problem is that the bad guys hold all the cards. Most people
who are boarded, even if they are armed, never have a chance. What are you
going to do, stand 24-hr-a-day armed watch and ward off every banana boat,
mola saleswoman, and dugout canoe wanting to trade lobsters for cigarettes
with warning shots? That's not my idea of cruising. I doubt if it's yours
either. A person might as well stay home.
Here's the problem in a nutshell. The bad guys know what they want, they
know what they're willing to give up to get it, they know how they'll get
it, they know when they'll get it and, most often, you will help them get
it. You'll help by being open, by being friendly, by having a schedule, by
not wanting to over react, by being sleep or a little tipsy, or by being
greedy or dishonest and getting into deals you shouldn't. In other words,
you'll help by being cruisers.
Look at the evidence. Blake, armed yet taken by surprise. That young
European kid crippled a few months back when the bandits boarded his mother
ship while he and his father were away visiting another boat. There have
been a lot of incidents lately. That couple slaughtered in Papua New
Guinea. A couple boarded and robbed at gun point off the west coast of
Mexico, even though they were armed. Carry a gun--yes or no, but you don't
hear that many success stories once the assault has begun. No matter how
well you are armed, it's surprise and it's complacency and it's hubris that
are your enemy, not the guys boarding your boat.
If you're cruising your only real defense is to put your ear to the ground
and listen to the coconut telegraph and avoid areas where young, unemployed,
impoverished men routinely wander the harbors and jungles slinging AK-47s,
where cruisers are not welcome, where there have been recent civil wars or
border clashes, and going where cruisers normally don't go, particularly
single boats all alone.
Rick Kennerly
----------------------------------------------------------
Rick the Mouseherder - nh2f
Westsail 32 Xapic, Hull #438
Cabo San Juan, Puerto Rico
A small boat and a suitcase full of money
beats a 40 footer tied to the Bank.
Visit our Westsail 32 Xapic
http://www.mouseherder.com/xapic
The Westsail Owners Assn. Homepage
http://www.westsail.org
___________________________________________________________________________
|| The Live-Aboard List : send a "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" request ||
|| in body of message to: ||
|