Do you worry about Pirates?

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Mattm

Sorry! Back to topic, does anyone sail without running lights in questionable waters

No, the locals already know you are there.

Ive heard that rarional used for not running an anchor light too...its a bit like landing a UFO in the town square and turning the lights off...hoping no one will notice...every local for several square miles already knows you are there.

[model 10]

[QUOTE=belizesailor;2685850]No, the locals already know you are there.


In an anchorage for sure but not off shore, cell phones don't work that well. It's foolish to use lights on your way to Roatan from the Rio Dulce for example. I wouldn't use lights on my way to San Andres either.

[barnakiel]

Apparently there are none in Canary Islands BUT I did hear a story or two about more piracy now on African West Coast.


I think this is exactly where all the GGR boats are stuck right now. Classic hulls, classic problems. ;-))))


He he he


b.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Apparently there are none in Canary Islands BUT I did hear a story or two about more piracy now on African West Coast.


I think this is exactly where all the GGR boats are stuck right now. Classic hulls, classic problems. ;-))))


He he he


b.

not very rich pickings there unless the pirates like freeze dried food

[Kenomac]

The only time I worry about pirates is when we’re near a shipyard, especially Pirate Cove Marina in Rhode Island.

[Vep]

Not really, in the Americas known attacks at sea are mainly near the northern coast of South America, but it's still about like getting struck by lightning. Bigger chance of theft or violence in a harbor.

However, making oneself a porcupine is never a bad idea.

In the Americas any serious criminal is smuggling drugs. People that would waylay a yacht for wrist watches and laptops are the gutter scum and should be treated as such.

[WingRyder]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Americans with guns, far more frightening than imaginary pirates.

Have you encountered a lot of Americans with guns? I certainly don't think we have a big problem with piracy off the coast of the US. And if you sailed here, you would indeed find a lot of boaters carry guns.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Americans with guns, far more frightening than imaginary pirates.

For proof of this, ask the Japanese and Germans.

[Amaroo]

https://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php/piracy-reporting-centre/live-piracy-map

The website above is useful to find where some of the trouble-spots are worldwide. However, not all attacks get reported so it is a case of caveat emptor in some of the less frequented areas, especially in poverty-stricken countries.

[Ballenxj]

Originally Posted by Mattm

I would hazard to say if there were more Americans with guns out there the few cases of piracy we've heard of would be more in line with "another pirate shot at sea while attempting a robbery". Plus it was Americans and others with guns that ended the Somali pirate threat. Australians and their fear of weapons and love for the Nanny state is what keeps me up at night.

^^ This!^^ I have known Americans that have signed on with commercial freighters specifically to combat pirates. As usual though, some leftist (or uninformed person) just cannot seem to help themselves making that sort of anti American, anti gun comment. Yikes!

[mcerdos]

Originally Posted by boatingnewbie

I have read all sorts of horror stories about pirates.

Is this a regular concern you have when you sail?

Yes! We worry about pirates. It would be foolish not to. The best defense against them is to stay away from waters known for piracy. In addition to pirates a cruiser should worry about theft and uninvited boardings while on the hook. Again, avoid areas where this is common place.

Most of the Caribbean islands are safe. Some much more than others. St. Vincent and more recently St. Lucia are known hot spots of crime. Islands like Martinique and Guadeloupe are very safe.

South of Grenada is now a problem because of the decaying situation in Venezuela. The passage from Grenada to Trinidad and Tobago needs caution as the coast guard now advises to file a float plan with them. Passages west of Grenada should give Venezuela as wider berth as possible.

CSSN is a really good source to get a real time view of crime in the carib: https://safetyandsecuritynet.org

With all this said, I feel safer on the water than I do when visiting the USA.

[30yearslater]

All the time. The Great Lakes in general and Lake Ontario in particular are over run with those blood thirsty buggers. Guns, knives, truncheons, amulets and so forth are useless against them.

[Jeffrey Craig]

Originally Posted by StuM

The latter is not piracy.

The term “piracy” is defined in UNCLOS (Article 101) as:
(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed-

(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;
(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;
(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;
(c) any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or(b).

Note the "crew or passenger or a ship or aircraft" and "high seas" or "outside the jurisdiction of any state"

The biggest problem with your definition is the seemingly supercilious assumption that your definition is definitively THE definition, and is the ONLY definition, or at least the only one that matters.

In truth it's just ONE definition, and the definition might be different in different places.

For example, suppose you're in the territorial waters of a country that is not a member of the UN, and doesn't give a damn what UNCLOS says? Just hypothetically, suppose you're the guy contemplating swimming out to a boat in the harbor as described from a non UN-Member nation where you happen to find yourself, try to steel a dinghy, and are caught? The guys you tried to steal the dinghy from tie you up, call you a pirate, and make you walk the plank at sword-point. You complain that you're not a pirate, and that they therefore can't DO this, and in response they poke you with their swords so that you either walk out onto the plank, or you get stabbed.

UNCLOS might not define you as a pirate but at that moment, it really doesn't matter, because the people whose definition of piracy matters at that point is the ones holding the swords, and you can "Note" whatever you want.

Or maybe it doesn't turn out that dramatic, and you get picked up by the local coastal patrol after some sharp-eyed person notices you've sailed away in their dinghy, and they radio it in. The local patrol take you to jail and charge you with piracy under their laws. You try unsuccessfully to argue that under something called UNCLOS that they have never heard of and don't give a damn about, piracy is defined THIS way, and so you can't be a pirate. They laugh and convict you anyway, and sentence you to a decade or three of hard labor anyway because A, according to THEM, you are most definitely a pirate, and B, you had the temerity to start quoting UN regulations at them, in a non-UN member nation.

(Then I suppose you might argue that their lack of membership in the UN makes them not really a nation, arguing that all REAL nations are UN members and therefore, being not a member of the UN, they're not a real nation, and you tell them to their faces that therefore, their Mickey Mouse laws don't apply to you, and demand to be released because their laws aren't real and don't matter, and in response, smiling all the while, they then proceed to beat the living ship out of you.)

Now obviously you'll never find yourself in that situation, but I think I've illustrated the fact that the word "piracy" has multiple definitions and it depends on whom you ask. The RIAA in the United States, for a completely irrelevant example, defines it completely differently, as do their lawyers, not that their definition is particularly relevant, but it goes to underscore the point. No one really "owns" words and so the definition of one person or group's only holds sway under the limited circumstances in which that person or group's power does. Also, local authorities might not care, even if they ARE a UN-member, because it might just be more fun for them that way.

Just saying.

[KidSheeleen]

Define Pirates, at gas pumps, after dark kayakers, swimmers?Those are the average "Pirates". Go in the Persian gulf, or Islands of Micro Indonesia, Somali if you want the real deal.

[thomasriggs]

...Pirates worry about me...and my onboard defensive measures...Having recently been offshore Trinidad AND the Gulf of Guinea W. Africa there are indeed active, working pirates...more so in Africa...who sails there?