Cruiser’s Account of Violent Boarding in Haiti

Our attackers were not fishermen, but traders sailing large, unmotorised dhows. During our short stay in Haiti we only met friendliness from the local fishermen and bought some crayfish. Friendliness was all round and no signs of pushing and touting. Our attackers were also entirely illiterate. They could not even distinguish between a visa card and a Walmart card.

In a nutshell we were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Had we stopped in a different location (with no trading ships around), nothing would have happened.

Detail of our attack.  We were asleep with a security gate in the gangway door when at around 11 pm we heard footsteps on the deck.  We got up, and saw between 10 – 15 guys at the stern. I yelled out and stepped into the cockpit. They had tied their dhow to one of our winches. Later we also found that they had slung a rope around the rudder. The dinghy had already been taken off the deck (it was securely tied on) as was the life raft. They were removing the solar panels. We raised the alarm, firstly by sending a MayDay over the VHF (16) and the SSB (2182). NO RESPONSE, not even from the US Navy base at Navassa Island, less than 140 nm away.   Read More