Aussie Cruisers Robbed by Government Pirates?
September 13 - Mexico
"We have personally never had any
dealings with pirates," report Rob and Mary Messengers of
Maude I. Jones, who have been out cruising their 46-footer
since the first Ha-Ha nine years ago, "but now some of our
cruising friends have. We just got the following email from our
Aussie friends Bas and Roz Dolkens of Spirit of Witchwood.
They've been out for three years, and were just on their way
back to Oz from the Philippines."
"Some of you may be unaware that we
were boarded and robbed while anchored just south of Buka Passage,
Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. A pack of five bastards armed
with what Roz says were semi-automatic weapons came aboard. I
thought they had machine guns, but I don't watch Rambo movies,
so I wouldn't know for sure. They stole about $10,000 U.S. of
gear and equipment, including most of my clothes - but none of
Roz's. They also took food, beer and wine, a computer and printer,
scanner, cameras, binoculars, seven of our 11 life jackets, and
other stuff. They did, however, leave all the boat equipment
so we could depart quickly and not create problems for them with
authorities. They fiddled with the computer that we're typing
this on, but caused it to crash - whereupon Roz convinced them
it was buggered. So they left it.
"We are totally unharmed and the boat
was virtually untouched. When they left, I demanded some of the
food back because we had a long way to go to Australia and no
more money with which to buy stuff to eat. So they handed back
a crate with breakfast cereal, EasyYo Yogurt, and two flasks
of Tanduay Rum. Hic! We believe that the 'robbery' was orchestrated
by the local authorities acting on false information that we
were carrying a shipment of guns. Rather than search us officially
and confiscate said guns, they recruited four thugs to board
us. The fifth guy was obviously a local official. He may have
been Police or Customs, it doesn't matter, as they are all crooks
in this 'developing nation', having received their training from
the politicians that 'lead' them. The four thugs were permitted
to rob us as payment for their part in the operation, but had
strict instructions on what they could and could not take. If
we had had the guns, the officials would have made a far greater
profit by taking them rather than by officially confiscating
them. If we didn't have any guns - as was the case - we would
be on our way, with no problems or consequences in the country
for them.
"Anyway, we are alive and getting
over the trauma. We expect to head for Oz about September 20
with the full moon, but it all depends on the weather."
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