Possible Piracy off Costa Rica

We get tons of mail, so we can only suppose that some of it would be a little . . . well, unusual. Among the most recent and unusual is a string of missives from one Carl Robbins, who describes himself as a "cruiser who swallowed the hook in Panama." He wrote the following a few days ago:

"I can’t believe you’re not going to report on the acts of piracy off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, as reported, not by me, but by the nation’s leading newspaper, La Nación, the New York Times of Costa Rica."

Without bothering to mention the who, what, where, and when of the alleged attacks, Robbins quickly moved on to making reckless accusations: "Could your silence be due to that such a report might dampen enthusiasm for the Baja Ha-Ha, as voyagers often continue south?" Without waiting for an answer, he jumped to his own conclusion: "Your silence on an issue critical to cruisers’ safety is shameful."

We explained that we had no intention of being silent on such matters and, since we couldn’t find the article or accurately translate it if we had, we asked him to provide the facts. But oh no, Robbins wasn’t having any of that. "I summed it up," he claimed in his response, despite not having mentioned the who, what, where, when, or why that are the basics of any report. "Commercial interests usually win out in today’s corporate-driven media," he wrote continuing his attack, "I thought Latitude 38 was different."

Stymied by Robbins’ preference to rag on us rather than provide us with information, we searched the internet and publications such as Costa Rica’s Tico Times, the real New York Times, the L.A. Times, but either they don’t know anything about such stories . . . or, they, along with Latitude, are part of some giant conspiracy-for-profit to prevent cruisers from knowing they are headed for danger when they cruise to Costa Rica.

If anybody besides Robbins knows about piracy off Costa Rica — other than the stealing of outboards and dinghies, which is common in that country — we’d sure like to know about it so we could publish it (email us). And so would the folks in the various cruiser safety and security nets, all of whom apparently are still unaware of the information Robbins seems to want to keep to himself.