Aleria Update 18
Update from Aleria # 18:
Troubles (Adventure) in Ste. Martin – @ 18°04’N 63°05’W
This was going to be a very short note to let you all know that our engine was fixed and we had sailed to Ste. Martin (the French side), a 100-mile overnight passage in intensely squally weather, to buy some much needed supplies for Aleria and provisions for our crossing. This was to have been a note to say farewell, we’ll see you a few weeks from now. But then, stuff happened.
We had set up an SSB radio net to keep a group of about 12 boats in communication while transiting north from the Caribbean to Europe (SSB = Single Side Band is a high frequency, long range radio). The first two boats went north about a week ago and are now spending a lovely time in beautiful Bermuda. The next two boats departed from the British Virgin Islands, got about 120 miles out and a person on one suffered a medical emergency. Our friend Keith aboard Rapau developed a severe back pain and passed out. When he awoke, he was passing blood in the urine. After several hours of attempting to get medical assistance by radio, he contacted the US Coast Guard who advised him to turn back to the BVI and stood by to assist if necessary. So they sailed 120 miles back accompanied by Spruce just in case Wellie was forced to single-hand. They made it back fine; Keith was diagnosed with an infected cyst on his kidney and sent on his way with antibiotics. Spruce and Rapau departed yesterday to make their way to Bermuda once again.
Meanwhile, Talulah and Per Mare had left from Antigua bound for the Azores the day we sailed to Ste. Martin. They were in VHF radio contact with each other and SSB contact with the net. About 150 miles out, Talulah heard a message from Per Mare that there was a problem with the mainsail and Gerry was going to lie ahull to fix it. This was followed by another message that there was an aircraft circling above and a vessel approaching announcing that Per Mare would be boarded. That was the last anyone heard from Gerry for the next two days. As we were in Ste. Martin, we called the US Coast Guard in Puerto Rico and they initiated a search of the Coast Guard and Search and Rescue services on the various islands to see if anyone had heard anything about Per Mare. There were no reports of any contact from Puerto Rico to Guadeloupe. We tried to hail Gerry via SAT phone, and there was no reply. Now we were all getting worried. Was this an act of piracy? Was this a customs issue?
We put the word out on every radio network in the Caribbean. Finally, the call came through that Per Mare had been brought in to Ste. Martin and was tied up in the same marina we were in! What a story. Gerry, a 64-year-old former British Royal Marine and deep sea diver who is single-handing, was repairing his mainsail on deck when a French Customs vessel approached wielding automatic weapons and ordered him to turn back toward Ste. Martin. He was 150 miles out, had clawed his way out northerly in a northeasterly breeze, and had just reached a more favourable southwesterly flow when this happened. They put two armed agents onboard who ordered him to motor to Ste. Martin. No communications with family or friends were allowed. He was literally only permitted to do what they told him to.
In Ste. Martin, they tied the customs vessel alongside his vessel and proceeded to tear the boat apart while he remained under arrest. The agents removed every single item stowed on the boat and placed it on deck. When they ran out of space, they placed it on their deck. They removed bulkheads, drilled a hole in his keel and inserted scopes to view inside. They ordered him to disconnect and open up the fuel and water tanks, which he refused to do saying an engineer alone was permitted to do such work and they could call one if they wanted to. They found nothing. So they called in a second specialist crew from Martinique with specialized equipment to conduct the search again. Finally, when they too found nothing, they released Gerry two days later and he was able to respond to all the people searching for him. To our great relief, he was safe and sound right here. We took him out to a wonderful dinner where he was able to release the tension with the whole story.
Gerry surmises that because he had Per Mare repainted in Trinidad while he flew home for a visit, they suspected that drugs might have been sequestered aboard while he was gone. This is especially true since he was gone seven weeks due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland which grounded all the flights. Luckily, his astute girlfriend had advised him to give the boat a thorough search since he had not been present while work was being done. He was, therefore, reasonably certain that there was nothing contraband stowed without his knowledge aboard. He deduced that since he sailed directly from Trinidad to Antigua then on to the Azores, it appeared more like a delivery than a cruise. He was just wanting to get north before the hurricane season.
Through this entire ordeal, Gerry offered his cooperation but requested clarification as to why he was being stopped, under whose authority, and what his rights were. He was told that they had cleared the inspection with the British Foreign Ministry and that he had no rights as they had all authority. Meanwhile, one of our group’s fathers was in touch with the British Foreign Ministry which claimed no knowledge of the incident.
So here is Gerry now, preparing to single-hand his way home after three years sailing to Brazil, Africa, and the Caribbean, he has to put his boat back together, top up fuel for which he will not be reimbursed, he has lost precious time before hurricane season, and he has been traumatized before a solo Atlantic crossing. We’ll be hearing more about this case as Gerry prepares to take up this international incident on legal terms. We were all under the impression that no one has jurisdiction to intercept private vessels on the high seas without sufficient cause and government authority. We thought only pirates attack boats in international waters without warning. Little did we know.
In fairness, Gerry does say that the crew treated him very fairly and with respect. It was the officers that were rude, intimidating, and disrespectful. Gerry offered full cooperation and got little in return. They made crude comments about photos of his girlfriend. We had thought that there was civility among the European nations, but obviously that goes out the window when the drug wars are involved.
Just minutes ago we received an email from the Antigua Coast Guard verifying that Gerry had been arrested and released. This in response to the British Foreign Ministry’s follow-up. So all in all, our SSB net did help in locating and identifying Gerry. It is clearly a means of assistance to vessels in compromising events on the high seas.
Meanwhile, while in Ste. Martin these three days, we heard about a boat that was robbed two days ago of all electronic equipment and there were also several dinghies stolen (one was recovered by suspicious cruisers being driven by the thieves that stole the electronic equipment...). We were nearly mugged on a narrow street when two young thugs came up behind us and asked if we wanted to buy something. Alex said, “No thank you.” and we continued to walk quickly without looking back. Then I heard them say in French, “Do you think we can take them?” and the answer was, “Yes, there are only two.” Alex yelled “RUN” and we ran to the next intersection, he turning left and I right as they hurled huge football sized rocks at us that smashed on the pavement either side of us. But they had thankfully missed.
A car came by to park in a private driveway just then and we told him what happened. He nonchalantly gave us directions to the police station. Instead we stopped at the nearest restaurant that had lots of people in it. It turns out the largest table there was full of local cops. Our waiter told them what happened, we got free drinks and the cops all cheered us as we left. Viva la France. We heard later that another thug that evening had run through a sidewalk cafe, grabbed a woman’s purse from her chair, jumped on a bicycle, and drove away while stunned diners gave futile chase. This place is the most crime ridden Caribbean destination we have experienced yet.
Ste. Martin is, however, a completely duty free zone on both the French and Dutch sides. You can buy anything here at US prices and get some real bargains. There are no real borders, just a change of flags. The Dutch side looks more like Miami or Fort Lauderdale, the French side looks more like France. We have installed new AGM batteries and charged them up, we provisioned for weeks at sea, we purchased a new EPIRB as the old EPIRB batteries are out of date and have been outlawed by the US government as hazardous material and discontinued, though the unit still does work. Now we are stowing our dinghy, our bikes, and our cruising gear for our third passage across the Atlantic. We are so ready to come home.
We’d had enough sun, we’d had enough parties, and it was bloody hot and too damned sociable in the Caribbean. It’s time to go home. We want to take loads of showers with lots of soap. We want to do our own laundry with our additives and fold it our way. It’s time to get a dose of change of seasons. Time to see family and recharge in the Jacuzzi. I know as soon as we get there, we’ll miss what we had here – the warm clear aquamarine water most of all. We will also miss all the good friends we made while underway, though all have promised to visit us in Mayo. We’ll rarely if ever swim in Ireland. It’s too cold there. So we know as soon as we leave here we’ll miss it and want to come back. But in the meantime, yes, it’s time to go home. Once again, we want to go but we don’t want to leave.
Our plan is to head directly from Ste. Martin to the Azores leaving this afternoon. Hopefully, if the winds stay favourable, we’ll reach Flores or Horta in about three weeks. If we get becalmed, it could take much longer so we’ve provisioned for at least 5 weeks at sea. If the winds veer and we get sent farther north, we might go directly to Ireland. If we make the Azores, we’ll spend at least a week cruising there until sailing on to Ireland – another two to three week passage. But now that we have a SAT phone, we’ll at least be able to send position reports back home, get weather data directly at any time, and plot our position on YOTREPS Reporter once a day.
So farewell for now, from the Western side of the pond and we hope to see you all on the Eastern shores of the Atlantic very soon.
Au revoir from Ste. Martin,
PS Had trouble uploading pix but they’re not great anyway. They can wait.
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