CASE OF THE MISSING DINGHIES

Last week while we were tied up at the quay, a group of our friends and a number of other boats were anchored around the corner. A river empties into the bay there and it makes a nice place to explore by dinghy. They all had a nice expedition before the rain started. However, that night Chris on Ocean Breezes went into the cockpit around 10 or 11 and found a local man on board his boat. The man dove overboard before he could steal anything. Chris called the other boats to alert them and when everyone checked their boats, La Novia discovered their dinghy missing. The dinghy, a 12 foot rigid bottom inflatable with a steering pedestal and 25 horse Yamaha, was definitely the most valuable dinghy in the anchorage. The other boats were missing misc items and all of them lost their dinghy fuel hoses. Luckily Chris interrupted the guy before his dinghy was disabled, so Mike and Chris gave chase. Twenty minutes later, they found Mike's dinghy up the river. The thieves threw coconuts at them, but the dinghy was recovered as well as the motor. We think that they swam the dinghy up river and tried to disable the other boats to give them a chance to get away. We have not heard of much theft on our trip, but here in the Societies reports have come in from several boats. It's very disappointing and now we're being much more careful about locking up everything and putting things out of view.

Two days ago, Dolphins looked out just before bed and realized that their dinghy was gone. They roused the rest of the guys and went on a recovery mission. Pete looked on radar and several groups tried to find it with spotlights. No luck, so Dolphins had a fairly stressful night. The next morning at daylight all the guys went out again and came across a local boat full of teenagers towing the dinghy back towards the anchorage. The boys saw Mike from La Novia wearing a baseball cap and blue jacket and assumed the police were after them. They dropped the tow rope and sped off, leaving the dinghy floating with one of their friends in it. It turned out that they had found it washed up on a beach 3 miles downwind and were trying to return it but didn't want to be accused of stealing it.

Then yesterday, Thula Mama put out a call that they were at the beach and someone towed their kayak away. After alerting the fleet to keep an eye out for the boat, they figured out that it was a local hotel cleaning up the beach. The workers thought that the kayak was left their by a guest, so they put it away. After explaining the situation, the kayak was returned no problem.

And now today, Rob on Dolphins was returning to his boat after dropping off his wife in town and got flipped by a big wake. He's currently trying to get the engine dried out and working again. Luckily there is a Yamaha dealer nearby so they have the engine. Pete is on a hike with half the other cruisers. I'm sure he will be distressed to hear that Rob had to pay someone to fix the motor.

Happy driving, Kellie