Just give us your cell phones, electronic goodies, bling and wenches!
Posted on 12/13/2005 4:43:56 PM PST by fanfan
For Steve McVicar, the worst part of lying in the cockpit of his sailboat with a sawed-off shotgun pressed to his head by a Venezuelan pirate was how casually his life could end.
"It's just a horrible feeling that your life is so frail, hanging by a thread, when somebody has a gun on you," the 50-year-old Trail orthopedic surgeon said Monday in a telephone interview. "You could be gone instantly."
McVicar and his companions, another B.C. doctor and his wife, had just set off on a two-week Caribbean cruise off the coast of Venezuela early last month when pirates turned their holiday into 30 minutes of helplessness and terror.
The attack came the first evening out of Puerto la Cruz on the coast of Venezuela. McVicar had just spent two weeks working on the boat, and when his friends arrived, they headed 11 kilometres offshore to Isla Borracha and anchored for the night.
There was no reason to expect trouble. McVicar has kept Alioth, his 13-metre French-built steel-hulled ketch, in the Caribbean since 1999, and knows its waters well, heading down for two-week trips three or four times a year. Both the Venezuelan coast guard and the national guard patrol the waters around Puerto la Cruz, and the bay they anchored in was reputed to be safe.
Early in the evening, the three were lounging in the cockpit, watching a DVD. McVicar, drowsy from a cold remedy, was not keeping a watch, and the sound of the movie muffled the noise of the outboard as a six- metre open fishing boat approached.
"All of a sudden, five armed men came on board and one put a shotgun right to my head," he recalled. "The others had pistols and a machete, and they ended up tying us up and proceeded to loot the boat."
The Canadians lay on the deck, bound hand and foot, with one pirate holding the shotgun on them while his companions ransacked the main cabin.
Nearby in the darkened aft cabin, McVicar's own shotgun and a handful of shells -- a potential defence now turned appalling danger -- lay in plain sight on his bunk. Mercifully, the pirates never looked there.
"I shudder to think if they'd seen it," he said.
He remembered all too well the fate of world-class yachtsman Sir Peter Blake, who grabbed his gun to challenge pirates who boarded his boat in the Amazon River in 2001 and was shot dead on the spot.
"You think, if only I had my gun up on deck, I could have loaded it, which I usually do, but what if I fired? What if they had a machine gun and fired back? You'd wind up having a firefight.
"That's what was going through my brain, so I offered no resistance, so it's just as well I didn't have my gun up there."
While he lay helpless, he could see down into the main cabin, where the pirates were pawing through his gear and taking what they fancied -- satellite phone, VHF radio, expensive sailing clothing, electronic instruments and more.
"The sad part was, I had an empty knapsack, and I had about $10,000 in a zipped pocket," he said.
"I usually hide that on the boat somewhere, but I never got around to it and they used the knapsack to put stuff in, not knowing the cash was there, so it was really disheartening to see them take the knapsack."
There was worse to come. The pirates then took the woman down into the boat and molested her, taking her clothes off.
McVicar and the woman's husband were afraid she might be taken ashore and raped, but she was left on the boat.
After 30 minutes, the pirates left, and after 10 minutes of twisting and squirming, the captives freed themselves. They contacted a French yacht lying at anchor about 300 metres away, which came to see if they were alright.
Assured that they were, it left the bay immediately, as did McVicar, who took the Alioth straight back to Puerto la Cruz.
Next, you idiot doc, buy a gun and shoot any bastard trying to board your boat.
Is it legal to own a case of live grenades?
Another Darwin Award winner wannabee.
Almost made it too.
Idiot.
So how was the rest of the vacation?
I think someone needs to build and market a commercial version of the Phalanx system.
Now wouldn't that be a shock to the 'uninvited' guests?
LVM
Hmmm...
He had a gun if you'd read the story, but he didn't have it handy.
And it was one of those safe guns. Unloaded.
Stupid Stupid Stupid.
I like that idea!!
That IS funny!
And a shotgun to boot! Don't even need good aim! ;o)
Just give us your cell phones, electronic goodies, bling and wenches!
And it sounds like he would have been hesitant to use it anyway. Why again did he bring it along?
(/sarc (He sails 3-4 times/yr. for two weeks at a time, and takes $10,000 cash with him? ))
he doesn't seem very smart!
Yes!
Ping!
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