Yachtspeople reacted with horror and concern as the story circulated on Caribbean cruisers nets of a violent incident in St Lucia. The attack occurred on June 19, 2006, in St. Lucia’s Rodney Bay. A yacht anchored some 50 feet off the shore was boarded by three men while the couple was asleep; the man, Dutch national Francis Adela, was beaten until he lost consciousness, and two of the three intruders raped his French wife Christine.

Police subsequently arrested and charged three men on June 29, but the incident may have further repercussions as other reports have been made of an increase in attacks on tourists generally in St Lucia.

It is hoped that the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority (SLAPSA) will soon have a boat with which to patrol waters and act as a deterrent to any similar attacks.

The incidents in St Lucia do not appear to be at all isolated. A spate of robberies and attacks on yachts in the Grenadines was reported in the French yachting magazine Loisirs Nautiques this month.