Nicaragua: Continuing Piracy Threat
This report from Brian Simm, planning a passage from Rio Dulce to Panama.
Published 6 years ago
29 November, 2019
For info/background.. relayed.
Six boats from the Rio Dulce heading for Panama sailed in convoy from Guanaja, Honduras to Providencia island passing the Pirate corner off Nicaragua.
They informed the Colombian coastguard in advanced and were watched remotely. Several boats were approached aggressively by a fishing vessel.
One of the fleet appears to have decided to be independent and turn off AIS. This seems to have alerted the Colombians and a helicopter arrived in a timely manner causing rapid departure of the local fishing boat(s).
All 6 boats are safely in Providencia unharmed.
I expect to use the far longer offshore route of north to Cancun then Cuba, Caymans or Jamaica and south at least 200 miles offshore, an extra 1500 miles or so.
Brian Simm
SY Scraatch
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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.
Related to the following Cruising Resources: Caribbean, Piracy & Security
How does one advise eh Columbian Coastguard?
(We have Satphone and Email)
See https://www.noonsite.com/business/guardacostas/ for details.
It is very envouraging to hear that the government helicopter got on scene so quickly. And very suspicious that the “fishing” boat departed promptly. However, I will transit the same area South to North next month, and you can bet I will certainly NOT have my AIS transmitter active in that area. Why tell any pirates exactly who I am and where I am? For safety we have a satphone and 406 EPIRB but the big issue is, we don’t want to raise a false alarm if a strange boat only wants to sell fish.
Any reason known as to why skipper turned off AIS and any opinion as to whether or not the “intruder” was showing boarding intent.
Thank you for this report but some fishermen just want to trade.
Could this have been possible given that it was a fleet.
Best wishes to all.