April 1, 2008

So we were sitting here in the north anchorage of Warderick Wells. At just about sunset a small skiff came along side with a fisherman aboard. The guys looking to sell either fish or lobster but we’re not interested as up until now we’ve been able to catch our own. Not to mention the fact that he’s inside the park and probably been poaching.

We try to say no thanks but he won’t take no for an answer. He’s relentless and getting pretty agitated even waving a machete to let us know just how annoyed he is. Finally between my insistence and Tuckers incessant barking the guy heads off towards the next boat, the Packet Inn.

Its getting darker now but we’re sure the Packet Inns have witnessed what’s been going on along side our boat. We can barely see the guy pull up along side them but we can hear him, he’s loud and nasty with them from the minute he gets there. In less than a minute there’s and explosion followed by complete silence. Christy is on the radio hailing them trying to find out what’s going on. Finally Mary answers and says that their fine but could we come over there.

We get in the dink and get over there as quick as possible. The guys skiff is tied to their boat and he’s sprawled on the side of their boat with his machete at his feet. It seems that things were going pretty much like they had at our boat when all of a sudden he leapt up from his skiff onto the side deck of the Packet Inn.

Gary had been on the side deck of the boat and immediately started to back off now that this irrational lunatic with a machete was standing 6 feet away on their side deck. With a deafening roar Mary had put one round from their Mossberg Mariner 12 gauge shot gun into the man. She was protecting her husband and unfortunately the intruder forced her hand.

Now what to do? The guy was obviously dead. We called BASRA several times before getting in touch with the local constable. He’s several cays away and we ask him to come immediately as theres been an incident with a local.

He arrives in about the longest forty minutes ever. He confirms for himself that the guy is dead and then begins to question each of us as to this evenings chain of events. He tells us that the “victim” is a local trouble maker with a long history with the authorities here.

After talking to Christy and I the officer sent us back to our boat. He stayed aboard the Packet Inn for another 30 minutes before leaving with the guys skiff in tow.

2 minutes after he left we were back in our dinghy and on our way over to see what had happened. We were astonished at the story they told. The officer assured Mary that the “victim” had it coming and she had done the right thing. Then he solicited a 500 dollar “processing” fee from them. He asked them not to talk about the nights events as crime against cruisers is taken very seriously as it hurts tourism. He then dumped the guy back into his skiff, tied it to his own boat and towed it off into the night. He assured them that all would be taken care of and as far as he was concerned the case was closed. What are you supposed to say to that? They were as dumbfounded as we were.

Cruisers Dictionary entry:

Gullible- Easily duped. Tending to trust and believe people and therefore be easily tricked or deceived.

I hope that you enjoyed my April Fools Day edition of the Blog. None of this entry is true, Mary’s never killed anyone (as far as I know), we’ve met nobody remotely like the “victim” and all the police officers we’ve encountered here have been nothing short of professional.