VESLA -- armed robbery with guns

In the night from Wednesday to Thursday  (17 Aug '06) at between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m. the skipper and crew of S/V VESLA from Norway were chatting in the cockpit of their sailing vessel, while their guests Paul from the U.K. and two German girls were down below.  A dinghy with several black Trinidadians came alongside asking for a drink and cigarettes, which Torbjørn, Einar and Christian were happy to provide. 

 

Suddenly one of the people out of the dinghy came aboard, wielding a gun and asking the people in the cockpit to empty their pockets.  He was accompanied by more people from the dinghy who were armed with machetes and knives.  The armed intruders then proceeded to get down below, where they apparently produced another gun and woke up the people down below with a gun to the head. 

 

They then proceeded to ransack the boat, taking two laptop computers, scuba-diving gear, cameras, video-cameras, a battery charger, binoculars, knives, alcoholic drinks, a watch and so on as well as all the money and credit cards they could get their hands on.  In the process one of the intruders touched and "felt up" at least one of the girls, they went through the backpacks and kept asking about more money.  At the same time they started hitting one of the crew with the broad side of a machete, getting more violent when that didn't produce the desired results. 

 

The whole search of the boat took about 1 1/2 hours and the only thing of value not taken were a bunch of travelers' checks and a credit card that the robbers had apparently overlooked.  Even the souvenirs including an African drum as well as the photos and videos were taken. 

 

Just before they left, the robbers threatened once more with the gun asking for the rest of the money and then stabbed the dinghy about 20 times.  Finally they took off towards the open sea. 

 

The skipper immediately got on the VHF radio channel 16 in order to send out a call for help.  He was informed that he would have to call for the Coast Guard specifically and got a response apparently from the Coast Guard, which advised him to change to channel 11.  He was told that somebody would be there in about 30 minutes, but since nothing much happened in that direction he called again about 1 1/2 hours later.  After about two hours altogether the Coast Guard actually showed up, spend about five minutes on board and then left again. 

 

Meanwhile other sailors from the yachting community provided immediate assistance and skipper and crew would like to stress that the help they received from this direction, as well as from YSATT, the management of Power Boats, Peake Yacht Services and Jesse James of Members Only was invaluable and greatly appreciated.  The local dinghy-repair-shop offered to repair their slashed dinghy free of charge, a fellow yachtie donated an outboard engine - theirs was waterlogged in is probably destroyed - Peake Yacht Services offered free dock space and a hotel room, Power Boats offered to put their boat on the hard for free and Jesse James offered a free trip around the island so that they could see for themselves the beautiful side of this island. 

 

In other areas a certain amount of miscommunication seems to have taken place.  By the time the police arrived to take finger prints, Sunday (20 Aug '06), around lunchtime, there weren't any useful fingerprints left and although the management of Power Boats met with the Coast Guard, they still hadn't heard anything new from that angle at the time of the interview (Wed., 23 Aug '06 at noon). 

 

Originally VESLA was supposed to leave for a trip to the Orinoco in the near future, but instead the crew is going to fly back to Norway to recuperate from the incident.  When the hurricane season is over, they hope to sail north to begin their long voyage home to Norway.