In Grenada, the new luxury marina of Port. St. George, a large schooner is moored black, all in "old piracy", every Saturday and Sunday, the crew dressed in costumes inspired by famous pirates and buccaneers that raged in this area in its heyday of Filibusta. then loaded a large group of tourists, and when passing under the old fort which controls the entrance of the harbor, the old captain, plumed hat, bandolier with pistol and saber boarding, and goggles presbyopia, from order to set fire to a number of fuses and a volley of guns spitting puffs smoke in the direction of the unaware and sleepy strong.
This is a comic parody of the idea of \u200b\u200bthe romantic Caribbean piracy, but the reality today is that in these same waters piracy, the real one, not at all romantic and horribly cruel, still exists.
The large resort, in which they have now turned the Grenadines, where everything is regulated by the possession of a valid credit card number, the tourist boat can live relatively peaceful, and enjoy sail beautiful, fine sandy beaches fringed by turquoise, until paid handsomely every single service will have no problem, except perhaps a small overnight bag-snatching in Bequia and maybe an attack "soft" one of ill repute in the bays of St. Vincent.
But once you leave these islands anodyne to those along the Venezuelan coast, as beautiful and generally more real and substantial, everything changes and you have to deal with modern piracy, rapacious and brutal by some years haunts the coast of Venezuela, and in particular the peninsula Pair. Recently we took a boat from Grenada to Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, and to stay out of the reach of the pirates we kept at more than seventy miles from touching only the costs Blanquilla Island and Los Roques, generally deemed safe.
However the night we have ever sailed with the lights out (even in the cabin just a little red light on the chart table), and a time we've had for a long time a light beam, not detected by the radar, we were very anxious and alert, probably it was a small fishing boat that was made about his business, but given the reputation of the place ... anchor in the bay of the largest of the coral islands making up the archipelago of Los Rroques we had with us a sailboat red iron rusty and shabby, with mainsail and genoa, even inferred, that snap to shreds in the strong trade wind, the picture was very disturbing and sinister. Peering curiously red boat with binoculars, I thought that was something familiar, I felt as though it had seen, but I could not capturing them in my memory.
few days later in Curacao, consulting a website showing the continued security alerts in the Caribbean waters, and specifically in the Venezuelan (.
http://www.safetyandsecuritynet. com / news.html ) found a chilling report that covered the wreck seen a la Grande las Roques, e che mi riportò alla memoria di aver incontrato, poco tempo prima, la stessa barca a Tirrely Bay sull'isola di Corriacau.
La “Sprit of Colonia” era partita da Corriacau il 3 aprile con destinazione Trinidad dove era attesa da un cantiere della nota baia di Chagurramas, per essere messa a terra in previsione della prossima stagione degli uragani, a bordo una coppia di naviganti giramondo tedeschi, che stavano in queste acque al 1997.
Probabilmente per un errore di rotta, dovuto alla forte corrente che spinge in direzione Ovest, la “Sprit of Colonia” si era trovata più vicina alla famigerata penisola di Paira that one of the vents, relatively safer, than a few miles east of the year access to the Bay Chagurramas, the fact is that near the Venezuelan coast the boat was boarded by a pirate launches. Still do not know exactly how the tragic events took place, but over dell'abbordaggio skipper of the "Sprit of Cologne, Hans Jorgen Ropke, was killed by a gunshot, then the assailants abandoned his wife, Angelica-Wiels Ropke, to sail the boat before it deprived of all means of communication and the small outboard motor that provides the motive power.
Left to itself, Angelica tried to sail north, probably with the hope of returning to Grenada, but after three days of absolute solitude with the sole company of the lifeless body of her husband, decided to abandon the boat for the groped fate on the raft. Ten days after leaving the "Sprit of Cologne" and thirteen after the fatal attack, Angelica was sighted and picked up by the freighter San Fernando, about 100 miles north of the island of Curacao. Angelica was completely dry, but still conscious was quickly transferred to a Coast Guard patrol boat in Curacao that the way to hospital where he received the necessary treatment.
Meanwhile, the "Sprit of Cologne", left to itself with its gruesome cargo went aground on a coral atoll of Los Roques, where some local fishermen found the anchor and tow when we saw her.
Every year, the Venezuelan water insecurity increases, the most dangerous part is just the Paira Peninsula, a long strip of land that borders the great gulf of pair, in which lies the island of Trinidad. The peninsula is a sort of no man's land, no roads and equipped ports, and difficult to control, from here on long wooden canoes around 10:00 to 12:00 m and also equipped with three powerful fuoribordo, partono i pirati che intercettano le barche da diporto dirette a Trinidad o provenienti da Margherita e dalle Testigos.
Le piroghe hanno un’autonomia di circa ottanta miglia, quindi si ritiene generalmente, che si possa essere al sicuro ad almeno quaranta miglia dalla costa, ma recentemente una barca a vela, il “Tifon” è stata assaltata nella rotta fra Trinidad e Grenada a poco più di quaranta miglia dalla costa.
Non tutti gli attacchi sono fortunatamente sanguinosi, gli equipaggi delle barche che sono assaltate vicino all’isola di Margherita, generalmente non subiscono violenza, se si esclude l’essere legati and unable to see with tape over his eyes, the pirates simply steal everything, absolutely everything, including clothing and food supplies!
It seems that these attacks are carried on a pole to blow Testigos (considered safe) warns that when a boat sails interesting.
The attack on the "Spirit of Cologne" I find it particularly cruel, not only for killing the skipper, but also for leaving a woman alone on a boat with no radio or motor, drifting , desperate and shocked with her partner next to corpse!
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