Friday, March 16, 2007

Your (Our) Tax Dollars at Work

Sometime at around 7 am - during my watch - I noticed a ship astern. It took well over an hour to close gauge on us, and eventually dispatched a patrol boat our way at about 9 am.

It was a pretty uneventful encounter... They stood off 30 or 40 feet for a few moments - looking the boat over and perhaps using electronics to sniff for stuff. They came alongside - seemingly wanting to board... With a few carefully chosen words, Robin convinced them it was very unlikely that they could do so without holing us. (their boat was a clunky aluminum tender, and we were in 2-4 foot seas.) Scott went down below to grab his camera to take a picture, if/when they did sink us.

The apparent officer in charge asked a few questions - the toughest one was asking Robin to spell his last name. (Robin WAS able to do so - in case you were suspect) A freckled-face boy - not possibly older than 18 years and a day, wrote it down. He seemed downright scared when he needed to ask Robin to repeat his driver's license more loudly.

They pulled up their fenders - giving up on the whole boarding thing.

Of course, we politely thanked them...

Underway at 09:20 from

25 52.917N 113 10.593W
Heading 310 @ 8.5 (towards the coast at Pt. Ascuncion)
Wind about 8 from 330
Partly cloudy

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear all is well. Hope engine matters are not serious. Be safe and keep the reports comming. Thank the crew for their efforts. Rob.