Things like that don't happen here, Mooron. Motorboaters usually stay well
away from sailboaters. There is some antipathy between the groups on Lake
Michigan. Down in Chicago, the latest thing is for a group of terrorist
motorboaters to disrupt the local races. They roar in and out of the
tacklines on the course causing enough wake to capsize scows...this has been
going on for awhile and they are very wary of when the "law" is around and
haven't been caught yet....The only time we've had a close encounter of the
uninvited kind was when a beat up old O'day sailed up to us on the opposite
tack and asked if we were part of the Mac race....I guess they thought
people only fly spinnakers if they're racing...

"Capt. Mooron" wrote in message
...
Don't make more of it than what it probably was.... the dudes were out
on
a romp and sightseeing... they liked your boat. 3 guys could easily have
taken you out in a heartbeat if that was their intent.

If similar had happened to me up here... they would have been invited
aboard
for a drink and poured back into their jet sled hours later totally
smashed
drunk.

Then again I'm CANADIAN! ;-)

CM





"Maxprop" wrote in message
ink.net...
| Last Saturday, while returning home from a nearby port (35nm to the
north)
| on Lake Michigan this happened to us when we were about 8nm from our
port.
| I'll report the incident and let you all make your own judgments.
|
| It was a sunny day, 10kts. from the west, and we were making roughly
6kts.
| southbound, my wife at the helm. I'd just lain down on one of the
cockpit
| seats when I heard the rumble of a couple of large gas engines
throttling
| down. I peeked over the coaming to discover a go fast boat, approaching
| from the rear, had slowed and nearly stopped about 30 yards off our
| starboard beam. I grabbed the binocs and took a look. The skipper was
a
| shaggy-looking middle-aged man dressed in a muscle shirt and his three
| passengers were all younger men dressed in heavy, dark
clothing--sweaters,
| dark pants, etc. Not exactly what one would expect for an afternoon
outing
| on the old go-fast. All were standing in their boat, the Panama Jeanne,
| about 38' long. They turned toward us and approached at slow speed,
came
up
| behind us, and stalked us for about 5 minutes. Then they pulled up
along
| the port side. During this time I went below and obtained our 25mm
flare
| gun, loaded it, and stuck two additional flares in my pocket. A lot of
good
| it would have done, but it made me feel that I was at least doing
something.
| The skipper then yelled something to us. We asked him to repeat and he
| inquired as to the distance and direction to our home port. We told him
6
| miles (a lie, but we could see the breakwalls of the channel in the
| distance). He then conferred with the other young men, and finally
said,
| "You have a beautiful boat." I said, "Thanks." After stalking us for a
| while longer they finally drifted off to port (toward shore), idled
along
| for another five minutes, then sped off to the south.
|
| The experience was unnerving, to say the least. It certainly makes one
feel
| vulnerable when traveling at 6kts. My take on this is that they thought
a
| single woman was traveling alone, and when they saw me they decided to
check
| things out further before reacting. It is possible they might have
thought
| me armed, as my arm and hand were extended into the cabin, holding the
flare
| gun, while I was standing in the cockpit.
|
| OTOH it could have been innocent, but such behavior is certainly
suspicious.
|
| What's your take?
|
| Max
|
|