Peter Hendra wrote:

Wilbur you scare me. One evening I met someone like you at the Cape
Verde Islands. I noticed an un-manned inflatable drifting past my boat
and, knowing that it belonged to an American registered yacht upwind
of my position. I duly towed it back to him in my dinghy. As I
approached and called out the boat's name, upon coming to its side I
was presented with a pump action shotgun one foot from my face with a
verbal threat - :"freeze!!!"

It was not at all nice, and I had neglected to bring clean underwear.

Now that is just plain sad. Now I know why you
think Americans are paranoid. At least he didn't
shoot you.

BTW, I've also had a gun pointed at my head and
agree it is not at all a nice feeling. In my case
it was by a gung ho cop who was tresspassing at
the time, but apparently thought he had stumbled
upon a burglary in progress.

Frankly, in plain Aus-speak I say "**** your right to believe you can
shoot another human being if you feel threatened".

Well, he didn't shoot you thankfully. Maybe he
was smuggling drugs or something or possibly
taking them which led to his paranoia.

Still, you have to admit that if you are going to
run into some of those pirates you talked about in
the straits, that shotgun would be nice to have.
Remember the British guy that shot the pirates
attacking his and another yacht off Somalia a
while back? Personally, I'd rather avoid areas
where gunplay might be on the menu.

Don W.