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
|
|