Larry wrote:


I know a German who cruises a big boat, alone most of the time. (Rich,
electric winches, lots of automation)

He was attacked in Asia by several men in a big powerboat.

As his boat was custom designed with a hidden arsenal that's quite
ingenious and easily accessed, he opened his stash and grabbed his
scattergun and a Russian hand grenade waiting for them at the ladder to his
cockpit.

As the fast boat came along side, and to the astonishment of the pirates,
he pulled the pin on the grenade and simply dropped it into their boat
before they could raise their weapons. Of course, panic ensued and the
powerboat veered off with everyone aboard frantically trying to get to the
grenade before it went off. They didn't have enough time and the grenade
blew the pirates apart, sinking the boat and killing them all.

Rule #12 - Don't attack Germans in nice yachts. They don't play dead.

We were cruising off the coast of Mexico when a large shrimp boat
seemed intent on running us down. We dodged one way, they followed on
a collision course. They kept coming closer and closer and we were
seriously worried that their intent wasn't pure to say the least.

Turned out that their refrigeration compressor had died and they
wanted to come aboard to borrow our VHF to call their ship's agent to
arrange for a replacement. If we had weapons, might we have pulled
them out at some time during this encounter?

I don't know, but I think the risk of dying in some third world taxi
or bus is about 100x higher than being killed by pirates. Robbed,
maybe, but fatalities are very rare.

Evan Gatehouse