Tag: Colombia Archives

Incident Date: 2017-03-15 at 20:00

Event Type: Assault

Stolen Items: Safe, computer, jar of peanut butter

Secured: Not Locked

Source Type: 1st Hand Report

Incident Details: A yacht arriving in Colombia from the San Blas islands of Panama, anchored on the south side of Baru and all crew except the captain took a car to Cartagena to complete their check-in. No other boats were nearby.

At 8 PM a dugout with outboard and 4 men came alongside and asked for a lighter. Then they quickly climbed on board, hit the captain with an oar and a gun and forced him inside the boat, where he was beaten with a machete and tied up.

They ransacked the boat and stole a computer, an entire (unopened) safe, and a jar of peanut butter, and were onboard for about 30 minutes. Injuries did not require hospital treatment, and reports were made to the police and coast guard.

Incident Date: 2016-07-11 at 01:05

Event Type: Assault

Stolen Items: None

Secured: Does not apply

Source Type: 1st Hand Report

Incident Details: While at anchor near Isla Grande, a man in a cayuco attempted to steal the dinghy, but he was noisy, awakened the crew and they were able to scare him away. The dinghy was secured and the couple slept in the cockpit. About an hour later 2 swimmers were able to board the boat, and attacked with knives. During the altercation the crew received bruises and many cuts, but were eventually able to repel the attackers. The crew immediately upped anchor and moved offshore. They made an emergency radio call. The Colombian Coast Guard arrived about an hour later, and met them offshore. After completing a report to the Coast Guard the crew departed for Cartagena.CSSN Information sharing Partner, Noonsite, also received a first hand report about this incident, it included a few more details, read it here .

http://www.noonsite.com/Countries/Colombia/colombia-islas-del-rossario-isla-grande-boarded-attacked-july-2016

Incident Date: 2015-11-25 at 02:30

Event Type: Assault

Stolen Items: Robbers grabbed everything they could see of value including all jewellery, tanzanite, pearls, 2 diamond rings, including a Cullinan diamond. Also stolen were outboard motors (both gone), watches, phones, computers, cash, credit cards, fishing rods etc.
Fortunately they did not take passports & boat papers, nor did they rip out main navigation equipment (other than hand held vhfs & binoculars) nor ropes.

Secured: Locked

Source Type: 1st Hand Report

Incident Details: We were boarded by armed PROFESSIONAL THIEVES & robbed in Taganga Bay, near Santa Marta, Colombia. The incident took place at around 2.30am and reads almost identical to this one, reported on noonsite in 2012, down to them being high on drugs:
There were 5 men, who arrived in a dugout canoe. 4 boarded, at least 2 had guns & 1 had a knife, that we saw. We were both tied up & hit by 4 thieves, at least 2 of the 4 on board had guns & one had a small knife at my husbands throat. The dogs did not bark.
We did have a plan of action if this kind of thing happened, unfortunately, my husband heard something hit the side of the boat & woke up. Instead of turning on the cockpit lights, he unlocked the door & went out to look. We had agreed that we would turn lights on & make noise. If we were locked inside the boat, at least we would have time to make radio & phone calls, but he was sleepy, not thinking straight & went straight out to 4 guys with guns & knives. I had actually hidden away our tablet, which has a good navigation program & they missed taking the dongle from the computer which had a local sim with airtime, so I was able to get a call out to our agent Dino who raised the alarm with police & coastguard.I could not get anyone on channel 16 or channel 72 for 1/2 hour and it was at least an hour before the coastguard came.
We had spoken with other people who advised us to go into the marina. We made an informed decision with an unfortunate outcome. Always read noonsite, Caribbean safety & security network, Facebook cruising group reports prior to going anywhere.
Our incident was almost identical to the one reported on noonsite in 2012. I wonder if it was the same ‘gang’? The police didn’t even come on board to check the 100 ‘ s of fingerprints, so the follow up comments from that report that the authorities are taking such incidents seriously is suspect! We really hope that local stakeholders in this area can provide an organised safe haven for cruisers, perhaps something similar to PAYS in Dominica.. We truly hope this never happens again in this bay.
Reported to Police, Coast Guard and Marina.