I wanted to let cruisers know of a potential problem of the Moskito Coast of Nicaragua.

On June 14, 2008, my husband and I were approached by a 24-foot center console boat with seven men on board. They hailed us in Spanish and asked if we spoke Spanish. I replied that we did not, and indicated that the other boat (that was accompanying us – SY Natural Selection) had a person on board who could speak Spanish.

He seemed to ask where we were headed and I told him. He gave me a thumbs up signal and then headed for Natural Selection who were traveling alongside us. When he approached them, my friend asked him who they were and what they wanted (in Spanish). The three crew on Natural Selection had tasers, which the seven men saw when they approached. They did not answer and moved away.

They tailed us for a while and we made up a game plan of what to do if they decided to come after us after dark. This incident happened in 1630. The boat had no flag, no VHF, no radar. It also had two large drums for fuel. Two of the men seemed to have uniforms on, but the other five did not.

I will never know if they were up to no good but wanted to let other cruisers know about this incident.

I had a satellite phone and called the U.S. Coast Guard, but they had no boats in the area to assist us. They later called me back and said it was probably a Nicaraguan Coast Guard boat, but the five of us have our doubts about that.

Other than this one incident, we had no other problems traveling around Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua on our way to Panama.

Karen

Fairsky

32′ Island Gypsy powerboat