Piracy: Yachts brutally attacked on the open sea in the Western Caribbean

A cruising catamaran sailing under the French flag was attacked and robbed by armed men 70 nautical miles east of the Nicaraguan coast last Thursday. At the time, the crew was on its way from Providencia, an island around 130 nautical miles off the coast, to Guatemala. This is reported by the Caribbean Safety and Security Net (CSSN).

The attack happened even though the crew had switched off the on-board AIS signal as a precaution. In the early morning, an open fishing boat crewed by several men had initially approached, only asking the sailors for water and food. Half an hour later, the boat returned to the catamaran, this time handing the men cigarettes at their insistence.

Suddenly, two other fishing boats equipped with powerful outboards appeared. According to the CSSN report, their crews first rammed the catamaran and then boarded it. The crew were threatened with knives and iron bars. The pirates stole computers, smartphones and other electronic devices, as well as cash, alcohol and clothing. They left the ship again after around an hour.

As if that wasn't enough, one of the boats returned to the catamaran an hour later. Now the robbers were after the dinghy and outboard motor. It was only when they heard on the VHF radio that a freighter, which the sailors had called for help in the meantime, was approaching that they abandoned their plan and fled.

The unharmed crew was then able to continue on their way without further assistance and headed for a harbour town in nearby Honduras, where they filed a complaint.

Not an isolated incident - pirate attack on a US YACHT

Something similar had already happened five days earlier to a sailing couple on a US yacht. They had been on their way from Puerto Cortes on Honduras' north-west coast to the offshore Islas de la Bahia. Around five nautical miles from the mainland, so another recent CSSN report They were attacked by eight men armed with firearms who had also approached the yacht in a fishing boat.

In this case too, the robbers had taken everything they could get their hands on: Electronics, money, passports, alcohol, diving equipment and the dinghy and outboard motor. The skipper later stated that it was probably only his immediate compliance with the pirates' demands that meant that he and his co-sailor were unharmed.

With the help of a handheld radio - the robbers had stolen all the other navigation electronics - the skipper was able to send out a distress call, which was received by a US Navy reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft then "escorted" the yacht safely from the air to its destination harbour.