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Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines

Posted By: Anonymous

Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/04/2013 03:56 PM

very violent. did they catch the perpetrators?
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/04/2013 04:17 PM

more details: s/v Rainbow attacked with machetes on board at 8:40 pm, robbery. Both cruisers lived, one seriously injured in hospital in grenada.
Posted By: tradewinds

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/04/2013 05:35 PM

Violent attack, Cruisers injured, St Vincent & Grenadines, Union Island

At 8:40pm 3 October sailing vessel Rainbow was anchored off Union Island at Frigate Island (aprox 12 34.9882 N 061 26.2582 W) which is attached to Union Island, St Vincent and the Grenadines when two people aboard Mark and Christina were attacked by machete wilding robbers.

Christina was very seriously wounded with a huge laceration to her face cutting through her cheek and through some teeth.
Mark was also lacerated but was able to reverse the situation.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f19/...and-112685.html
Posted By: mmk

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/04/2013 06:02 PM

Let us hope the criminals are caught quickly. Tourism is hurting in the Caribbean, both land based and sailors. Unfortunately, there is increasing crime on sailors, whether it be physical or theft. Break ins have been going on for years in two prime sailing areas, the Virgin Islands and the Grenadines. This will also impact land based tourism, which is already hurting.
Posted By: saildoggie

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/04/2013 11:44 PM

Sure hope they are recovering from this.
Glad to read the suspects were caught.

Just booked with Barefoot for a June/July charter, we are straying from the BVI's trying something new.
Posted By: rhans

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/05/2013 01:02 AM

My heart sincerely goes out to this cruising couple.
The area around Frigate Island is pretty isolated while being pretty close to a secondary town on Union. Frigate is a failed attempt to build a marina/resort and the construction created a bridge of sorts from the mainland. Great place for lowlifes to hang. We’ve looked at anchoring there but have instead continued around to Chatham.
Posted By: LastMango

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/11/2013 07:21 PM

More details: http://www.noonsite.com/Countries/StVinc...riously-injured
Posted By: RickBlaine

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/11/2013 07:36 PM

scary
Posted By: maytrix

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/11/2013 09:09 PM

15 or not, they should lock him up and throw away the key.
Posted By: tangerine3

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/14/2013 05:07 AM

it could have been worse i'm glad that he defended himself and cut him back. What I don't understand is they never said there was a motive. Now that's scary
Posted By: SouthCarolina

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 10/14/2013 12:56 PM

Some of those 15 year olds are as big as adults. Agree - with Maytrix LOCK EM UP!
Posted By: caribbeangirl13

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/02/2013 02:54 PM

Ugh! This reminds me of when Donsld Street's wife was killed aboard their boat with a machete. I was good friends with his 3 children and it was so tragic. I was just a little girl then but terrified whenever we anchored in the same bay on Grenada. However, my parents insisted that one or two bad eggs would not rule their lives. After that though, I was taught where the flaregun was and how to use it as a weapon. Don't let this incident detour you from St. Vincent, the Grenadines and Grenada. There is nothing quite like it.
Posted By: NODEE

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/02/2013 04:21 PM

Saw Christina yesterday at the grocery store. She is out and about and doing quite well all things considered. Rainbow is leaving Grenada today and headed north to St. Croix. Kirk
Posted By: sail445

Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/05/2013 12:44 AM

They don't care about tourism Uncle Sam or their parent countries will send them either food stamps or another form for their survival.
Thing like this have been going on for over 50 years. There's always a lot of hoop la but that ends in a week.
If you read the cruising news, every year new cruisers come down to the islands and start offering money or other forms of compensation to educate the islanders.
What they don't know is the islanders are educated enough to get your good hearted bucks in most cases.
Posted By: Seth

Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/05/2013 02:03 PM

sail445: and ask yourself "why should they?".

When you grow up in a wooden shack with no running water or toilet; when your family can't afford to have you at school after the age of 12; when your only choices for your future (unless you have wealthy friends) at the age of 16 are to pack bags at the supermarket for around $US 100 per month, or to sell crack, or to grow or sell weed; when your aunt breaks her leg which then gets infected, as a result of which she dies, because there's no medical treatment available; when you've never travelled to St Vincent from Union Island because you couldn't afford the ferry fare; when you didn't eat today; and when, with all of the above you see 6 yachties getting drunk in a local bar and staggering about, spending in one night what they would be lucky to earn in 6 months ....when that happens ..... why should they?
Posted By: saildoggie

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 12:38 AM

Seth, are you saying that the locals that are poor have a great animosity toward visiting tourists?

Sounds that way and that they would be inclined to steal from the tourists or harm them?
Posted By: rhans

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 03:27 AM

Quote
saildoggie said:
Seth, are you saying that the locals that are poor have a great animosity toward visiting tourists?

Sounds that way and that they would be inclined to steal from the tourists or harm them?


Hey Mark

Here’s my take and Seth will clarify or disagree.

Once you get south of the “Disney like” area’s of the Virgins that we all enjoy so much real island life is more apparent. It might be Dominica, St. Lucia, the Grenadine Islands or Granada. Once away from the water front life is different than a boater sees. I’ve been fortunate enough to have great island folks share their homes and communities with me and have seen the good and the very bad.

What Seth pointed out is pure fact. There is not the welfare that you would be expected in the US or UK.

Fortunately for us tourists on vacation this inner island situation is usually benign and only shows its ugly head occasionally as it did in Union.

I’ll leave it to the Maestro Seth for any future comments if necessary.
Posted By: sail445

Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 11:44 AM

Seth, the life of the islanders is basically stress free.
Their living conditions are what they made for themselves and can't be in anyway compared with stateside living.
They became an independent nation by their own accord and have turned it almost into a lost 3rd world country.
Posted By: sail445

Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 02:49 PM

You'll find that the Islands that are territories of of European countries do have a Welfare and educational system in place.
The islands that voted and got their independence from the European countries are the ones having a hard time.
Posted By: Seth

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 04:54 PM

saildoggie - no, one cannot generalise by that. What I'm saying is that on the very rare occasions when something unpleasant occurs against a visitor, the high likelihood is that the perpetrator came from the background I described above. I am NOT saying that all people from that background behave like that. I've lived in these parts for 31 years, have owned 3 cruising yachts and sailed everywhere in this region, and have never encountered violence or theft against myself. But, the truth is that human beings are the product of their past

sail445 - you are totally wrong. I would hardly describe the life here as "basically stress-free" and if you believe that it is, then you know nothing of how people live here.

Their living conditions are NOT simply what they made for themselves. They are what they made for themselves with the meagre scraps that were kindly left them by the former colonial power. Try building the Empire State Building if there are no bricks available from the very beginning.

All the islands have a so-called welfare system and an educational system in place, not just those that remain European overseas territories.
Posted By: saildoggie

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 05:19 PM

Thanks for clearing the air, I will be sure our crew is aware of the situation and try and stick together as much as possible while ashore.
I probably cannot allow our pretty young ladies to wander out of sight alone, they know how to handle themselves in the BVI's and scruff off the rasta boys all the time, it is actually funny to watch them do it!
We will also have a seasoned sailor of the Grenadines along with us on another cat every leg and every stop as well as another boat or two, we have a mini flotilla forming.
Posted By: sail445

Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 06:38 PM

Seth you're contradictIng what you posted earlier.
And to blame their problems on the colonial powers that have given them the freedom to keep thing status quo or go independent which they chose is absurd.
Posted By: Sugaree

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 07:00 PM

Quote
Seth said:
All the islands have a so-called welfare system and an educational system in place, not just those that remain European overseas territories.


Just to interject, when on Grenada recently we had lengthy discussions with a gentleman by the name of Mandoo, who owns a tour company. Part of our discussions included poverty and crime. He is a native of Grenada, and quite well versed on the socio-economic situation of the island. He was emphatic in stating they have no welfare system in Grenada. It's sink or swim, as he said. And although one might tire of rice and peas, if one starves to death it is of his own choosing. As he pointed out, everyone has access to fish, and various fruits growing wild and free for the taking. So I took that literally to mean there is no "dole" or "welfare" system in Grenada. Is this not true?
Posted By: Seth

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 07:59 PM

sail 445 - I do not believe I am contradicting myself at all.

Firstly, I am not BLAMING the former colonial powers. I am saying that what they left for the famished man was a plate with half-eaten scraps on the side. It was you who wrote that they had created their own circumstances. I am pointing out to you that they did not create their own circumstances on their own, that their circumstances were "nourished" by what they inherited. Certainly they have had much input. But they did not "create".

Secondly, there is a huge difference between -

1. The people are very poor. A very small number of them commit crimes

2. The people are very poor. Poor people commit crimes
Posted By: sail445

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 08:09 PM

We can go on all day, but they thought that by going independent they would receive the riches they THOUGHT the UK was stealing from them.
Do you expect the UK's tax payers to support them when they celebrated their separation?
Posted By: Carol_Hill

Re: Oct. 3 Machete attack on cruisers in Grenadines - 11/07/2013 08:20 PM

Uhmn, no, you can't go on all day. This one is done.
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