without comment, i post the following.
May 9, 2003
Beware: Pirates
By WALLY MORAN
Special to the Tribune
Fifty miles out of Key West, Rob Huxtable's cruise to last fall's Fantasyfest landed him in a nightmare.
Huxtable, an Apollo Beach resident who works at Tampa General Hospital, had made this cruise several times without incident in Pipe Dream, his Catalina 30.
With Indiana friend Jeff Hoskins crewing, he left the Tampa Sailing Squadron on Oct. 24, never thinking they would be threatened by modern-day pirates.
Midway between the Dry Tortugas and Key West, the two found themselves beating into heavy seas. Hoskins saw a shrimper he thought was following them, bearing down from the horizon, so Huxtable fell off course 10 degrees further. The shrimper followed.
Within 45 minutes, the shrimper closed the distance to a few hundred yards. It carried no flag, although its name was painted on its transom.
Huxtable, 45, could see the vessel's nets were dry-rotted. The steel hull showed rust and flaking paint. The engines, though, sounded finely tuned and capable of moving the 60- to 70-foot boat along rapidly - a perception confirmed by the distance their pursuer had covered since they first viewed it.
Fearing the worst, Huxtable told Hoskins to go below and bring up the shotgun - loaded. Hoskins also changed into a different-colored shirt to make it seem more than two were aboard.
By now, the shrimper stood off Pipe Dream's windward bow, less than a boat length away in the 7-foot seas in what Huxtable thought was an attempt to stop them by blocking his wind. A rough-looking crew member was on the shrimper's foredeck, as if preparing to leap aboard Pipe Dream.
Huxtable waved off the shrimper, but her captain held his position, easing closer.
Praying his balky diesel would start this time, Huxtable reached for the key and turned it. It fired up. Breathing a quiet prayer of thanks, Huxtable veered away under power, now capable of maneuvering against the head winds. And still the shrimper pursued, turning as they turned, staying close.
Hoskins already had gone below to radio the Coast Guard that Pipe Dream was being pursued and that its crew felt ``threatened.''
``We did not feel comfortable with what was going on,'' Huxtable recalled. ``We had tried to communicate with this boat on the VHF. I waved them off, but they did not respond to us.''
Other Fear Factor
Another factor concerning Huxtable was the dozen or more men inside the smoked windows of the pilot house. This was a much larger crew than the three or four normally aboard that type of boat.
After nearly 20 minutes - or just short of eternity for Pipe Dream's crew - the radio crackled with the Coast Guard's return call. Pipe Dream reported the situation. Then another voice, this time the shrimper's captain, stated in good English that their intention was to come alongside and give Pipe Dream some bait shrimp.
Huxtable protested that statement in his next radio communication to the Coast Guard, which seemed to have difficulty hearing him. Huxtable said later that he could not see why a shrimper would pursue and attempt to stop a boat proceeding under full sail to give that boat bait shrimp.
The shrimper clearly had heard their radio call to the USCG, despite not responding to Huxtable's earlier calls about their intent.
The Coast Guard indicated they accepted the captain's statement and wanted to know whether anyone was hurt. At this point, the shrimper pulled away from Pipe Dream and headed south. Pipe Dream, heading north, continued toward Venice. The attack was over. So was the cruise.
Watch The `Scavengers'
Huxtable and Hoskins had stopped at Cabbage Key, where a fishing guide warned them about an area from Boca Grande to the Dry Tortugas to Key West, an area called Devil's Triangle by locals. There had been trouble, the guide said, with ``scavengers'' within the triangle.
``Don't be cautious,'' the guide said. ``Be prepared.''
Having sailed the area several times before, Huxtable discounted the warning then, but no more.
``Yeah, we were scared,'' he said.
Huxtable will sail the area again, but with another boat and a better antenna so radio calls can be heard more clearly.
Huxtable speculates the unsavory crew on the shrimper intended to take over his boat, then sell it and its equipment - or use it to run illegals or drugs into the United States. Sailboats rarely are bothered by the Coast Guard. In either event, the fate of Huxtable and his crewman is not difficult to imagine.
Piracy is not uncommon today, although Caribbean incidents mostly involve someone's stealing dinghies or outboards from cruisers, or boarding a yacht standing vacant at anchor. Confrontations between cruisers and pirates are uncommon.
Was the Pipe Dream incident piracy or a simple misunderstanding?
In Huxtable's mind, there is no doubt. On his next cruise through the Devil's Triangle, he will carry a high-powered rifle along with his shotgun.
This story can be found at:
http://sports.tbo.com/sports/MGA61ZPHHFD.html
