SAFETY & SECURITY WHILE CRUISING

What should you do?

Avoid the first list of countries (your insurance will generally exclude coverage there) and be cautious and educate yourself about ports or bays in the second list.

Most places in the world are safe and receptive to cruising sailors. Here are some exceptions:

1. Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, particularly the coast of Somalia
2. Venezuela, particularly the offshore coastal islands popular with cruisers
3. Columbia, even though many cruisers rave about Cartagena
4. Rio Dulce, Guatemala
5. Haiti

The following areas occasionally have safety and security incidents involving cruisers:

1. St. Lucia, particularly the area around Rodney Bay, finishing port of the ARC
2. Dominica
3. Granada
4. Trinidad
5. Puerto Rico
6. Ecuador, coastal mainland
7. Granada
8. PNG, Port Moresby and other urban areas

If you’d want to keep track of troubled areas, the following sites are invaluable:

1. www.noonsite.com  Noonsite’s Piracy page is updated frequently and covers the world.
2. www.safetyandsecuritynet.com  The Caribbean Safety and Security Net meets daily at 1215 UTC on 8104.0 and their website lists incidents involving yachts.
3. http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?  Latitude 38 magazine’s site is updated

Boat Security

1. Never leave any gear not in use lying on deck or in your dinghy. Secure hatches and ports when sleeping when in questionable areas.
2. Install a safe, ideally large enough for your laptop computer.
3. Make sure your boat is lockable from the inside.
4. Have small amount of cash and perhaps cheap watch to give aggressive intruders.
5. Always lock hatches and ports when leaving the vessel and leave lights and music on if going ashore in the evening.
6. Lock up all cameras, computers, wallets, jewelry when going ashore or at night.
7. Consider installing a motion alarm system.
8. ALWAYS lock your outboard to your dinghy and ALWAYS hoist your dinghy and motor out of the water on a bridle at night. Lock your dinghy when leaving it ashore.
9. Get to know your neighbors on boats anchored or moored near you.  

Personal Security

1. Do your homework utilizing the websites above, avoiding troubled areas.
2. Be modest in your appearance at all times, on deck and ashore. Leave fancy jewelry at home.
3. Women should be very cautious about running or shopping in public markets alone.
4. Don’t even consider purchasing firearms, but do purchase pepper spray. Bear spray sold in sporting goods stores is industrial sized, longer spray range version of pepper spray.
5. Use a taxi for provisioning in “iffy” areas having the driver wait or accompany you shopping.

Keep the security issue in perspective. In 35 years of cruising we have had one dinghy oar and a pair of thongs “borrowed”. We have consciously decided to avoid or skip countries and regions where we know problems exist.