We would like to inform you that we suffered a burglary aboard our Feeling 39 ‘Sterre’ in Bequia, Admiralty Bay, on 27th December 2012. The theft happened in the evening while we were out eating, between 7 and 10 PM. At first, we did not realize that the boat had been opened, we only realized that equivalent 600 USD was missing from a wallet stored near the chart table the day after while sailing south. After inspection, we saw that a deck hatch, a “Gebo” size medium, had been forced with probably steel bars (the aluminum framework, as well as the deck gel coat, have serious scratches, see pictures enclosed).

The boat was anchored off Tony Gibbons beach, and the place was quite crowded with boats at anchor at that time. A neighboring boat was intruded in the same way (however the Lewmar hatch locks were missing, they probably broke when forced), and the crew did not notice anything missing (they probably came back too early).

During our on-going sailing we heard from the other two catamarans which were also boarded in the same period in Admiralty Bay, however, the crew was on board sleeping when it happened. The theft focused mainly on portable electronics, but we did not have contact directly with the involved crews.

We reported the incident two weeks later when clearing out at the customs office (in December we had already left Bequia at the time we realized the theft), but somehow the staff on duty did not show surprise and said this is “not unusual”. Therefore we did not make the effort to report it formally.

Best regards

Maurice Leimgruber

SY Sterre, Switzerland

Caribbean Safety and Security Net have commented as follows:

I am sorry to say that this has been an ongoing problem in the anchorage off Tony Gibbons Beach also known as Princess Margaret Beach for some five or six years. The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines periodically puts patrols in the area but the patrols do not remain in place for long.  Most incidents are similar, that is, while the crews are ashore for dinner – few have been boarded at night while people are asleep on board.