We are in San Sebastian marina in La Gomera in the Canary Islands at the moment. Last Saturday (October 22nd) we had our dinghy stolen from our pontoon in the marina.

La Gomera has a fantastic reputation for safety and I have previously stayed in this marina for a year with no problems. Most boats don’t lock up and everyone leaves things on deck without worry of theft. The pontoons have card key locks on them and there is always a mariner on duty even at night.

We had popped over to Tenerife for a couple of days to see friends and had agreed with the marina office that we would leave our dinghy to hold our berth. When we returned on Saturday the 22nd of October at 9 pm the dinghy was gone. We asked around and it was seen early in the afternoon on Saturday.

Though access to the marina pontoons is possible from the surrounding walkway we feel it is very unlikely that a local would have taken it. Unfortunately, this suggests a fellow cruiser, which saddens us greatly as we consider most of them are good friends.

We have spoken to the police and the marina staff and both were very surprised and extremely helpful. We have also sent a poster out to all the marinas in the area with a request to place it on their notice boards.

The dinghy was a Lodestar NSA inflatable with an inflatable floor and keel and though a few years old was in fantastic condition. We had the following words written in marker (easy to remove though) on the inside of the transom:

TT BORNE

Melandnick.com

Corsano

If there is a lesson to be learnt then it is that even in the safest and most relaxed of environments, there will sometimes be bad people. We will try not to let this experience affect us too much and we don’t want to have to be paranoid – but we will lock up our dinghy in the future.

Nick

SY Borne

www.melandnick.com