05.01.2018

We were anchored for the night in front of Mindelo Marina.

I have a Wharram Pahi 42 catamaran. The boat was open and the dinghy had been left in the water.

The hulls have separate hatches and the cockpit is in the middle of the boat with a separate entrance.

At midnight, I went up on deck to relieve myself and noticed that my anchor light was off. It can be switched on at the cockpit, so I made my way to the cockpit just as a young black man was coming out. I punched him in the face and he fell down. Then he stood up and I kicked him with my foot overboard.

The guy swam away to the old white wreck in front of Mindelo Marina. About 100m south of the Marina there are several sunken ferry (wrecks). The thieves live in a big half sunken white ferry. When the thief realized that we knew where they were, they left the wreck with a dinghy with electrical propulsion.

I was not hurt. The cockpit was open and the tablet that was in the cockpit was missing.

I think they had wanted to steal the dinghy and were looking in the cockpit for the key. The key was in my bed. In the dinghy, I found wet matches from a Bar in Mindelo and the cockpit and the dinghy were wet inside, so I know the thief swam to my boat.

The police were called by phone, but they did not speak English. We tried in Spanish – no. We tried in French, no french. We told them to call back, they did not.

We reported it to the Marina Office. They said it was not the first time.

Ralf Guentert

SY Fenua

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