See a report of this attack in French at Orange Caraibe.[Broken Link]

The last week of June/first week of July 2010, Mike Harker (a circumnavigator), suffered a serious and brutal attack while asleep on his yacht, ‘WanderLust 3’.

He was anchored in the St. Martin Lagoon below the Mt. Fortune (“Witches Tit”) as the nearest boat to the channel along the French / Dutch border. There were no other boats to his South, West or North. Two moored boats next to him to the NE were empty. His closest liveaboards were 2 and 3 boats over to the NE.

At about 4 am two large men swum out and boarded his boat, dragged him from his bunk, and assaulted him so severely that he became unconscious. They then tied him up and ransacked the boat, and using his dinghy, escaped with all the valuables and electronics they could find.

In spite of having ripped out the microphone from the fixed VHF set, Mike was able to use the cockpit mike to make a Mayday call and using an air horn, attract the attention of neighboring boats. The two liveaboards nearby each responded to his “Danger” air-horn (5 short blasts). The police and medical help arrived very quickly and Mike was taken to hospital in St. Martin with severe facial injuries and a cracked rib.

His dinghy was found very soon after about 3 miles away.