The cable did its job
Remember how I recently wrote about our friends having their dinghy stolen? Well apparently, while attending the Jump Up street party in Gros Islet on Friday evening, some poor soul confused our dinghy for theirs and invested a considerable amount of effort trying to hack his way through the cable which was locking it to the dock because he didn’t have the key. Bastard! As you can see, the cable did its job though and the dinghy is still in our possession. Sadly, the thieves did walk away with our snazzy and expensive dinghy light which we had tucked out of sight in the bottom of the dink. Oh well. 🙁
This was not our first experience with the Jump Up in Gros Islet but unlike our initial trip there, we left our dinghy in, what was in hindsight, a more questionable location at the end of the town dock (as opposed to inside the marina complex). I guess we won’t make that mistake again. The party was awesome and we had a great time there with our friends George and Nico off s/v Earthling. The dinghy issue was a bit of a bummer but fortunately we didn’t realize what had occurred (or what was occurring) until George went looking for us down by the dock. We think that we may have actually interrupted the thieves in the act because the dinghy had been dragged under the large dock, even though I had put a stern anchor out to hold it in place. Perhaps they were using the dock as concealment while they worked on cutting the cable?
Now that that particular cable has been trashed we need to acquire a replacement. Cable or chain, that is the current decision to be made. The owners of dinghies we see locked up seem to be split evenly on this subject. We have some spare 5/16″ chain that we could use in the meantime but I’m pretty partial to the cable, especially considering how it protected our expensive transport from being spirited away. Maybe we should get really paranoid and use both!
On the lighter side, here is a quick clip that I filmed of Rebecca enjoying the underwater portion of our Reality Cruising Adventure. There’s fun for the whole family so book your tickets now. 🙂
Wow, looks like they were using a hatchet and not a hacksaw to try to cut that cable, lucky for you. I would vote for plastic covered stainless steel chain, pretty hard to cut without a torch. I guess there is value in an old engineless wooden tender that nobody would want to steal.
That is how our friends feel about their dinghy!
We’d switched from cable (it rusted between the end and the cable) to chain. Our ‘weakest link’ turned out to be the LOCK, which the thieves SMASHED, thereby stealing our dinghy. We now own the mother of all locks……we shall see! Regards, Sharon aboard Finally Fun
Good job. I also think the lock is often the “weakest link.” A word of caution… keep it well lubricated. Once those high security locks seize up, you are screwed (so says the voice of experience as we still have a lock like that “permanently” affixed to the dinghy).
Great party pics!
Did you not have an outboard motor?
It’s good you have publicised this incident. We have been to Saint Lucia a few times and like it a lot but have personally experienced a few uncomfortable situations and have heard about far worse from others. It’s definitely an island where you need to be careful.
Jane x
Yes, we had an outboard, Jane. Why do you ask?
As for St. Lucia and security, I don’t think it’s much different than any of the other Leeward and Windward islands. There are good and bad people everywhere. I know of two thefts from St. Martin in the last couple of weeks and our friend just commented on Facebook that thefts in the BVIs are far too common as of late. In spite of this incident, we feel quite safe here.
We are getting ready to haul out ‘DreamCatcher’ for a bottom job. The first since we bought her in San Deigo. From the video it looked like there werr white areas on the hulls of ZTC. Was it barnacles or did the paint wear off? We have not decided if we will support her on her keels or with jack stands under the bridgedeck. Any suggestions from fellow PDQ32ers.
The white spots are where the paint has worn off (it has been 3 years since she was painted). When we had her out of the water for the winter she was resting on her keels on wooden planks which were run across several railway ties. I don’t see any problem with that even though the manual does indicate an alternate method.
Outboard is attached on the stbd aft mounting as shown in the photos from the Martinique to St. Lucia sail. Hope it didn’t fall off!!
I don’t understand, John. Why would you say that?
Mike…
I’ve read the prior postings. Recall viewing the rig you have for moving the ob to/from the dink. All that looks very good as usual. But Mike wrote: “Yes, we had an outboard, Jane.” and Mike teased why the questions. And now Mike wonders why I would also inquire about the ob status?
HAD is past tense! Thus my concern.
I fear that there is another story that Mike is teasing? Personally, I hope that the story is not what we may fear.
But it keeps us looking forward to the daily update! ;:<)
And Mike's next posting?
Hi John. No, no other story. Just a misunderstanding based on the words I used. We HAVE our outboard. It is currently nice and secure on the transom of our dinghy (locked there I might add).
Sigh…
So glad to hear all is safe and secure on ZTC
Thanks John. Us too.