BajaNomad - Pirates near San Ignacio Lagoon...???

Pirates near San Ignacio Lagoon...???

Mexray - 4-16-2007 at 09:10 PM

...this from Lectronic' Latitude....Latitude 38's 'blog'...

http://www.latitude38.com/LectronicLat/2007/0407/Apr11/Apr11...

Surfergirl Shipwrecks
April 11 - San Ignacio, Mexico

Michael Carroll and Carolyn Bowman of the Samson 49 ferro ketch Surfergirl sent us the following disturbing report of their grounding and subsequent pirate attack.

"On March 10 at 2:30 a.m., Surfergirl, with 140,000 miles under her keel, hit a sandbar and is now beached approximately 10 miles north of Punta Santo Domingo at the southern end of San Ignacio Lagoon - and has been stripped by pirates! They held my mate and I prisoner for days, while they took all of our papers and everything they could remove from our home of nine years. We lost all our cash, bank cards, passports, sails, anchors, solar panels, gen sets, a 14-ft aluminum skiff, and much more.

"I hail from Port Townsend and worked as a shipwright at Catalina Boatyard in Avalon for six years, with trips to San Diego and Mexico aboard Surfergirl. This was to be a six month trip, with plans to return to Avalon to produce my board game, Crib Sail Racing through West Marine, which was invented and developed onboard Surfergirl.

"We are trying to re-float our home, but have exhausted our funds. The hull and motor are intact, and we have a promise from the fishing collective at San Juanico to tow us off with their big shrimp boat if we can pump out the sand and water. We need financial help to do this. We will provide a free game to anyone for a donation of $100 or more."

If you'd like to help out some cruisers in need, email Michael.

surfergirladventures@yahoo.com

- latitude / ld

...pretty nasty stuff, indeed, for these sailors to be attacked like this in their time of need...modern day looters of the worst kind!

I would hope that if some local approaches any of we Nomads there on the coast with some 'deals' on marine items, that they would refuse the 'deal' and be able to turn over any such information to some local 'authority', if possible.

[Edited on 4-17-2007 by Mexray]

4baja - 4-17-2007 at 06:31 AM

arg, a tough situation!

Tomas Tierra - 4-17-2007 at 08:11 AM

Is surfergirl on this board??? I would love to get more details..

Sounds like its near "delgadito"??

surfer jim - 4-17-2007 at 08:25 AM

Scam maybe?.....

Dave - 4-17-2007 at 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by surfer jim
Scam maybe?.....

Sumpthin don't sound right. :rolleyes:

David K - 4-17-2007 at 08:41 AM

Yup... my thoughts as well Jim & Dave...

[Edited on 4-17-2007 by David K]

bajajudy - 4-17-2007 at 10:01 AM

Maybe Shari knows something about this.

[Edited on 4-17-2007 by bajajudy]

vandenberg - 4-17-2007 at 12:19 PM

What's the matter with you cynics.?? :?:

Get a "free" game and still having doubts?? :?:

Shame on you all :spingrin:

shari - 4-17-2007 at 12:29 PM

I havent' heard about this at all which is strange...so why did we only hear about it a month later?? I'm gonna do some sluething...ask other cruisers about it.

Crusoe - 4-17-2007 at 02:13 PM

Yes.....Yes.....Yes..... Could very likely be a scam if it is the same Michael Carroll that use to be married to a real estate sales woman from Todos Santos and Cabo named Patrica Bourne and lived in El Pescadaro on and off for years.Very doubtful if he put 140k ocean miles on that vessel. Could have been the previous owners. Watch out for him..... as he has quite the reputation up and down the west coast.

Could be a scam? or just a sad situation.

pangamadness - 4-18-2007 at 04:31 PM

I did see the boat for several days in Mission Bay. I think they may have had some work done in the boat yard before heading south. The boat did not look in that good of shape and the owner did not have the ability to take care of the boat. I talked to the skipper and he said he worked in a boat yard in Catalina but was heading south for the winter.

I wonder if they just started taking on water and grounded the vessel before they sank. Then came the locals. I dont believe the part about the pirates. More like locals striping a boat abandon on the beach.

But it could all be true.

Sad situation.

Minnow - 4-18-2007 at 05:29 PM

I remember reading the same, or similar, story a few years back. The board game strikes a cord.

Bob and Susan - 4-19-2007 at 05:43 AM

i think it may be true...

Michael Carroll has been posting on "lat 38" since Dec 2001

the reference to money was probably a "toung in cheek" way to say "REALLY OUT OF MONEY" to his "friends" on the board
not to "everyone" that reads the internet

...kinda like here...
"yo" get to know people

and pirates....mexray...you'd make a GREAT pirate!!! :lol:

catalina island ...off los angeles...has "bucaneer days" every year
lots of "pirates" there during that time :lol:

woody with a view - 4-19-2007 at 06:14 AM

a friend was traveling to his home in san juanico a month or two? ago and said when they stopped in Datil to see friends there was a woman sleeping/unconscious and her companion was out with the locals trying to salvage what they could from their boat that had run aground.

related?

Capt. George - 4-19-2007 at 09:51 AM

anyone see Johnny Depp around?

Cypress - 4-19-2007 at 10:07 AM

Have taken an item or two off wrecked boats in the past. :no:

Thought of it as salvaging. :?:

Dave - 4-19-2007 at 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mexray
They held my mate and I prisoner for days, while they took all of our papers and everything they could remove from our home of nine years.

That a vessel ran aground and was ransacked is believable. Especially if it were left unguarded and fair game. The prisoner/hostage thing is a bit of a stretch.

[Edited on 4-19-2007 by Dave]

nobaddays - 4-19-2007 at 09:01 PM

Yea and the pirates are all hiding in Cabo !!!!!

bancoduo - 4-19-2007 at 09:08 PM

They pose as silver haired old ladies selling timeshares.

Lent him a friends divelight

pointsurfbaja - 4-25-2007 at 05:11 PM

This couple are definitely on hard times. I was in San Juanico(pacific) at the end of march for just a few days and Michael came and asked for some help. I gave him some t=shirts and stuff to repair a surfboard and borrowed a dive light from a friend so he would have light in the hold while he salvaged what he could. He has been working getting stuff out using a panga and a hooka. Last I saw him he had some glimmer of hope. His boat is off el Datil and he has a game plan. He asked to contact my bro. about the game and getting it produced overseas since my bro. already works over there. He said all the plans and drawings and rules for the game were on his computer that went down with the ship. He said a family member has an actual prototype that he made and that he'll be getting that back to reverse engineer it back into a production ready format.

surfer jim - 4-26-2007 at 07:11 AM

My $100 check is in the mail.....

bancoduo - 4-26-2007 at 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pointsurfbaja
This couple are definitely on hard times. I was in San Juanico(pacific) at the end of march for just a few days and Michael came and asked for some help. I gave him some t=shirts and stuff to repair a surfboard and borrowed a dive light from a friend so he would have light in the hold while he salvaged what he could. He has been working getting stuff out using a panga and a hooka. Last I saw him he had some glimmer of hope. His boat is off el Datil and he has a game plan. He asked to contact my bro. about the game and getting it produced overseas since my bro. already works over there. He said all the plans and drawings and rules for the game were on his computer that went down with the ship. He said a family member has an actual prototype that he made and that he'll be getting that back to reverse engineer it back into a production ready format.

coconaco - 4-26-2007 at 09:27 AM

maybe it was the black pearl coming in with the fog that got him.

game is the common thread-
sand bar and stripped or submerged in a hooka

something happened!

Could he be living his game and this is where the roll of the dice placed him.

surfer girl

islandmusicteach - 4-30-2007 at 03:38 PM

I ran into Michael and Carolanne in La Paz at the Yeneka Hotel during semana santa. I would perhaps have been a bit incredulous as well if it were not for the video footage that I watched with them of his attempted recovery operations using an ancient ab-diver hookah rig. Harrowing stuff. They have indeed been through the mill on this one and deserve some sympathy - shipwrecks do happen, and when it happens to you, you'll wish a kind hearted passerby wasn't so rare in this world...

bancoduo - 4-30-2007 at 05:09 PM

Video Footage? Hotel in La Paz?

Are they filming a documentary?

Arg! Here we go again. :cool:

woody with a view - 4-30-2007 at 05:13 PM

Video Footage? Hotel in La Paz?

Are they filming a documentary?

:lol:

coconaco - 5-1-2007 at 08:37 PM

I do hope they get afloat soon.

Were the pirates on the video between the ufo and sasquatch footage?

I think the pirates shipwrecked the sympathy in this thread.

mtgoat666 - 5-2-2007 at 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by coconaco
Were the pirates on the video between the ufo and sasquatch footage?

I think the pirates shipwrecked the sympathy in this thread.

Pirates do exist, and it appears you watched so much Johnny Depp and no longer understand the language. The word "pirate" basicly means bad-guy-traveling-by-boat-to-commit-crime. Y'all are very naive to think a stranded cruiser in remote Baja won't get robbbed by some bad guys passing by in a boat. And you are a real dumb bunny if you don't think bad guys have boats.

bancoduo - 5-2-2007 at 05:47 PM

They could be called looters, thieves, low life trash etc. "Pirates" sound a bit dramatic. All the makings of a novel.

Used to date a few dumb bunnies. :wow:

Bob and Susan - 5-2-2007 at 05:55 PM

banco is NOT a "dumb" bunny...

now another kind of animal....maybe :lol:

anyway he is entertaining

Crusoe - 5-2-2007 at 07:09 PM

Rumors from the "Nautical Grapevine Are ".....Ive heard Carolanne parents are richer than god. She has a substantial trust fund. She put up the money to purchase the boat for them. He was a yachtsalesman/scamartist with absolutely no offshore expierience. As the old saying goes ...You get what you pay for.... As for Pirates.......well lets here some more specific details of their --PIRATE ATTACK-- and how they suevived???

surfbcs - 5-4-2007 at 01:08 AM

So the true story is the guy fell asleep at anchor too close to the beach. he started by breaking rule #1 and has since dug an even deeper hole. you gotta feel sorry for the guy cause he did lose his boat. but if anything washes up unattended near datil you gotta expect the locals to go out and see what they can get. pirates i think not. datil is about as remote as you can get in baja these days and a big unattended boat on the beach is fair game. the guy spent so much energy blasting the locals for taking his gear that he used up all the good will that he WAS getting. he did get alot of his stuff taken off the boat back. supposedly it was a dangerous feat to get stuff off the boat so he should feel lucky. hostage. just because you didn't get a ride for a couple of days doesn't mean you were held hostage. especially when you do something so criminally stupid as falling asleep at the helm.

i also heard the guy was claiming broke asking everybody in sight for help and didn't really need financial help. KOOK. and then to start spreading rumors that could scare people. KOOK. baja ain't for you buddy go back to where you came from. you're lucky you're alive.