Osprey - 11-22-2007 at 08:17 AM
Death by Bling
By 2010 the crime thing in northern Baja California was wide open with kidnappings, killings, muggings, carjackings, such every day occurrences they
no longer made the news. You never know what the news services will pick up, pass along but I remember the cruise ship thing that made a huge impact
and started to turn things around down there.
Bear with me because it was ages ago but I do remember most of what went down. Don’t remember the cruise line name but it was a big ship cruising
from San Pedro to La Paz and back, down the Pacific coast of the Baja California peninsula.
The story that got all the attention was about the cruise ship and the pirates. Somewhere south of Turtle Bay the cruiser came upon three small
pangas adrift in their path – aboard were ten Mexican fishermen waving pistols and rifles. The little boats came alongside the big ship, shouted to
the deck that they were pirates and that they were demanding the passengers give up all their jewelry, lower it to the boats and nobody would be
harmed or killed.
The strange little flotilla bobbed and waited for well over an hour until finally huge cargo bags were lowered from davits to the decks of the small
boats. By now the wind had come up, the small boats were having trouble staying beneath the davits, fending their tiny craft off the huge hulk; they
managed to onload their weighty booty and began to motor away. The awkward combination of swells, chop and ballast brought too much water into the
small craft and one by one they overturned.
Messages had been sent to the Mexican Coast Guard and the Mexican Navy who, after logging the position of the event, instructed the cruise ship to
steer clear, make way for their next regular port of entry.
Three of the ten men succumbed to the raging sea. The others told about hatching the plan. Originally they planned to demand money but some argued
that the passengers only had credit cards. Some then said they should demand money from the ship – it was then suggested the ships have only bank
checks (for the mooring fees) and credit card machines for the passenger’s cards. Finally, jewelry got all ten votes.
The almost bigger news was several of the news services gave the GPS coordinates of the event and for months afterward Mexican maritime authorities
were kept busy 24/7 defusing skirmishes between scores of diveboats from all over the Pacific West Coast.
Insurance company denials and accompanying lawsuits took center stage in Southern California – some actions are still pending.