Up Until Recently, I Thought Only the Gulf of Aden Could Become a Nightmare . . .

[OllYver]

Up until recently I thought only the Gulf of Aden could become a nightmare for a sailor. However as it’s turned out it’s no better than that on the Black Sea too. The problem there is that it’s not the pirates who are raging but the Georgian border control men who stop almost every vessel which goes near georgian territorial waters. And they absolutely don’t care that the vessel goes across the neutral waters without any trespassing.
Well, when we found ourselves in such conditions our skipper decided not to stop at first but the idiots started to fire shots at us! They even wounded one of the crew... Actually we were forced to make a stop. And you know what we were accused of? Of trespassing the banned waters of Abkhazia! Although we never came close to them at all!! However all the arguments and proofs of our old man never changed anything. The georgians offered us two options: either to pay a fee or they’d convoy us to one of their seaports. Skipper chose the first option. Well, indeed it’s better to lose some of the money than to mess the whole thing up.
But frankly speaking I believe, we were lucky... the dry cargo carrier my friend is on was detained twice and both times the “fees” were so great that the crew lost half of their salary!
Imho, this ought to be put an end to! Isn’t there any way to make Georgia stop the lawlessness?

[Don1500]

Complain to The Hague? (International Court)

[perchance]

Next time give the place a wider berth.

[capn_billl]

Technically as it was done by a government agency it is considered legal not piracy, but it is getting harder to tell the difference. Even in "civilized" countries, as governments become more corrupt and greedy.

[night0wl]

Report this to noonsite asap. That will get the word out to the broader cruiser community in general. Perhaps, a gov't agency will see it and reprimand these yahoos/renegades.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by capn_billl

Technically as it was done by a government agency it is considered legal not piracy, but it is getting harder to tell the difference. Even in "civilized" countries, as governments become more corrupt and greedy.

Why dya think so many are trying to shut down WikiLeaks...