St Lucia murder

[elhix]

British Man Murdered In St Lucia Attack

[Doodles]

A little more here …

Husband gunned down as he defends his wife from yacht robbers in St Lucia: Couple attacked during year-long sailing trip to celebrate her 60th birthday | Mail Online

[yeloya]

Very sad..

If the local governments don't do anyting to stop the crime, St Lucia and St Vincent will be out of the list for many cruisers..

Yeloya

[HappyMdRSailor]

So unnecessary..... I'll never understand .... I know why... I will never understand though....

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by yeloya

Very sad..

If the local governments don't do anyting to stop the crime, St Lucia and St Vincent will be out of the list for many cruisers..

Yeloya

Maybe its time they move the ARC to another island...
St Lucia seems to have become a regular trouble spot... that would cut down on at least 500-700 boats a year.. and the attendant revenue the event brings..
Pretty sure a lot of other islands would appreciate the revenue and prestige/publicity..
My sincere condolences to family and friends.

[MarkJ]

The two articles are ridiculously different.

What a terrible story. The worst thing is it will just enthuse more people to bring guns on their cruise.

I hope we get the real details quickly so we can work out if theres a way we can avoid similar.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by yeloya

Very sad..

If the local governments don't do anyting to stop the crime, St Lucia and St Vincent will be out of the list for many cruisers..

Yeloya

According to the article, the police killed one of the men and arrested the other two. It is difficult to stop a crime before it happens, but at least they didn't ignore it.

St. Lucia has been mega trouble for several years now. When we were there 3 years ago, the cruise ships had pulled it from their routes due to the violent crime. A drug dispute resulted in a local guy being shot and killed in a beach bar right in front of our boat.

I'm not sure I understand how this relates to St. Vincent at all, other than that country is also a trouble spot to be mostly avoided.

Mark

[slosail]

What a terrible story. The worst thing is it will just enthuse more people to bring guns on their cruise.

No, MarkJ, that's not the worst thing. The worst thing is that a man is dead.

[pablothesailor]

What a terrible thing to happen to a lovely couple enoying living the dream, I found a blog that they have set up and spent this evening reading through the wonderful adventures they have experienced, this is the final entry posted 17th January........It was interesting to read on thier entry for new years eve that they felt uncomfortable with the atmosphere around them, rip Roger! Magnetic Attraction - A one-horse town

[JPA Cate]

...And what of his widow? Out of her milieu, with the boat? Has she the skills to continue or take it back home?......

May he rest in peace, and she find her way along a difficult path which is before her.

Ann

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Maybe its time they move the ARC to another island...
St Lucia seems to have become a regular trouble spot... that would cut down on at least 500-700 boats a year.. and the attendant revenue the event brings..
Pretty sure a lot of other islands would appreciate the revenue and prestige/publicity..
My sincere condolences to family and friends.

@ 250 did the Atlantic crossing this year and 49 just left for the world Arc, and most of that action is in Rodney Bay, but I suppose everyone makes a visit to the pitons. Sort of surprised they would be in Vieux Fort unless they were meeting someone at the airport.

St. Lucia is a place of real contrasts...lots of tourist dollars on the one hand and pretty extensive poverty on the other. A drive through the interior shows a much different island than what you see in the pretty harbors. There's been a lot of development there in the last 10 years which is always a recipe for upheaval. I'm sure the local government is keenly aware of the threat that crime presents to continued tourist dollars, which are the mainstay of the economy.

All that said, a terrible tragedy and a sad story.

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by Suijin

Sort of surprised they would be in Vieux Fort....

They wanted to check out of Soufriere, but couldn't...

Blog entry from 1/17/2014:

Magnetic Attraction - A one-horse town

17 January 2014 – at anchor, Vieux Fort
13:43N
60:57.3W
On Thursday morning the plan was to clear out from Soufriere, then to travel south and use up the 72 hours before we had to be away. But bureaucracy intervened. HM Customs and Excise (sic) in Soufriere told us that exit had to happen within 24 hours of clearing out; and that anyway, we couldn’t clear out of Soufriere that day because the Immigration Officer hadn’t come to work(!!)
So here we are in Vieux Fort, the most southerly port of clearance in St Lucia. It’s very different. There’s a port; an airport and no tourists– and so it’s a regular town. Here is its one horse, grazing peacefully on the shore. (There was also common land with goats and of course the inevitable roosters everywhere.)

It’s determinedly normal. It has a lot of churches: I counted 7 and is different from the Catholic north. It seemed more wealthy, and of course isn’t reliant on tourist bucks. I commented to Roger that it was the sort of town where you could buy underwear – and then saw a shop featuring just that! Here is Clark St, the main street, with modern buildings cheek-by-jowl with wooden houses.

We went ashore in the fishing dock this morning and explored the options for clearing out. If we don’t want to clear out at the airport over the weekend, we have to wait til Monday, at the commercial port. It’s a good anchorage, although every so often a big gust tears down the hills and buffets the boat. There’s no swell to speak of.
Roger trod on some glass some days ago – maybe 10? – and has continued to worry that a bit of glass has remained embedded. It was time to visit a doctor. The lady at HM Customs and Excise recommended us to go the doctor upstairs in the Plaza.

Dr Adesanye saw Roger almost at once and promptly referred him for an Xray (to assist the planned excavation.) So off we trotted round the corner past the district police HQ and the Uptown Liquor Store (“Everyone knows where that is”) to the Xray and Ultrasound centre. Immediately the young ladies got back from lunch the pictures were taken. There is a foreign body, close to the joint. We have to go back to pick up the pictures tomorrow morning; and Dr A will perform the extraction at 12 noon. The costs were $80EC for the Doctor; and $140 for the Xray. Divide by 4… good value in £ terms.
By this time it was 3pm. We had a highly calorific lunch at Shareen’s in the Plaza – fast-food Caribbean style. Wait for this… double macaroni cheese; potato salad and egg salad for Roger and a piece of chicken for me, With two beers, $23.92. Was it stodgy! I couldn’t finish and we’ve just had a bowl of soup for supper!
So we’ll be here over the weekend; clear out on Monday, and leave on Tuesday. Maybe I’ll be able to get some magazines at the airport!

[Wolfy]

MOST RECENT REPORTS | Caribbean Safety and Security Net

The southern Caribbean is not secure....period.
If you can't relax and enjoy the life that you have worked so hard for and saved up for....why bother visiting the islands that have a history of violence against fellow Cruisers.
Sail on by and relax, life is far more precious than being able to view a couple of Pitons and a few extra Palm Trees.
Since I have been made aware of the Piracy off the Venezuelan coast and the host of other crimes throughout the southern Caribbean, I certainly have changed my original Plans....I wanted to sail the Caribbean before I headed through the Canal and into the Pacific....now, I'm headed straight to the Canal and west bound.
Maybe by the time I come around again things may have quieted down.

Guns?? Someone mentioned a possible increase in Gun ownership amongst Cruisers??
What's the point? you have to declare them and hand them over anyway!

I really feel sorry the Lady that lost her Husband, what a sad event after spending life together to have your other half taken in such a pointless and violent manner.

[Pelagic]

So Sad.
When you read their last blog entry, there is no sense of unease or warning signs that they were in danger. Town seemed normal, god fearing and more affluent than the North.

Fate or simply bad luck put them in contact with the worst of the worst.

[David_Old_Jersey]

BBC News - St Lucia: Warwickshire man Roger Pratt murdered