We were boarded
offshore in the middles of the
Gulf of Mexico. It was right at dawn and the
wind was dying. I was on watch and saw them coming, every time I change from a
collision course they corrected to collide. I called em to see how I could help them navigate
they identified themselves and said prepare to be boarded. After a series of questions, my
captain reported he had weapons aboard, which was news to me! He was instructed to take apart the weapon and leave down below, while all crew stayed on
deck. The ship came along side, a big 400footer with dome like cannons. It was a huge ship to be so close down
wind of me, and I had a hard time making
head way in the falling winds. Anyways, a 15ft boarding boat came from the stern and started towards us. We were all in the
cockpit, me( still at the helm), my boyfriend, and the
captain. As the boarding boat got near my captain jumped down below. He had forgotten to take the gun apart. Well, as you can imagine they didn't take to kindly to that. The boarding boat swerved away and held position off our quarter, the captain of the ship, started yelling at us over the
radio, getting quite excited. Not to mention the 300+ serviceman and
women looking at us from the deck of the ship
. I implored my captain to get back on deck while my boyfriend just sat there dead still, I think he thought we were going to get blown out if the
water. My captain answered the
radio explaining he forgot to dismantle his weapon. After my captain came back on deck, the boarding party, which now doubled, came along side. If I remember correctly there were at least 12-14 of them, 8 came aboard. We were a 27ft sailboat ( island packet), so 4 sat in the
cockpit while the rest scattered around deck and below.
Even after my captain pulling that stunt, the coasties were polite and patient. They did however search the vessel from stem to stern, not a inch overlooked. While they searched, I put on the charm. We were low on
water ( long story) and could use some
diesel. Within an hour we mooched 20 gallons of water, 10 of
diesel, and they were sweet enough to throw in a surprise, a fresh, hot-out-of-the-oven loaf of bread ( fresh bread offshore!!). After a couple hours we were on our way, folks waving at us from the deck( lots of binox looking down at us too).
Be cool, they are just trying to do their job. This is what the ship looked like, i think it was
navy with coasties aboard, the ship was on it last maneuver before being
sold to
Greece.
Egads, sorry for the long post.