Pirates, Honduras and Nicaragua

[svlamorocha]

Regarding the piracy thread that was recently closed I believe it may be helpful to point out that:

a) The position described is only 13 miles away from one of the Miskitos cays (Nicaragua) and 48 miles away from the Nicaraguan mainland. Depending on how Nicaragua draws their baseline for territorial waters now, this place is at least in teh Nicaraguan EEZ and may still be included inside their territorial waters even after they reduced the width of territorial waters form 200 miles to 12 miles a few years ago.

b) Depth at that position is only 20 meters. The combination of illegal Honduran lobster fishermen (which are said to be heavily armed) and FARC drug-trafficking guerrillas makes this "the wrong place to be" in a sailing boat.

And yes, lobster fishermen could have a reason to chase you if you snag their equipment with your keel or your trolling line.

My learning from this is that if we are going to be sailing within 200 miles of any land it pays to read a bit before pulling the guns out.

Originally Posted by natraps116
Why do fisherman follow you for miles even after being shooed away? And why did they leave after we called out a pan pan distress call? Odd indeed.

I guess when this episode comes out on my channel people will have to judge for themselves. Good old gopros in the cockpit recording everything..

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Originally Posted by natraps116

14,24.754 N' -82,20.906 W After looking at the map in hindsight it appears it might be nicaraguanwater. I am not sure though
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[svlamorocha]

Now that Colombia´s Navy is not patrolling West of San Andres it is much safer for cruisers to avoid sailing between San Andres and Nicaragua and sail East fo San Andres instead.


UN Ruling on Colombia-Nicaragua Maritime Border: Good News for Drug Traffickers?

[belizesailor]

Good info. My experiences with Colombian authorities have been positive and they seem to be genuinely interested in keeping their waters safe for visitors. So, good strategy to stick to Colombian territory.

Re Honduran fishermen. Lets not denigrate the good guys. Ive only had G-R-E-A-T experiences with them. They may indeed be heavily armed because of the waters in which they work, but good guys in my experience. They do well during the season and don't financially need to harass cruisers. They are much more likely to buy you a beer or give you some lobster. I know some who not only have several big fishing boats (some of the best maintained fishing boats Ive seen anywhere), but nice homes etc ashore too. Anyone causing trouble who looks like a Honduran fisherman is not likely really a fisherman.

[model 10]

What you say is true for just about all fishermen. To bad it's impossible to tell who is who.
The Mosquitia is attractive to the US military as they have been invited to help set up a base there. The US gets access to south and central america and Honduras gets a military base. From there they can fight the drug trade if they want or have a war with Nicaragua...
There is a US presence in Honduras now. It's located at an airbase inland. Again it's about drugs for the most part. They do have a few aircraft. I wonder if they have the ability to respond to a pan pan or mayday along the north coast?

[svlamorocha]

Originally Posted by Guy

What you say is true for just about all fishermen. To bad it's impossible to tell who is who.
The Mosquitia is attractive to the US military as they have been invited to help set up a base there. The US gets access to south and central america and Honduras gets a military base. From there they can fight the drug trade if they want or have a war with Nicaragua...
There is a US presence in Honduras now. It's located at an airbase inland. Again it's about drugs for the most part. They do have a few aircraft. I wonder if they have the ability to respond to a pan pan or mayday along the north coast?

I think you are referring to the coast of Honduras. The Miskito name applies to both Nicaragua an Honduras but the political sitation is quite different. . The USCG incident happened in Nicaraguan (not Honduran) contigus waters. I bet the USCG cutter was loitering just outside the Nicaraguan 12 miles.