Better stay out of the Caribbean. And a lot of other ports.



L.W.

Off Borneo and Indonesia are also great places to get disappeared.

What could go wrong?

Sad story.
Not the first time this has happened.
If long range sailing was my thing, I'd want some firepower with me.
And more than a just a pistol.

Prob ok sailing around here unarmed. Worst that will happen is some cormorant taking up residence. They should be shot anyway.

In Florida and the surrounding waters, you do NOT want to be unarmed.

I don’t go to the mailbox unarmed.

I don`t take a schit unarmed .

👆🏻This

I once read an account of a family with kids who were sailing to small Islands in the Caribbean, eating on the beach, and such. While they were sailing from one Island to another, a boat full of unsavory looking characters started following them, and watching them with binoculars, likely measuring them up as potential victims.

The man had a small wood shop below deck, and quickly fashioned out of 2x4 scraps several Glock 17 pistols, and spray painted them black. They then each tucked one in their pant waists and went up on top deck to pretend to be conducting business as usual, but making sure the other boat had an angle to see the "Glocks." The other boat took one look at them through their binoculars, raised anchor, and sped away.

LOL. Exactly. Some people make sheep of themselves.

How can any smart man not carry everywhere, 10 to 15 million 3rd world strangers running around, I always carried even bass fishing, gets heated on lakes with drunks, on the ocean, carry all you can hide.

NBN no matter where they are to be found.

This is why God invented stainless steel.

Remington strangely named a shotgun "Marine Magnum" many moons ago.

Had a friend retire. He and his wife sailed to Nassau. He was carrying a cheap Sccy 9. Somehow he got caught with it. To prove it was his, I had to fax from the shop a copy of the sales slip from when he bought it. I don't know if he got it back but they let him go.
Be careful how you carry.
I personally no longer travel out of the country. After years of personal and business travel there are few places I'd go now. Maybe back to Ireland, or Mississippi. LOL

Nothing like giving a pirate a flare gun colonoscopy in full view of his buddies to quickly spread the word which boat not to mess with. If he happens to be tied spread eagled to the mast upside down at the time, more's the better.

I wouldn’t go sailing arm to the teeth!

Unfortunately, entering the territorial waters of most of the island nations in the Caribbean, while armed is against their laws. A few allow guns, with restrictions. I sure as hell wouldn’t be unarmed is US waters or on the high seas but it can make getting fuel or supplies in a lot of places, very hard to do. If you say you have no weapons and they find something, you will be there for a long time. They can and will search your vessel. This is not a new problem.

I recall a shotgun that was marketed to boaters, and it was either a Remington or a Mossberg 500 variant. Or did they both offer something like that? Must be a niche market for boat guns.

Wife's brother cruised and spent quite a bit of time on his sailboat in the Gulf of CA. Said that if your were caught with "heat" on your boat you would be in deep Mexican s hit.

Unless things have changed, the Bahamas allows you to enter port and dock with a firearm that is declared and securely locked up aboard a boat

And it won't help the couple in question, but most fail to realize just how little violent crime occurs in most of the areas frequented by cruisers

Or so it was through the mid 1980s

We can decry the lack of a "constitution" in other parts of the world, but they really do tend to keep most of their worst locked away

I don’t mean to sound condescending but a lot of things have changed since the mid 80’s. One of the biggest changes in the Caribbean involves the drug trade and the characters involved in it. That stating getting bad in the early 80’s.

Been my boat gun for a long time.