Talk:Puerto la Cruz

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Wednesday, Dec 14, 2005

B.C. surgeon recounts tale of pirate boarding

VANCOUVER (CP) - An orthopedic surgeon from Trail, B.C., feared he and his travelling companions would be murdered by five armed pirates who boarded their boat off the coast of Venezuela last month.

Steve McVicar, who is now back in Trail, had begun a sailing adventure with his two companions - another doctor and his wife - when they were approached while on board McVicar's sailboat. "We were out the first night in my boat and sitting there around 7 p.m. when five armed men came on board," McVicar said in a telephone interview from Trail on Wednesday.

They pointed guns at the trio, robbed them and molested the woman.

They feared for their lives.

"For about an hour you're not sure if they're going to execute us or not."

He said one of the pirates had a sawed-off shotgun. Two others had pistols, another wielded a "big machete" and another carried a knife.

The robbers, who spoke some sort of Spanish dialect, said McVicar, tied the trio up hand and foot.

"What was kind of hard was that we couldn't talk to them and say, 'Don't hurt us. Take whatever you want.' "

The other doctor and his wife were originally from South Africa but now reside in Comox on Vancouver Island.

After the robbery, he said the pirates took the woman below, molested her and took her clothes off.

After the pirates left, the trio managed to free themselves and contacted a French yacht nearby.

They then returned to Puerto la Cruz where his sailboat is again moored.

He now plans to return in the spring and relocate the $200,000 craft to Bonaire, a small island in the southern Caribbean.

"It's very safe there. It's Dutch."

McVicar said he has no hope of the police finding the pirates or the stolen items that included a satellite phone, VHF radio, sailing clothing and other electronic instruments.

The thieves also made off with about $8,000 US in cash and another $1,000 US in Venezuelan currency.

"I went to the police and they said there's not much they can do. There are a lot of bandits and thieves.

"They told me they get three to five murders a day in Puerto la Cruz."

His house insurance, he said, will cover about 40 per cent of his losses.

The near tragic adventure has prompted him to offer some advice to other Canadians.

"If I was Canadian I would stay away from Venezuela," he said. "I've been going down there for a couple of years. The cruising is great but you have to cruise with a gun and what is the point of that?

"It's too dangerous a country."

© The Canadian Press, 2005