January 2012

January/2012

Somewhere along the banks of the Chagres below the dam that adjusts the level of Lake Gatun they beat Billy up. Laying at anchor for two months trying to escape the day to day routine of Portobello and find a respite from the same bars, same faces and same unchanging tide of cruisers passing through. Two men in a motorless dinghy were the perpetrators. We got the news from the crew of Malarkey as they passed through Shelter Bay on their transit to the Pacific. It was the latest in a series of crime the cruisers community had witnessed over the last couple of years including two unrelated murder sprees. The first was a twisted Appalachian recidivist known as Wild Bill who allegedly along with his wife went on a murdering spree killing an entire family along with several individuals for their money and identities. The second was a Spanish national who had integrated himself into the small fleet of boats engaged in the business of carrying backpackers from Panama to Colombia via the San Blas. Javier Martin first ran his boat up on the reefs at Chichime and then befriended a solo cruiser Don North before allegedly murdering him for his boat and identity, then allegedly a French catamaran skipper in Portobello wrapping his body in anchor chain and dumping it in the bay and after emptying their bank accounts ran off when people started to ask questions. He was finally caught down in a village in the Darien Gap. The hillbilly reprobate Wild Bill was picked up in Nicaragua after a massive manhunt. In Billy’s case no such luck. Even when requesting help from his own government he ran into road blocks because the Panamanian officials would not issue a crime report because of a lack of translators. In any case by the time we met up with him again he was shaken but not stirred and was adamant that he left himself open to it by staying in one isolated spot too long. Our observation is that with the proper precautions you can remain as safe as in any large urban centre. Panama still feels much safer than parts of the Eastern Caribbean and a virtual paradise compared to Venezuela. Seven years off and on into our odyssey you develop your own responses and guards against real and perceived threats. Two decades of inner city living, primarily on the front lines of retail storefronts prepare you to be able to improvise. But then again you can never prepare for all contingencies and count on a certain amount of dumb luck. Billy was boarded while he slept, jumped from a sound sleep, tied up and robbed. The take included of all of his navigation electronics, computer, money and outboard. Of course a beating was inflicted as well. After a time he managed to untie himself and row to the dam where the coastal highway runs. The local police didn't even bother to feign interest. Thanks to his sense of humour he was over it and moving on. Don North’s killer is still awaiting trial along with Wild Bill who according to news reports was trying his same manipulations of the justice system from his cell. Two links of interest for the crimes are http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7397570n&tag=contentMain;contentBody http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417860n&tag=segementExtraScroller;housing http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/panama-property-killings/story?id=11374933#.UFhufLKPU-c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBnGiUDKRqo