Sailors are a trusting lot.  Want a life jacket? Just borrow one from your neighbor’s boat.  Need a tool? There are many foot lockers without a padlock among the dry slips.  So, it was no shocker that we came to  suspect someone was sneaking into slip F10 and wheeling the M16 to the lifts for a clandestine splash.

But every sailor has limits.  I bet you have yours, too.

For me it was the idea that our prize training sailboat was being hornswoggled by some shifty first mate.  Which is why we installed a hidden security camera in the head of the mainsail.  Activation would begin when the bilgeboards went down.   I won’t belabor it…here are the goods, if you will:  Pictorial proof that we have not one, but two boat jackers in our midst!

Note that sheepish look up the mast by the skipper.  The lad looks to be a distant cousin of Huckleberry Finn. He must have sensed that someone was looking down on his misdeed.  Perhaps a Coast Guard helicopter had just buzzed them to signal they were too close to a federal installation.

Or maybe, this ne’erdowell was gleeful.  Matters not.  Because in this next photo you will see that his crew is  wise to the security apparatus…spotted the lens and began to panic.  Perhaps you remember the first time you were caught with your hand in the cookie jar.   This is the nautical equivalent.  Only on a boat, the authorities are much more creative about punishment.  If the scow had a keel…we might keel haul these miscreants.   Maybe we will settle for sanding the bilgeboards….they could use a good finish.

 

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