The Neat Thief

       Mayreau’s Saline Bay has been a favorite anchorage of ours in the Grenadine Islands.  It is wide, free of reefs and pesky submerged boulders, and has a nice sandy bottom that offers good holding.  The beach is long and clean and the Mayreau’s locals are some of the most pleasant we’ve met.  The only boat vendors are fisherman who’ve sold us lobsters or fish at a fair price.

       Sadly, we said “Good-bye” to lovely Saline Bay this morning and may never return again because yesterday evening we were robbed.  We had gone ashore after dark around 6:15pm and walked up the steep hill toward the first restaurant we found for dinner. Little did we know that while we were admiring the view of lights in the bay below and savoring a fine meal of fresh red snapper, a stealthy swimmer was making his way out to Exit Strategy. 
       When we returned to our boat around 8:00pm nothing looked amiss.  Dan unlocked the companionway door and we went below.  One of his cotton shirts was on the floor in the salon and I wondered why it was there as he stepped over it.  Then we went into our cabin and Dan noticed that the floor was wet.  His first thought was that something went very wrong with the water maker that is housed under our bunk. He began to move his pillow aside to access the water maker and the pillow was damp, too.  We both looked around our cabin.  It appeared to be pretty much the way we had left it except for a few minor details.  Our cruising document binder that holds our passports and check book was askew on the shelf and upon inspection we could tell it had been rifled through, but nothing was missing. The lockers were closed, but when Dan opened the one where his wallet is kept, its contents were disheveled and the wallet was empty of cash. Everything was still in my purse including all credit and debit cards, but the EC notes were gone.

        Back in the salon, Dan picked up his damp shirt from the floor. We couldn’t figure out how the intruder got in because we always close and lock everything before we leave.  But the floor was still a little wet and it was then that we realized that the thief must have gotten in by climbing down through the hatch above the settee. Apparently, we had not locked that hatch.
       It was puzzling, though, why the thief took care in using Dan’s shirt to mop up the sea water from the floor. And why was everything left relatively neatly in its place?  We have heard of other robberies in which everything was ransacked and tossed about.  Guess we just got lucky.
   
      We are grateful that our loss was minimal (less than 100 EC), as our two tablets, two laptops, and all electronics were out in full view and untouched.  We are also relieved that we were not on the boat at the time because a confrontation would have been traumatic.  In retrospect, although we routinely both check if everything is secured before we go ashore, we will certainly double check that everything is LOCKED from now on.