In the dark of the night
08 August 2008 | Bahia Pinas, Panama
Benno

Marlene's whisper in my ear: "There is someone on deck" worked like an alarm bell and I was instantly awake. The aft cabin hatch is in the center of the deck covered by the 9 ft Caribe dinghy on stands and above our queen size bed. The hatch was open for a clearance of 8 inches and touching the keel of the dinghy. From above, the hatch (2x2 ft size) is hardly visible in the dark and mostly covered by the dinghy. From the inside of the aft cabin I looked through the gap of the hatch and saw two legs on two feet and a thought crossed my mind. What the heck is this guy trying to steal? The gap was big enough to get my arm through and I could have grabbed a leg. But a better thought came to me. The cattle prod. I fetched this cattle prod and quietly stuck it through the hatch. Pressed the button and hit home. For about a second and a half nothing happened. But then everything happened. Some sounds and bad noises. I released the button and we heard a big splash. Somebody was retreating. It was quiet again and the only sounds came from the howler monkeys in the jungle. We went out onto the aft deck to investigate. All clear. Our visitor was gone and probably thinking this gringo boat is evil, but then we noticed the smell. I looked down and shit, I was standing right in the truce of the word. Our visitor had dropped a load. My medical knowledge is limited, but the cattle prod must have triggered a muscle relaxation at the nightly unwanted guest. Was I ever glad to have a 25ft water hose connected to a deck outlet to clean my feet and the deck. We have no idea what this person was looking for, but all items in the dinghy were accounted for. The picture above shows the cattle prod, which pumps out 6000 Volt!