Sunday. Things went sour. It started after breakfast when Tom couldn’t find his iPad.
We all started looking, and all too quickly realized that Don’s brand new Mac Air computer was missing from it's charging spot in the empty aft cabin, my brand new iPhone was missing from the ledge in our cabin, and, in addition to his missing iPad, Tom’s wallet had been emptied of about $350. Don’s knapsack was also gone, presumably to cart off the haul!
I cannot tell you how upsetting this was. Bette Lee felt her home had been violated, I felt MY islands had let me down, and all of us were worried about the vulnerability of our personal data the devices contained. This on top of the loss itself. Did I mention that Don’s computer and my phone were less than a month old?
We immediately started reconstructing events. Since Don and I had looked at his Go Pro videos of Foxy on his computer shortly before we left Great Harbor Saturday morning, we knew we had it aboard then. So the theft had to have taken place during the 24 hours we’d been in our anchorage at Little Jost Van Dyke. The only time the boat was vulnerable was when were aboard and sleeping with the aft doors open for ventilation or during the single hour that Tom came to visit aboard Copper Penny and left the boat unlocked and we had gone below from Copper Penny’s aerie lookout! The only other evidence was a big dirty boot print on the starboard sugar scoop which is not where we crew typically come and go. And barefoot sailors certainly don’t leave dirty shoe prints.
In all the years Don and I lived in the BVI, nothing was ever stolen from our boat. Gord and Ginny were equally shocked, their big boat had also been open all night, though nothing appeared missing. Yes, there are incidences of dinghy theft in the islands, and occasional theft from boats in marinas, but a theft at anchor was unheard of.
The irony and unfairness of it in particular is that Tom and Bette are scrupulous about closing up and locking the boat. How is it that such a thing could happen in the one hour in the whole voyage that it was left open?
Or did they come aboard while we were sleeping? Now there’s a creepy thought! You might think this impossible, but we had been partying a wee bit and the fans over our bunks do make a steady white noise that might camouflage a boarding.
Gord and Ginny had a local phone we were able to use to call the police, and for them to call us back. Copper Penny also had wifi they could direct toward Quantum Leap so all of us were able to get online to change passwords on bank accounts and credit cards and remotely lock the stolen lock devices.
Thank goodness for Apple. And thank goodness for the fact that the thief did not get my iPad (so I could remotely lock my phone), Don’s phone (so he could remotely lock his computer,) or Bette’s iPhone (so she could remotely lock Tom’s iPad.). The one “if only” I keep kicking myself in the butt about was that my iPhone had been on until that morning, even though I couldn’t use it, and I let Don talk me into shutting it down. If it had been on, perhaps we might have been able to use the Find-my-Device feature and locate the whole lot. But we might not have been able to anyway. The phone is Verizon CDMA which doesn’t work in the BVI, and the devices need to connect to the Internet to receive the Lock-my-Device command.
The other ray of sunshine in this gloomy morning was the things the thief didn’t take, the above named devices (oh, God! If they’d gotten my iPad!!!!! Arrrgghhhh!), but also our wedding rings were sitting right there, plus he overlooked Don’s Go Pro camera, and Tom and Bette Lee’s laptops, binoculars, etc.
The police responded as fast as possible, considering that the Jost Van Dyke police have no boat to come out to yachts. A marine police go-fast inflatable had to come from Roadtown on the opposite side of Tortola to JVD to collect Constable Ike, who was quite professional despite not being comfortable on the water. The crime team dusted Tom’s wallet for fingerprints and took photos of the boot print. None of us, of course, could provide serial numbers of the stolen devices, and won’t be able to until we get Stateside.
The loss is a big one for us $-wise, yet doesn’t make our home-owner’s insurance deductible. The device insurance policies we got from Best Buy don’t cover theft. Perhaps even worse are the “ifs” and “if only’s” that plague my idle thoughts.
We didn't do much else that day, but we did have Gord and Ginny over to Quantum Leap. Bette Lee brought out all her pretty mola pillows to give he charter yacht a run for its money, and put on a yummy dinner.
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