Only owned Mahalo for a week, and someone tried to steal her

dhays said:

While the above seems to make sense, I would hesitate to accept it as the truth without the research to support it.

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Just read the Seattle times, or listen to Seattle talk radio. Seattle is on the verge (if not already) of easily surpassing San Fran for Loon capital of the west coast.

Dave_E said:

Just read the Seattle times, or listen to Seattle talk radio. Seattle is on the verge (if not already) of easily surpassing San Fran for Loon capital of the west coast.

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And had you read that same paper and listened to talk radio 10 or 20 years ago, you would have heard the same. Goes back to the days of Chicken Little. Now, in the internet era, a million people see on youtube today the rude McDonald's employee from yesterday.

Every community in the world has it's good and bad. When we start thinking we're perfect, as in some nationalist thoughts, it becomes dangerous as we don't address our problems and don't look for better solutions. When we start thinking our community has gone off the deep end and isn't salvageable then we think the situation is hopeless and don't look for solutions.

Now, there are clearly communities not right for each of us. My previous life was with a very large company and we relocated people all the time. Nearly all were happy with their new locations, only the occasional who made up their mind before hand. On the other hand, my wife and I liked where we were and were happy and turned down promotion opportunities for me as we just could not see ourselves in Nebraska regardless of how much my boss praised it. He, on the other hand, wouldn't consider living anywhere else. Born in Nebraska and lived there all his life except for college.

Mental health issues including drug and alcohol abuse are in total the major health crisis we face. More serious than any single disease and affect those of all ages. Unfortunately, we've only treated the symptoms all these centuries. That is such as tossing the one who attempted to steal Dave's boat in jail. It's the right thing at this point although since he was unsuccessful, he'll be back out and in the same situation soon. Imprisoning all the drug abusers may protect the rest of us, albeit at a tremendous cost, but it doesn't address the underlying problem. We have far more per capita in jail than other countries and it hasn't made us safer.

Ultimately, you judge a society by how they treat the least among them. We're failing a lot of our population from educating our young to taking care of our veterans, to treating our mentally ill and substance abusers, to taking care of our elderly.

We love Fort Lauderdale. Statistics say it has a high crime rate but the neighborhood of 350 houses we live in has been years without crime and has it's own security guard. That isolates us from the problem. Similarly our businesses haven't been burglarized but others have. However, the problem exists even if we haven't been directly affected. Now our stats are impacted by the fact that there are many non-residents here in addition to residents. However, there's another issue we're acutely aware of even though we have no school age kids. Fort Lauderdale has a "segregated" education system. Segregated by economic status which also means to some degree by race. The wealthy go to private schools, leaving the poor in public schools and it's concerning to me that the public schools nearest my home are horrible. Kids from our neighborhood do not go to Fort Lauderdale High School so the adults in our neighborhood don't care about their quality. Yet we know the under-educated often become jobless and criminals.

I hope Seattle, Fort Lauderdale, all of us will do better addressing our problems. We should leave a better world for the next generation, but we're sure not doing so.

Ease up Captain Happy. Never intended this to turn into a civics lesson. Way too deep my friend!

BandB said:

Everyone is calling this a Seattle problem. A reminder, it's a world problem. Any area that tells you they're risk free is either lying or under an illusion. From the largest city to the smallest, most wonderful town. From the US to Europe to the Caribbean.

A statistic I heard about three years ago was that nearly 50% of all persons arrested for property crimes were found to be on meth. Over 48% of all persons incarcerated are on drug related offenses. The drug of choice for a particular period is determined by a combination of availability and price.

I've dealt with employees on drugs in the smallest rural towns and in large cities.

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I agree there are drug problems everywhere. Legal and illegal. Meth is probably the worst. Its taken over from heroin.

I'm lucky enough to live in an area where I never have to lock my home or my boat. I know it may not always be that way.
Recreational drugs are popular here like anywhere, but meth hasn't gained much of a foothold, and hopefully it won't.

It is available. I know young people that have tried meth. It is easy to get here and cheap, but it just hasn't gained much acceptance in society at any level yet. Thats what makes the difference.

"The wealthy go to private schools, leaving the poor in public schools and it's concerning to me that the public schools nearest my home are horrible. Kids from our neighborhood do not go to Fort Lauderdale High School so the adults in our neighborhood don't care about their quality. Yet we know the under-educated often become jobless and criminals. The wealthy go to private schools, leaving the poor in public schools and it's concerning to me that the public schools nearest my home are horrible. Kids from our neighborhood do not go to Fort Lauderdale High School so the adults in our neighborhood don't care about their quality. Yet we know the under-educated often become jobless and criminals."


This is most common when the kids of skool "teachers" are also sent to private skools.

Wow. Never heard of anything like it. Glad all concerned came away unharmed.

FF said:

"The wealthy go to private schools, leaving the poor in public schools and it's concerning to me that the public schools nearest my home are horrible. Kids from our neighborhood do not go to Fort Lauderdale High School so the adults in our neighborhood don't care about their quality. Yet we know the under-educated often become jobless and criminals. The wealthy go to private schools, leaving the poor in public schools and it's concerning to me that the public schools nearest my home are horrible. Kids from our neighborhood do not go to Fort Lauderdale High School so the adults in our neighborhood don't care about their quality. Yet we know the under-educated often become jobless and criminals."


This is most common when the kids of skool "teachers" are also sent to private skools.

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Each country has it's own problems, I guess. Here in British Columbia the public schools are pretty good. Both my sons attended public school and later the University of Victoria. We always expected our kids to put in their best effort, and they did.They are both very successful. Fentanyl is the junkie drug of choice up here and for a small part of the population it is reeking havoc. Theft is rampant. There are needle exchange programs here, methadone programs, social housing, but it's not getting any better. Unfortunately, there is a certain component of society that figures that relieving people of their property to sustain their habit is ok.

saltcod said:

Fentanyl is the junkie drug of choice up here and for a small part of the population it is reeking havoc.

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Fentanyl is the drug of death here as users have no idea how potent it is and are totally unprepared. Going from Heroin to Fentanyl is like going from Diet Coke to Cocaine. Here, Fentanyl has thrown a scare to cops too as just touching it can be lethal. It's also a synthetic opioid and we have a major morphine shortage right now so it's in greater use in hospitals.

"Fentanyl is the drug of death here as users have no idea how potent it is and are totally unprepared."


Sounds like a self curing problem,

Molly said:

Hate to go political, same thing is happening in San Fran. Liberal policies, free needles, backing off by the police, increased homeless. It's a fact of life in many cities around this great country.

I guess all you can do is get a great security system and VOTE!

Sorry this happened to you.

Here in Florida, homeless people are squatting on derelict boats, both in the water and on the hard. Marina's have many abandoned boats. People cant pay the yard bill and walk away. The marina has to jump thru many hoops to dispose of the boats, and it costs them money. The scary part is Florida is a "concealed carry" and stand your ground state. You're situation could have gone real ugly!

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What's scary about concealed carry and stand your ground? I live in Florida. I have a concealed carry permit, and a gun. I'm thankful that I have the right and ability to defend myself and my family.

JimTid said:

What's scary about concealed carry and stand your ground? I live in Florida. I have a concealed carry permit, and a gun. I'm thankful that I have the right and ability to defend myself and my family.

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Then I guess it comes down to who's the quicker draw.

Sounds like you lucked out by being aboard that night......
Otherwise Skippy may have smooth slipped away in a Jif and crunched your new baby.
But you came out the winner with a kewl backpack and jar of peanut butter!

twiisted71 said:

Sounds like you lucked out by being aboard that night......
Otherwise Skippy may have smooth slipped away in a Jif and crunched your new baby.
But you came out the winner with a kewl backpack and jar of peanut butter!

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Ya, well, I let the cop take care of that.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I guess it turned out the way it was meant to. it's in the past now, I'm wiser for it, moving forward.

JustBob said:

About 7 pm last night two security guys were walking the docks. I engaged them and asked them if they had heard about the incident. That was pretty shocking. So the marina ownership didn't even care enough to report it to their security company.

The guys were very apologetic, neither of them were working the night before. They gave me their ph number.

.

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That sort of got glossed over in all the other talk. I'd be most concerned about the marina and the security company and their lack of seriousness over it. The marina should be grilling security from the night before. Two security guards on duty, shouldn't have happened. But then if they walk together it's essentially only one guard.

Actually a problem I've seen often. Business hires security but manager of business isn't ever on site at night to know what they're doing. If they don't have locations to record they were there, don't know if they ever moved.

I once had a wall in a warehouse opened up for some construction. First night I drove by to make sure the guard showed. No sign of the guard, so I walked into the building through the opening. I looked around and saw the guard's car so just waited. 30 minutes later he shows. He apparently had circled the building as what he felt was his round. I explained the rest of the building had walls, this area didn't. This was the area to be covered. I told him to get his supervisor out there immediately. Supervisor spent the night there and new guard the next night.

I'm sure the dockmaster thinks of his job as a daytime job, but there are boats stored there 24 hours and he's responsible for all 24 hours. Clearly, this thief had time and was noisy and with the facility having a guard or two guards on night duty, should have been detected.

JustBob said:

Also, the thruster mystery has been solved. Have to have the "STABILIZER" breaker on.



ARGH.



The reasoning makes sense, ABT-Trac makes both.



Would have been nice to know. We have some "captain training" coming up, I'm sure they would go over that then.



I just needed that info a few days ago...

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You'll get it all down to muscle memory soon enough! On my boat I have to remember to have windlass off to use thrusters effectively. Having windlass, stabilizers, and thrusters on weakens the pressure to the thrusters.

Btw, once commissioned where will you dock the boat?

tozz said:

Btw, once commissioned where will you dock the boat?

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Bainbridge Island

Bob, really late in responding but I just saw this. I sat here in shock reading this thread. Hopefully, all is well to date and this the last time you will ever have to deal with something like this. Congrats on how you handled everything.

Corky Row said:

Bob, really late in responding but I just saw this. I sat here in shock reading this thread. Hopefully, all is well to date and this the last time you will ever have to deal with something like this. Congrats on how you handled everything.

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Thanks Corky. Seems like so long ago now. Thank you much for your generous thoughts! Lots of blog posts since then for anyone not already following along!

Bob, looks like you're not the only one! https://komonews.com/news/local/thi...ride-from-chandlers-cove-smashing-other-boats

Retriever said:

Bob, looks like you're not the only one! https://komonews.com/news/local/thi...ride-from-chandlers-cove-smashing-other-boats

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Yes I really wondered if it was the same guy, he just succeeded this time. I hope so, rather than this is a new pass time among this crowd.

I did phone Seattle PD so that perhaps they would connect the dots. They tied that report to mine.

Well. That answers the "Why do you carry a firearm on your boat?" question I saw on another forum. I'm proud to live and boat in a state that supports open carry, stand your ground, and other 2nd amendment rights.

Retriever said:

Glad you and Mahalo are okay!

Seattle has gone crazy. I've had my car broken into at the Silver Cloud garage near where your boat was. Recently a (well known to the police) lady broke into my girlfriends apartment building and stole all the laundry from the communal washer/dryers. One of my neighbors on the Ship Canal found a homeless person living in his boat. I've seen dozens of needles floating on Lake Union and scattered about parks and sidewalks.

Time to get cruising!

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As a resident of Alaska who visits Seattle a couple times a year, I retain a 9mm CC firearm alongside a a non-resident Washington state CC permit.
Just saying, Welcome to Seattle,a true Left Coast quagmire.

Al said:

As a resident of Alaska who visits Seattle a couple times a year, I retain a 9mm CC firearm alongside a a non-resident Washington state CC permit.
Just saying, Welcome to Seattle,a true Left Coast quagmire.

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If you passed through Canada going from Alaska to Seattle and vice versa wouldn't that be a real no no? Or does some marine rule override the standard 'no handguns in Canada' law?

healhustler said:

Happy things worked out the way they did. Given the circumstances, I think you did well, but we all have post-judgment syndrome in the aftermath. Funny though, how one can happen to be on the boat during a rare moment. In our three years in one location, I was aboard overnight only twice. Both times, there was an incident.

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I've caught a group partying on my boat when I walked up late at night who I would have probably otherwise been oblivious to. There were just kids looking for a cool place to hang out and drink.
I suspect a lot of us have no idea what goes on at our boats at night when we're away.

Nopistn said:

I've caught a group partying on my boat when I walked up late at night who I would have probably otherwise been oblivious to. There were just kids looking for a cool place to hang out and drink.
I suspect a lot of us have no idea what goes on at our boats at night when we're away.

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We've caught kids intending to but our alarms went off and my wife spoke to the over the speaker. Talk about a couple jumping.

hjorgan said:

Well. That answers the "Why do you carry a firearm on your boat?" question I saw on another forum. I'm proud to live and boat in a state that supports open carry, stand your ground, and other 2nd amendment rights.

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This is Texas. I sleep with a 9mm single stack on the ledge next to the bed.

BandB said:

We've caught kids intending to but our alarms went off and my wife spoke to the over the speaker. Talk about a couple jumping.

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I just walked up with my phone camera recording and the light on and asked if they could state their names for the police dispatcher on speaker phone, lol.
Never saw em scatter so fast.

leeman said:

If you passed through Canada going from Alaska to Seattle and vice versa wouldn't that be a real no no? Or does some marine rule override the standard 'no handguns in Canada' law?

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You are correct, however, we stow the gun in Seattle, yet we can transport one via the Alaska Ferry to Bellingham, or claim it in a locked container, were we to fly. We often drive from Prince Rupert to Seattle, while one can feel naked for the duration, there is less of a concern while amongst Canadians, fellow North country folks. It is when we are back into the gross elements of big city life that we are aware of our surroundings, and time of day.

toocoys said:

This is Texas. I sleep with a 9mm single stack on the ledge next to the bed.

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Same here, backed up by a 'Greener" hanging on the bed stead.


Al-Ketchikan

toocoys said:

This is Texas. I sleep with a 9mm single stack on the ledge next to the bed.

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In Texas you might need that to defend yourself against a drunk cop entering your apartment by mistake, thinking it was hers. Only if you are black though.