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coming to a bay near you mark 2


Steve Pope

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Just got back from an excellent sail to the B.o.I and back,10 days away, I was single handing returning to Whangarei, I stopped in at favourite anchorage "Whangaruru" up in Te Pipi bay. Was getting ready to leave wednesday morn when I hear the throb of a powerful inboard, had a look above deck and saw in the distance a large RIB (10M?) heading further up the bay into the shallows, it came around and headed directly for me, It was grey and black with no noticeable markings to give a clue as to who they were except for the grey and black of the hull and the clothing, helmets with spray visors etc. on the 4 guys sitting astride motorcycle type saddles. looked like it could seat 8 to 10 people, had it been red or some other bright colour I would have said it was one of the hole in the rock speeders that had lost its way. :lol: "Where are you from" was the first question, no we are NZ Navy / customs etc. The spokesman was very polite. I would have liked to have said Maungaturoto, to which they would reply "where the hell is that" and I would reply 5 miles from Whakapirau, but thought it was simpler to just say NZ. My rego No. was on the stern, they didn't look, They asked if I had seen any foreign yachts lurking around , I said none and asked if they had found any in their travels, the answer was no. I asked what the RIB was worth, half a mil was the reply and a Zodiac to boot. No NZ equipment available?? They were from the Hawea one of the 4 inshore patrol that have put in service to protect you and me from what? Guess it is a bit like the Airforce using up their monthly fuel allocation when they had something to fly.

Once we become a state of Aus they will be allowed to carry guns as well.

My tally is now 5 checks and counting.

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Good chance that one of the Navy boys would have been from Maungaturot, Whakapirau or have whanau there.

 

Other than that a reasonably depressing tale. I would almost feel better if they were using their time and resources to get a feed since that would be nearly as useful.

 

I was going to add that if they are trying to catch the real bad guys, they don't sit there in a bay waiting to be caught out by a basic question like that...but then I remembered that the Rainbow Warrior bombers had signed their names in the visitor's book at the restaurant in the Whangarei town basin... :wtf: :wave:

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Big bug bear in the UK is the new "customs" outfits screaming around boarding cruising yachts with all the unifroms, helmets and black boots. Never introduce themsevles and always seem to alienate said honest citizen cruiser in the process, the same ones the run ads for in press to 'assist' them in reporting suspicious behaviour.

 

Surely if they just introduced themselves they would do their PR a world of good.

 

The Ozzy fly overs are a different stroy all together, lets not go there...

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I am afraid I would react really badly to a situation like that and probably get myself into trouble.

I guess you have to feel a bit sorry for the guys carrying it out, they are brainwashed into thinking we are about to be overrun by hoardes of screaming suicide bombers with towels on their heads and that they are actually doing something useful. Then they get the brunt of the backlash when people decide they have had enough.

I'd love to know who, at what level, makes the idiot decision in the first place.

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Wonder how they would go in the US turning up unmarked and unannounced - most US boats are armed to the teeth and trigger happy :lol:

If they didn't identify themselves are you within the law to try and repel boarders?

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Been sussed a few times myself and do tend to get a bit bolshie when asked stupid questions.

 

A dude in a aircraft once got quite excited when he asked 'What is your boats name?' and I replied "The same as the dude in the back seat with the binoculars is reading right now'.

 

One of the Customs dudes on a Navy patrol craft asked 'What is your skippers name?' and got real grumpy when I replied 'We have no skipper, this is a communist boat so we are all equal'. I was told 'Stop being a smart arse or we will board you'.

 

A sense of humour injection would do them a world of good. Mind you my issues with authority probably doesn't help matters.

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Another good reason to leave the VHF turned off.

 

I was followed (very closely ) by the US navy for about 4 hours leaving Colombia. It was daft this humungous great ship full of weapons tagging along 100m astern of a 45 ft sailboat. Eventually I asked if they were there with the pizza I had ordered. then they left.

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Surely we have someone here with enough legal knowledge to let us know our rights?

 

I sure as hell would to my UTMOST (which is prob knot very much) to stop a group of unannounced thugs boarding my boat!

 

Whats wrong with "Hello Sir we're with "

 

See it's not too hard! :?

 

SHANE

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The guys who complain about customs officers checking their boats are more than likely the same ones who moan about illegal immigrants, drugs, arms and all the rest of the nasty stuff that ends up in the UK. You don't want that stuff coming here. So I would grin and bear it. These guys are no different to any one else and they are likely to give you more of a hardtime if you are obstructive etc, but they should also be polite to start with.

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I think the point is that a mid-morning drop-in on boats anchored in Whangaruru in broad daylight is unlikely to make much of an impact on whatever level of illegal immigrants, drugs and arms are coming into the country via small pleasure craft. Other than the Rainbow Warrior example above, I cannot recall an example of any of the above (although I am happy to be enlightened on this). Conversely it seems that anyone who wants to put together an arsenal of weapons in NZ can do so by burgling arms collectors and/or buying them from gangs, while drugs like P are rampant, purely on the basis what is manufactured within the country.

 

So the overall impression that these people present is that they are enthusiastically pursuing an illusion of doing an important job. Meanwhile anyone who poses a genuine threat would have been cunning and sophisticated enough to have landed the goods under cover of darkness and would not be sitting still waiting to get caught by a routine check.

 

It does, after all, take a reasonable level of skill to cross the hundreds of miles of ocean necessary to reach NZ's borders by boat.

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Shanson - I suspect very strongly we have no rights.

 

Panic, you are wrong. A statement of the type "if you think this then you also think this" always is.

 

Anttay - I would expect any government agency coming into my home to start by identifying itself first and foremost. Yes it's their hobnailed boots and I object to the fact that they can walk on my deck anytime they want unannounced and uninvited.

 

Murky - I agree, the threat is miniscule, spend the time and money on a real problem like stopping us beating children/spouses to death. (deaths by terrorism in NZ in the last 50 years - 1; by spousal assault - hundreds????)

 

If we are to give up our right to live peacefully free from government invasion, why hasn't there at least been some discussion or debate? At what level are these decisions made?

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Just supose there actually might be some kind of threat to society out there on the water.There is no harm to society untill it comes ashore.With NZ's limited resources,the most efficient way to deal with this threat is when it comes ashore.Instead of paying half assed cops to go boating we could have more real cops protecting us from real criminals while they wait for the offshore threat to arrive.Its another tax payer rip off.

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We need them out there, they don't and never will catch everyone and everything, they are a deterrent and I think do a good job generally. They have stopped stuff and dodgy coming into NZ. And they are often tasked to do other stuff sometimes, they do do a bit of a multi-tasking thing at times.

 

They aren't anywhere as dumb and un-informed as they often like to portray. They have some serious intelligence inputs behind them and I would also suggest they already know a lot more about a boat than many realise when they pull along side or ask you questions. A lot of that would be them checking that what you say matched what they already know. If it stacks up, you are fine. If it doesn't then you'll get more attention.

 

By the time you see them they have been watching you possibly for a while, possibly even for 1000 miles or more if you are coming in from offshore. If they think you are dodgy they do have some very serious and hi-tech surveillance capabilities many have no idea even exist.

 

Also as we don't have 1000's of boats ply between Akl and North Cape the chances are a high use plyer of those waters will get looked at more often, even if it's only to stop them being bored shitless. Or possibly, as a few are yachties, they are just interested in your craft purely from a boaters point of view. It may knot be their tasked role but they are people. Also there is the 'being seen out there' angle.

 

But they do have a attitude which I would suggest is annoying and counter productive at times, or at least some of them do.

 

Also they are a tiny team with bugger all resources, hence using the Navy/Air Force is a smart idea for them, the Navy/AF and the NZ wallet. I doubt swapping what they have to chase other things would make the slightest bit of difference really.

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You all would be shocked to know just how much Drug trafficing was going on in NZ waters. It is so easily slipped into NZ. A boat can come into a remote part of NZ very easily and unnoticed, drop off a "bag" and then slip out and then come in through a Customs Port. Then off they go again and pick up their little parcel. Or, the "parcel" can be delivered to a recipient just as easily. This is one reason why security has been stepped up. It has nothing to do with Terrorism. We know of incidents taking place out in the Sounds that would be likened to stories you only hear of in places like Columbia. I strongly believe the story behind the Scott Watson case was one of these types of rumored affairs and Scott was just a Wrong place Wrong time side of the story. So many witnesses had seen that other Ketch before and after the young couple going missing. But lets not side track this particular discussion. I also know of another shooting and body dumped out in the sound. All drug related. Many of us here know it happens and without the country being patrolled better, it happens all too easily.

The other serious issue is boats leaving NZ after they have cleared Customs. Once again, I know of situations where Boats have come back to bays and anchored and departed a day or two later. It is known that some of endangered species have been taken out of NZ this way. They fetch huge dollars overseas and can be more lucrative than Drug dealing. Once again, it is a case of catching these people.

However, I hope our Patrol boys never get to be as Rude and Scary as some stories we hear about overseas. But in saying that, the number of people that will blatantly lie that they have no food to declare or no firearms or no what ever and after a damn good search, up comes the things they say they don't have. So these Patrol crews grow cynical over time. It's sad when you can no longer trust another person, but you simply can not, because there are always those that ruin it for everyone else.

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Hi Wheels, you are very philosophical this sunday morning, In all my experiences with the Hawk x3, Kahu x1, Hawea RIB x1, they have all been polite, both the Hawk and the Kahu the fact they were Navy/customs/MaF etc. was quite clear from the appearance of the vessel they were aboard, the RiB was the exception in that it appeared to have no markings and they didn't state who they were. Although it was obvious they were official and of course the next time I see 1/2 a mill of RiB heading my way I will know who to expect. Re the surreptitious dropping ashore of unidentified packets etc. that has happened at times, as per the "Nomad" on the West coast some years ago. But a lot of these anecdotes are based on hearsay, 3rd hand and counting, say it enough times and it soon becomes fact. My observation was more of the concern that we are following down the track of the US, Aus, and apparently the UK with increased surveillance of NZ citizens in areas where there really hasn't been a problem. From the official point of view it is a need to be seen to be doing something as per the airport checks etc. It wont make a lot of difference, if there are baddies out there who want to do something to NZ I doubt they would be having breakfast in a shallow almost landlocked bay on the east coast of the North Island.

The more credence we give to the perceived threats of so called terrorists the more they will have won.

All that being said I know it isn't going to change, and the thought of hob nail boots on deck mightn't be a bad thing, I never did like painted aluminium. Maybe I should put the kettle on. :P :) :sailor:

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Sometimes I'm not sure either. Want to tell me more about yourself :wink: :lol:

Then there's YY and KM. I'm sure I have people in Dark suits watching me from a distance just because I have "communicated" with them on this site :shifty: Not to mention that the spy station up the road seems to have a dish pointed right at my home. Either the Satellite is very low in the sky or they are listening to my phone conversations :shh:

And as for Steve, well, he thinks he was just boarded out of coincidence. But they actually keeping an eye on him too, because he has "communicated" with me in the past :shifty:

Damn these secrets I have in my head :shifty: :shh:

:crazy:

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I think their intelligence capabilities,both cranial and otherwise,must be crap.I dont know who the hell Steve Pope is but I doubt any serious criminal contributes to this forum.But they have checked him four? times so far.So that means they are crap or he is a crim.Come on,fess up Steve Pope!What have you done,or what are you thinking of doing?

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