Update January 26, 2012
For local coordination of relief efforts and saving Dingo please contact Ruth Allen Manager West Marine Kingston.
Editor has had a while to think and consider events.
Official information is scarce, and we are waiting for Bahamian Police feed back to several specific requests.
Robin and Cruising Canda stand fully behind a independant Canadian investigation of these events which effect all who cruise.
We are currently awaighting news whether or not John did clear into the Bahamas. In recent years John deeclined long passages and his anchoring off Memory Rock in itself would not be unusial. However he was extremely experienced and would never hav e gone over the side at Memory Rock due to the drop off, currents and sharks
I can guarantee you that Dingo never let a hostile aboard the Joy B.
Something is a little hinkey about happened down there, and we the commiunity should be concerned.
How, or if to defend you vessel is core to a long standing discussion amoung the cruising community.
We need to share sightings of the Joy B as they were overdue for check in..
Who was anchored there?
Where was exactley there that week.
We need some sort of fund to rescue Dingoe and find out what happend .
Please email Robin email
For more images and memories we are begining a page scrapbook. Please feel free to email us any images and we will attach them to this chronicle. Please visit the John & Dingo page here
Thank you
Cruising Canada
source http://www.foxnews.com
"NASSAU, Bahamas – Police in the Bahamas are looking for a 72-year-old Canadian whose sailboat was found ransacked and abandoned off the island of Grand Bahama.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force is distributing flyers of the missing John William Batchelor of Ontario. Spokeswoman Loretta Mackey said Monday that police at are still treating his disappearance as a missing persons case.
[
Police boarded Batchelor's 30-foot sailboat last week after it had been sitting for several days with no sign of the owner. The boat appeared to have been ransacked but there was no one on board but a malnourished dog. The dinghy was attached but a swim ladder was down."
More news:
Published On:Tuesday, January 24, 2012
By KHRISNA VIRGIL
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
"THE mystery surrounding the whereabouts of a Canadian man who went missing at sea continues to deepen after reports surfaced yesterday that his sail boat had been "ransacked".
Nathan Moody, an employee of the Old Bahama Bay resort, said BASRA was called to investigate after the boat had been anchored several miles off the coast for around a week.
John William Batchelor, 72, was reported missing after his 30 ft beige and red sail boat, the Joy B, was found last Thursday.
The vessel was 15 miles off West End north, south of Memory Rock.
Mr Moody said: "After BASRA sent a plane to verify that a boat was out there, they called me to go and check it out at around 9.30 m, as one of their volunteers.
"When I got to the boat, it appeared that someone had ransacked it. Things were all over the place, and a dog, just about skin and bones, was on board."
According to Mr Moody, upon taking the dog to a local veterinarian, it was confirmed that the animal had been without food and water for four or five days.
After the boat's ladder was found down, it was speculated that Mr Batchelor might have gone for a swim and encountered complications.
However, Mr Moody said that scenario is not likely.
"As an experienced sailor, we usually put down the swim ladder in the event that we fall off. I doubt that a man of his age was just going to swim."
Calls to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force's northern command centre for more details were not answered yesterday.
Police are asking anyone with information to call the Central Detective Unit at 350-3107, Police emergency at 911 or the West End police station at 346-6444."
source: Wades PageMemory Rock
"Latitude 26 57.151N Longitude 79 06.234W
Memory Rock, a lonely, isolated rock island about 15 miles north of West End. It is the ideal place to go onto the bank, day or night. Get within a mile of the rock (lit at night, most of the time), and turn east. Avoid hitting the rock and you're on. Hold the easterly heading for about 2 miles before turning onto the next leg of your trip, and you'll avoid trouble with any of the sand banks near the western edge."