Could Madeleine have been abducted by boat?

[sadie]

Do they go fishing instead?

So they would need to keep in contact using cellphone communications. Either that or anchor up.  I have  feeling someone would have noticed this larger craft anchoring up.

The larger craft could be just over the horizon and it could be in morse (lights) contact with someone (Smithman?) on a high building in PdL.  I went all over this about 4 years ago but no-body picked up on it.

I think that the roof or even top balcony at The Staff Quarters on Rua d'Escola might have had a roof high enough to see a message being flashed from a larger vessel anchored just over the horizon for lower places in PdL ... but visible from high up.

At that time, on this forum, I questioned if messages by morse or similar were exchanged and Smithman then had to move to make his rendezvous with a smaller boat on the little rocky beach immediately adjoining the Fortezela (to its west).  This is where the tunnel that British ex soldiers Colin Shakile and his workmate (IIRC) explored and were shown  exiting from it in the worlds press.  It is also the tunnel that was blocked off and so skilfully disguised that master sleuth Heriberto Janosch photographed it not realizing that there was a tunnel behind.

I wonder who went to such pains to hide it and why?

[Robittybob1]

Thus far, I am getting two stories.

There is George of Pizza Hut, Lagos, who allegedly witnessed this sighting.  The verifiable details stack up - train station, marina.  I did not know there was a Pizza Hut in Lagos, but I am not a fan of Pizza Hut.

Then there is the tale of the conversation about this sighting in Pizza Real, in Luz.  I have no reason at this point in time to doubt this conversation took place i.e. that the alleged sighting was discussed in a Luz pizza joint, by Amy and a McCann friend.

From there, the Luz convo seems to have flashed to LP, who then faxed it to the PJ, who checked it out (presumably).

This leaves me with 2 queries.  The first is how it got flashed to LP so quickly.  The other is how George of Burgau got sucked into the quagmire.

Perhaps MW was not yet providing food to the McCann entourage.

I think you have the situation correct - well at this stage.

[sadie]

Or a great detective.

and Ex Royal Navy, I think?

Eleanor was quite a girl and a half.  I will let her tell you about it, (if she wishes, of course)

[Robittybob1]

I think that is correct. So the PJ had an e-mail from a concerned citizen and they may or may not have had a statement from LP.

They had another 'continuation statement' from DC Markley. A friend of a friend of Kate's Aunt and Uncle had a vision that Madeleine was on a boat in Lagos Marina. This person set off to Portugal, visited the Marina and identified and photographed the 'Shearwater' as the boat in her vision.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/BOATS_VISION.htm

Did anyone get to see what 'Shearwater' looked like?

[sadie]

Sorry that is where I meant Porto not Porta.  How does she get to Porto?  By road rail or sea?

I think that she went by boat up to Sines (about 60 miles north, Crow flies, and 90 miles by sea). and arrived just before dawn.  Sines is a huge mainly commercial port IIRC.and according to GE in 2007 ish largely empty of boats and shipping. 

I think that a white van met the boat and Madeleine was transferred at dawn into the back of that van.   By using this method of transportation, for the first crucial hours Madeleine would have been out at sea whilst all the searches went on around PdL.  She wouldn't have been on trunk roads or motorways going out of the Lagos area, so subject to Police road blocks..

Once in the van she was sedated, lain down in the back and driven up to Porto, either by motorway, or the old trunk road going north (the N10, I believe).   The main perp in the meantime took the train up arriving at Porto at about mid-day.

Two things link into this + several other things.  Some i cannot mention.

1)  Carlos Moreira's sighting at 8 am east of Lisbon on the main N10.  This was at a roadside cafe which I visited.  A little girl lying ?asleep? on a pile of variously reported at the time, rags or clothes.    Man and woman in the van.  Carlos noticed that he man told the older woman to go back to the van and in one report, now missing, it said that an attempt seemed to be being made to hide this little girl.

https://joana-morais.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/fat-gypsies-white-vans-and-pink-pyjamas.html


2)  The taxi drivers sighting statement.  Please read

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/SERVICE_INFORMATION.htm#p3p809

Mystery:  There is no number 79 Rua Andre de Castro in Vila Nova da Gaia.  Historically before May 3rd 2007 it used to be on the south side of a blind alleyway adjoining the New Catholic Church, which was in its early days of construction.  The alleyway was roughly rock paved and not wide enough for a taxi.  The part in the middle of the alleyway was not visible from either end.

Anyone going along that alleyway could have gone thru the broken down high wall into the grounds of the building work to the new church or into the childrens Creche on the same land or into the school buildings also on the same plot of ground.... or ... (two other ideas). 

Because of the connections that creches and schools and priests seem to have to paedophilia, in more abundance than others, I am always looking at them more carefully.

[misty]

Did anyone get to see what 'Shearwater' looked like?

Shearwater is the name of a boat manufacturer. The name is often emblazoned on the hull of their boats - see Google images.

[Robittybob1]

Shearwater is the name of a boat manufacturer. The name is often emblazoned on the hull of their boats - see Google images.

That is possible but the PJ would be amiss to say the boat's name was Shearwater when that was in reality the make of the boat.

[Robittybob1]

Found this addition description of the man and the woman.  "07 May 2007

A British expat told yesterday how he saw a "suspicious" couple with a child like Maddy rushing towards a railway station not long after the little girl disappeared.

Supermarket owner George Burke, from Liverpool, said that a "vicious looking" man and woman were carrying the child, eight miles from where she was abducted.

The sighting was about eight hours after Maddy had vanished from her bed at the Ocean Club resort as she slept beside her two-year-old twin brother and sister.

Father-of-two Mr Burke said he was driving home just before 6am on Friday when he caught the couple in his headlights.

"It was very, very dark, " he said. "It was hard to make out exactly what the couple looked like, but through the gloom I could definitely see a very suspicious-looking man and woman, carrying a child who fitted Madeleine's description.

"Though there was nobody else on the road, they were hurrying across a dual carriageway that leads straight to the train station and marina in Lagos.

"The woman was in her thirties, darkhaired and slim. The man, also in his thirties, was less than six feet tall and slightly stocky.

He had shoulder-length hair and looked quite tanned. They did not look like tourists and they certainly didn't seem to be British.

"You could tell from their posture that they were trying to carry the child without anyone seeing it and they were extremely disturbed when I caught them in my headlights.

"It was only after I returned home to my house in Burgau, along the coast from Praia da Luz, that I realised the importance of what I had seen. I quickly rang the police."

Portuguese police alerted airports, ports and border controls several hours after the alarm was raised, before cordoning the area.

Helped by Mr Burke's description, they have built a profile of the man they believe is their prime suspect. Mr Burke said they told him not to tell the media what he had seen but he decided to break his silence to help to track down the kidnapper.

"I'm the father of two teenagers myself, " he added, "but you can't begin to understand the agony and the distress that the child's parents are going through."

- Daily Express   from http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/Nigel/id399.htm

Also from the same site:
"11 August 2008

Police also failed to interview pizza worker George Brooks, 61, of Liverpool, who saw a suspicious couple carrying a child near the local marina hours after Maddie vanished.

Mr Brooks spoke to the McCanns' private detectives. But by the time Portuguese police visited his restaurant they were told he had left.

- The Sun"

[sadie]

Also that a boat was taken out of Lagos marina before the port gate were closed at IIRC 8pm.

It was moored in the kind of canal which links the Port and Marina to the Ocean.   Where ever it was going, it was on "stand by".

Possibly quite innocent but worth noting.

to reach a boat moored outside the marina because the gate was closed, one would HAVE to walk by George Burkes Pizza Hut restaurant.  The closest place for the boat to be moored after the restaurant is over 250 metres further on.  Presumably a car /van could have been parked in the Marina car park which would add another approx 200 metres dragging a reluctant child.   A total of approx. 450 metres  .... a long walk in such circumstances

ETA.  Having just read Robs last post, and seen the bit about driving along the dual carriageway when George saw them, I think I am wrong.  I cant make up my mind what he means about dual carriageway, but seems that the trio were farther away from where the boat outside the gate would have been moored.

So even further to walk.

[Robittybob1]

to reach a boat moored outside the marina because the gate was closed, one would HAVE to walk by George Burkes Pizza Hut restaurant.  The closest place for the boat to be moored after the restaurant is over 250 metres further on.  Presumably a car /van could have been parked in the Marina car park which would add another approx 200 metres dragging a reluctant child.   A total of approx. 450 metres  .... a long walk in such circumstances

Is that from Google Earth?  Boat owners would have access to the marina would they not?

[sadie]

Is that from Google Earth?  Boat owners would have access to the marina would they not?

I have been there but mostly forgotten now.

Yep it is from GE.  I typed in Pizza hut George lagos Portugal .... and it flew me there.

The Marina gate is the line across the channel which I likened to a canal in one of my posts.  Just to the south of the Marina.  The port is closer to the sea and appears to be fully open overnight.  The pontoons where I think a boat outside the gate would moor overnight is just south of the gate.

Seemed a nice place when we visited in 2010.  Much more built up now tho.

Lagos is historical with Phoenicians, Caannanites aand Cathegenians using the port in ancient times.   I wish i had spent more time there


Lagos also has a small aerodrome.  That is to the north of the Marina.

There is also a bigger aerodrome at the Penina Golf course near Alvor and Figueira where Joana C went missing.  I think both are probably just for private planes.

[misty]

That is possible but the PJ would be amiss to say the boat's name was Shearwater when that was in reality the make of the boat.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/OA2_8/02_volume_II_o_apenso_VIII_325.jpg
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/OA2_8/02_volume_II_o_apenso_VIII_326.jpg

Outros Apensos VIII Vol II a

Pages 322 – 330

 

 

Policia Judiciaria

 

Date: 2007-05-18

 

 

 

Service Information

 

 

 

To: The Coordinator of the Criminal Investigation in Portimao, Dr G. Amaral

 

From: Inspector José Luís

 

 

 

Subject: Inquiries Made

 

 

I inform you that in accordance with superior orders, an investigation team consisting of myself and Inspectors Santos Martins and Marques Bom went to Lagos Marina today at about 11.00 with the aim of collecting elements relating to the occupants of a vessel that was moored there at the mooring post B40, registered under the name of “Shearwater”.

 

Due to the absence of Engineer Martinho Fortunado, Director of Lagos Marina, contact was made with Sra Ingrid who clarified the following in her capacity as Administrator of the complex:

 

The “Shearwater” vessel is registered under the number 30E11386, has a Canadian flag and has been “tightly” moored at the marina since 19-10-2006 when it entered the marina in provenance from Portimao marina where it had undergone some repairs.

 

The vessel’s owner is B. Cook, born in Ontario, Canada, (Canadian address and 2 telephone numbers supplied).

B. Cook is a frequent client of Lagos Marina. He has used the marina for the past 8 years and remains here for long periods, he lives on the vessel, being a solitary, easy going person.

 

Whenever he needs to leave the marina he uses a bicycle for transport, which is usually situated on top of the vessel, perfectly visible from the outside.

 

When the vessel arrived from Portimao, it was manned by R. Barker, identified by document ****, a British citizen and friend of B. Cook and who is currently in Turkey.

 

The “Shearwater” hardly ever sails, in spite of appearing to have all the necessary conditions for regular use.

 

Although it is an 8.10 metre long vessel, it has a central mast the dimensions of which require the mobile bridge to be raised. When the employees of the marina were asked about boat movements requiring the raising of the mobile bridge (manual registers) it was established that the bridge had not been raised during the months of April or May of 2007.

 

Whilst the team of investigators was present at Lagos Marina, Mr Cook who was next to his vessel, was pointed out to them to them. He was immediately approached, the investigators using a cover story, as if they were just carrying out a routine check.

 

Under these terms a brief conversation was held with B. Cook who presented his identification and placed the vessel at the officers’ disposal for any check they cared to make.

There was nothing strange about the situation nor anything that aroused any interest.

 

A photographic register was made of the vessel (interior and exterior) as well as of B. Cook himself and is attached to this report.

 

Signed

Inspector Luis

==================================================================

Boat looks like a Shearwater. Maybe they just adopted manufacturer's name for the vessel.

[Robittybob1]

"1) George Brooks, an ex-pat from Liverpool, claims to have seen a suspicious couple carrying a child, near Lagos marina, 7/8 hours after Madeleine had been reported missing. For reasons unknown, in all early media reports he is referred to as 'George Burke'. Despite the claims of many of these reports, it appears that Mr Brooks never made an official statement to the Portuguese police."

2. "George contacted police as soon as he got home but border and port authorities were not alerted for another 12 hours."
"http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/Nigel/id399.htm

From the bow of the boat it isn't a speed boat like some of the Shearwater designs  It has rails more like a yacht.  Is there an actual description?




There is an outline of the craft in this photo http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/Nigel/id399.htm

[Eleanor]

and Ex Royal Navy, I think?

Eleanor was quite a girl and a half.  I will let her tell you about it, (if she wishes, of course)

This is a fact, Sadie.  Ex Royal Navy, that is.  And done a bit of messing about in small boats.

[Robittybob1]

if a launch could do 20 knots per hour (37 km/h) the distance from Lagos to Barcelona looks to be 1400 km it would take 38 hours to travel that.   So if the trip started at 7:00 AM on the 4th it could with constant travel arrive by 9:00 PM on the 5th so there is plenty of time to get there by the early hours of the 7th.