A great article about the delivery of the superyacht Red Dragon, from New Zealand to Turkey. In the Gulf of Aden they were approached by Somali pirates in small fast boats.
Whilst transiting through the Gulf of Aden, we had three people on watch at all times as during the previous few weeks the Somalian pirates had been very active. Whilst in a position of approxi-mately 13 degrees North and 53 degrees East, we saw a large dhow change course at eight miles from us and head towards us. At four miles, they stopped and launched six fast boats with about three people in each towards us. This certainly got the heart racing and adrenalin pumping.
On arrival, they were surprised to find eight people in flak jackets with guns awaiting their arrival and decided that they would do better to wait for an easier, less prepared target. Six hours later a merchant vessel came under fire in the same location and 24 hours after that three ships were also hijacked in the same area and are at the time of writing all off the Somalian coasts awaiting ransom negotiations.
Hhhm! Flak jackets and automatic weapons. Just what I need for Messing About.
My next door neighbor is in the merchant marine. A few months ago he said he was going on an assignment off the east coast of Africa. I jokingly said, "Watch out for pirates." I haven't seen him since. Hmmmm.
Posted by: tillerman | August 07, 2008 at 09:23 AM
i wonder if cutlasses, eyepatches, attack parrots--the basic halloween getup--would have had deterred equally?
Posted by: will vandorp | August 12, 2008 at 07:03 PM