Danish Yacht Taken by Pirates

[storyinframes]

Originally Posted by SailingSooner

To "not go there" is not an option. To "not go there" means shutting down the Suez Canal. Already these thugs put the piracy surcharge on every thing shipped to and from SE Asia. And remember there are hundreds of Indians, Philippinos and other working poor who serve as crew on commercial shipping that right now in the hands of the pirates awaiting ransom. I dare to say that it is a quiet and subtle racism that has allowed the pirates to exists as long as they have. If the 600-700 current hostages were predominately Americans, Europeans, Aussies and Russians this thing would have been over long ago.

I see on TV, almost every 2nd or 3rd day, photographs of seafaring Indian crew in captivity being flashed on TV. they often come from rural and remote areas and they are the only earning members. Their next of Kin don't know whom should they approach to secure their release.
I am sure there must be 100s of indian languishing in Somalian ports.
Indian Navy takes a very proactive stance, destroying mother ships and capturing pirates but the pirates' logistics and numbers seems to be well organised.

[Newport41]

It's a sad situation but why are people still sailing in this part of the world? I mean cruising boats not commercial ships. The idea of a convoy could work for shipping but for cruisers it wouldn't stand up in reality. I've made crossings with other boats. Even in a single night you can be separated by thirty miles or more. I'd avoid it. South Africa is supposed to be nice anyway.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

Mr. May, what are your other options?...
... Are there possibilities I've missed?

My failure to imagine other, better, options, would not be evidence that such don’t or cannot exist.

You’ve missed at least one possibility, almost certainly more.

ie: Armed escort, tasked to provide security, in a legal & moral manner.
Such would include use of lethal force, when determined appropriate, under normal international standards.

[kenny chaos]

From TIME on-line today;

-Blog postings chronicling the family's round-the-world journey showed it entered the area well aware that the American yacht had been hijacked by pirates but comforted by the presence of counter-piracy forces.
"Of course, we talked quite a lot about it but this is far over thousands of kilometers (miles) away and the Arabian Sea that we sail in is the size of Europe," the family said a Feb. 20 posting on ING jordenrundt.info.-

Read more: Pirates Seize Danish Family's Yacht - TIME

For what it's worth, it also has been mentioned on CNN this morning.

[dw5055]

I just don't understand the stupidity of someone to take their children in such harms way knowing the situation there.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Newport41

It's a sad situation but why are people still sailing in this part of the world? .

Dunno. Deaf, I think. I tried for a year to tell folks but few have heeded any warnings.

Originally Posted by Newport41

I mean cruising boats not commercial ships. The idea of a convoy could work for shipping but for cruisers it wouldn't stand up in reality. .

Absolutly agree with you.

There are not enough navy ships to go shepherding people where they have told them they are not welcome to go!

There's not enough navy ships to escort all the ships. So where are they going to pluck out extras for deaf yachties? Out of the UN's butt?


The Caribbean is nicer


Mark

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by GordMay

My failure to imagine other, better, options, would not be evidence that such don’t or cannot exist.

You’ve missed at least one possibility, almost certainly more.

ie: Armed escort, tasked to provide security, in a legal & moral manner.
Such would include use of lethal force, when determined appropriate, under normal international standards.

Fair enough, but national navies can interdict up to and including lethal force. They rarely have to this point. Every navy there seems to be playing "catch and release" except for a few groups like the Koreans.

I think we are essentially talking about the same thing. I'm not touting for "blast every little dory full of Somalis", but if weapons are produced, return fire is not to be discouraged. Like the U-Boats in my example, they must be prepared to face force if they want to abscond with our citizens and their vessels.

The point about Indian/Philippino crews not having the PR value of Westerns is, alas, correct. People are more aware of little girls gluing Nikes together in Asian sweatshops, but are less aware that the vast majority of cargo shipping in the world is done on flags-of-convenience ships with inevitably Third World crews who have little of what we would recognize as good wages or "workplace safety".

[FrankZ]

When more news comes to light about this incident it can be posted in a new thread. This one is continuing to stay off course, and is now closed.

As anyone that has posted in this thread should be aware the moderation team has been paying closer attention to, and is more stringent about the Community Rules.

We don't allow political discussions.

Thank you to those that posted on the topic of the thread.

[kenny chaos]

According to this article, they've been moved ashore or onto another ship.

Pirated Danish yacht, family anchor near Somalia - BostonHerald.com

[SvenG]

I'm surprised they couldn't just be blocked before they got close to shore. No cowboy rescues, just blocked. Now it's too late.



-Sven

[TOM]

Originally Posted by SvenG

I'm surprised they couldn't just be blocked before they got close to shore. No cowboy rescues, just blocked. Now it's too late.



-Sven

Yes but then what happens. Eventually someone has to make a move and in this case the pirates hold all the cards .

I would prefer to see them blocked from going to sea in the first place.

www.byamee.com

[olepedersen]

I am surprised, a Dane.(I am danish) would chance a voyage in the indian ocean at all, especialy with kid onboard at present somali pirates holds over 60 hostages which are kept on an average of 6 months Piracy is up with over 90 attacks in january and febuary 2011 which is 3 times more than same period last year and total cost last year more than 35 million dollars . Stay Away from the whole area . Ole

[BlueWaterSail]

There was a story on Yahoo that offered a few more details. Apparently, the leader of the Somalian anti-piracy group visited - take a wild guess - Denmark for talks.

So, one might speculate that the pirates are choosing their targets. How can they do this? Well, AIS would be very helpful, as would be blogs on where cruising boats currently are.

To conclude, if you know the area you are transversing is dangerous, blogging and squawking your way through it for anyone to see is the last thing you want to do. You might as well set off a signal flare every hour on the hour to announce your presence to friend and foe alike.

So if you're comfortable with the underlying risk, shut off the AIS and focus on watches, travel without lights and lastly, no blogs until you're out of the danger zone.

BWS

[mrm]

BWS, one more system to consider is DSC capable VHF radios. They can be queried automatically. Possibly disabling GPS position data feed to such radios should be considered too.

However, all this does not solve the primary problem of piracy. At best, it may better our odds, but at the same time confirms, that pirates are winning.

[BlueWaterSail]

Originally Posted by mrm

However, all this does not solve the primary problem of piracy. At best, it may better our odds, but at the same time confirms, that pirates are winning.

Good point on the DSC. However, the pirates are not winning. They are simply exploiting a situation which any intelligent person would class as a no-brainer, namely that the major industrialized nations are willing to let the cargo on which they depend float around the world's oceans, unprotected, while at the same time believing in the mistaken assumption that the threat of retaliation represents a deterrent. Works for nuclear weapons, but not here.

BWS