The "QUEST"

[kenny chaos]

Three Amphibious Ships Leave Camp Pendleton to Fight Piracy - San Diego 6

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by kenny chaos

Three Amphibious Ships Leave Camp Pendleton to Fight Piracy - San Diego 6

You've gotta wonder

Last Update: 10:08 am

A California couple, Jean and Scott Adam, and another couple from Washington state are believed to be held hostage by Somali pirates, who seized the 58-foot sailboat Quest in the Indian Ocean last week.

[Just BS]

I suppose it's (another) step in the right direction...

[kenny chaos]

More details:

Boxer ARG, 13th MEU leave on deployment - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

[zeehag]

there have been deployed many more than merely amphib boats of late....much activity at night - whatevver they are gonna go out to do , i hope they actually are allowed to DO it and get 'er done.

[hpeer]

Second that Zee.

I have a suggested motto:

"What happens at sea stays at sea."

[Bill Burgette]

"From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of................"

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by Bill Burgette

"From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of................"

--same pirates, different water.

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Second that Zee.

I have a suggested motto:

"What happens at sea stays at sea."

Below is a reply to a request of a pirate story on another forum. Your comment "what happens at sea stays at sea" prompted me to copy and paste my story here. The names and places might have been changed to protect all concerned..............

Before you ask, I do have one pirate story. This is before the huge increase in pirate activity when all they wanted was the cash in the Captain's safe and all the cigarettes from our duty free they could carry. There is a very old maritime law that stipulates that every ship must carry cash in the amount to pay the entire crew at any port should the shipping company fold during a voyage. With current shipping this isn't needed any more but since it is still law, we have to do it. The crewing of a container ship is at 24 now, so cash in the safe needs to be around $300,000.00, nice little sum for the pirates. Insurance won't let us arm the ship and the pirates back then were not holding the ship and crew for a large ransom, so they would board and leave with cash and smokes, no gun fire, nobody hurt. On the SeaLand Developer I was serving as 3rd mate and the 2nd mate had the watch in dense fog, running at a fuel conserving 16 knots when he noticed a faint echo return on the radar of a small vessel on a converging and intercepting heading. He chose not to wake the old man and even stayed at his directed speed. They were indeed pirates, and were demanding a slow down for boarding. I still don't know why he didn't comply to their demands. or at least speed up, but no, holding course and speed that the Captain left in his orders. This upset the pirates and they decided to open fire on the bridge. Now he wakes the old man to tell him the ship is under attack. When he reached the bridge, he relieved the 2nd mate and was steamed when he saw all the damage to the windows on the bridge. This glass is so thick that the bullets entry was a small hole but the exit was huge pyramid shaped junks of glass. Just so you know, this container ship is quite a bit faster than the average container ship, capable of a solid 23 knots. The Captain gave engine orders for 110% and started a Williamson turn, a means of retrieving a man overboard by coming around in a big circle (somewhat of a circle) and returning to the same location. As speed built up, it wasn't long before our rate was faster than the pirate's vessel and in heavy fog they lost sight of us because we turned off all exterior lights. A little instruction on how our computer assisted radar collision avoidance system works will help you understand what the old man was up to by doing a Williamson turn. The proper usage of it lets you avoid other vessels by being able to plot their course and speed in relation to ours and then make turn or speed adjustments to avoid collision. Well, if you got the mind set of our slightly demented Captain, those same plotting capabilities can be employed to INSURE a collision and that was his intentions. Not only does a Williamson turn return your vessel to a given point it is used regularly during mandatory man over board drills. Since all ships have a chart recorder keeping a record of the ship's movements, the old man logged a man overboard drill and proceeded to destroy the pirate ship and killing all on board. I need to end this Merchant Marine tales and get back on topic but since I bucket mouthed this chapter, it will have to wait for the new final chapter on a later date.

[BilgeRat]

Good on the Old Man! Wish I could have been there for the rescue effort.

Going sail'n...

[capnorv]

The wife came back downtrodden from her womens cruising forum last night...She had purposely ignored any reference to the Quest, or pirates in general. Seems when she was in the Seattle singles sailing club, she often sailed with the man from Seattle.All I could say was I was sorry...and that we still have a lot to see on the West of North and South America. What I didn't say was, but for how long. At least we have the N/E Pacific!

[Blue Crab]

Send in the marines: It feels good that we're doing something but it is well to remember that only on TV does it always end happily. I'll bet there are many Quest type stories we never hear about and I'd bet we've lost many a spec operator with little or no fanfare beyond a flag to the widow. And for what?

Seems to me that US forces are stretched thin already, and the world knows we cannot afford whatever this will cost to fix. Still I'm for it for now because I read there are 710 hostages. Incredible. Let's have the marines rescue everyone we can but after that, go on back to San Diego.

The world knows this is a dangerous region. The shipping companies can afford to protect themselves. RTW voyagers: Accept the risk or don't sail these waters.

[senormechanico]

Deckofficer,

Way to get 'er done!
If that happened every time, we wouldn't have this problem.

[boasun]

You know. It sometimes does take a baseball bat to kill a fly. And I hope that they swat a lot of flies.