'Big Catch' S/V Quest Capture - Non-Politcal !

[John A]

I just extracted this off the CBS Newa Blog
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/20/eveningnews/main20034233.shtml?tag=stack

The Blue line is a group of boats safely traveling together. The Red line is Quest
The report states that a US military ship is following Quest.

[NotQuiteLost]

Originally Posted by Doodles

Like the last time we were in Somalia? How did that work out?

Kinda hard to say, since we left right when things were getting interesting

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by John A

I just extracted this off the CBS Newa Blog
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/20/eveningnews/main20034233.shtml?tag=stack

The Blue line is a group of boats safely traveling together. The Red line is Quest
The report states that a US military ship is following Quest.

CBS needs a better chartplotter. Per MSCHOA report, Quest was hijacked near 18N 61E. That is well north of what is shown on this illustration. In fact, this illustration makes no sense whatsoever. Quest was en route from Mumbai to Salalah. This illustration puts them way south and just past Salalah. Maybe CBS needs to employ some sailors to decipher charts before they publish erroneous information.

Judy
S/V BeBe

[svBeBe]

Follow this link to view a chart of Pirate attacks which reflects the increase from last year to this year Oct - Feb...also, the position of Quest when she was hijacked.

S/V BeBe: Somali pirates seize American yacht crew off Oman

Best,

Bill
s/v BeBe

[Doodles]

Bill, from the looks of your chart what would have been so bad about this route you mentioned in your earlier post:

The BWR had a "top secret" route from Mumbai to Salalah. I think it was after leaving Mumbai, hugging the coast until as far north as 24 degrees, then west to Muskat, Oman, then sailing close to the coast of Oman to Salalah.

I know its longer but the rhumb line seems to go right through an area of attacks.

[Mata'irea]

Bill,

Thank you for posting this. It is clear that you have put in substantial time and effort these past two years tracking the evolving pirate situation in the North Indian.

On the first thread about this hijacking, before it was shut down, we had begun discussing alternative routes out of the Indian. Evans suggested taking the southernmost route (Cocos, Mauritius, Reunion, around the bottom of Madagascar and into South Africa). Our experience, arriving in Richard's Bay in November of 2009, was that the yachts that took that southernmost route suffered more damage than those of us coming around the top of Madagascar and down through the Mozambique Channel. Hopping down the coast of Madagascar (or as some friends did - down the coast of Mozambique) allowed us more control in picking a weather window for the final leg to SA than those boats making the long run from Mauritius or Reunion.

Below is the query I made of you, just before that thread was locked:
"I was wondering if after you made the decision to take the northern route across the Indian if you continued to collect data about the activity South of the Seychelles. For crews that can not afford to ship their yachts into the Med and who fear the southernmost route, data about the activity around the top of Madagascar and in the Mozambique Channel would be quite useful. If you have charted that data, would you be willing to post it here?"

You might be interested to know that the US evening news shows on Sunday night all covered the hijacking. And the Early Show this morning sat down for several minutes with a security expert to discuss the situation. Per those broadcasts Quest has not yet reached Somalia and is being shadowed by a warship. The "experts" seem to be anticipating military intervention at sea.

Best,
Danika

[MarkJ]

There is a map on http://www.icc-ccs.org/home/piracy-r...iracy-map-2010 thats authoritive in that its from the ICC

One interesting thing that came from my transit was that many incidents were not reported on any site!
The 3 incidents we were close to, 2 we heard on VHF close to us, and the one we witnessed never made any splodges on maps so I felt then that the areas were more active than appears.

Is plotting a course through a map of previous incidents a valid idea to think one will still be safe?

Many have said yachts are not targeted, but the pirates in the Quest capture say its a "Big catch".

[MarkJ]

Did someone see that the link I put up below was hijacked by a spam company?
I edited it out, but thats weird!

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Did someone see that the link I put up below was hijacked by a spam company?
I edited it out, but thats weird!

I saw that and thought ... what the hell is MarkJ selling?

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by svBeBe

increase from last year to this year Oct - Feb...also, the position of Quest when she was hijacked.


,

Bill
s/v BeBe

Nice chart!. From your chart, Bill, I just can't see a route these pirates havent covered.
all cruiser routes from thailand, Maldives, India etc.
We went through 9 degree passage and then up 200 miles above the rhumb line... but thats got a splattering of recent attacks.

the only unsplattered area is right off the Somali coast! No, I don't think thats a good idea


Mark

[Randal Johnson]

I received this in a private email and do not know its original source. Please consider that and if it is true will soon be on all the news sites.

"Received unverified message through friends of relatives on one of two Navy vessels in the Gulf that the four cruisers were rescued, pirate ship sunk and pirates in the brig.
No status on the boat, but hopefully our friends are safe".

[MarkJ]

T'was hoping that one might be confirmed by now. Oh well.

[hpeer]

Got this email from SSCA

As many of you may have heard by now, SSCA Commodores Jean and Scott Adam on s/v Quest, have been taken hostage by pirates, along with two guest crewmembers Phyllis Mccay and Bob Riggle.

Six years into their circumnavigation aboard Quest, a 58’ Davidson, the Adams, from southern California, and their two friends from Seattle, Phyllis Mackay and Robert A. Riggle, were attacked on Fri. off the coast of Oman. We will post updates as they become available on the Members’page
of www.ssca.org. There is also a thread on the Discussion Board in the "Underway" section. Several news channels will be covering the story today including Good Morning America, and MSNBC. SSCA Commodore Scott Stolnitz from LA is a close friend to the Adams, and has been doing many interviews for various news agencies--we want to keep this story front and center so
that appropriate action is taken! Some of us have already contacted our congressmember to urge their speedy attention to the plight of our friends. Please do this if you can!

If it turns out that there is anything more specific/concrete that we can do, we will put out the word. For example, we will notify members if it turns out that it becomes helpful to raise some money for them or their family, which--for us in SSCA would mean sending a check to the SSCA Home Base, written out to the SSCA Foundation, with "Adams" in the bottom left
note-line, so that 100% goes straight to just this cause.

Please keep our fellow cruisers in your thoughts and prayers until they are released!

SSCA Board of Directors and SSCA Staff

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by Mata'irea

Bill, "I was wondering if after you made the decision to take the northern route across the Indian if you continued to collect data about the activity South of the Seychelles. For crews that can not afford to ship their yachts into the Med and who fear the southernmost route, data about the activity around the top of Madagascar and in the Mozambique Channel would be quite useful. If you have charted that data, would you be willing to post it here?"

Our original route was S Africa, we changed our minds...but that is another story. Yes, I plotted everything that was reported. See the attached which is located at:S/V BeBe: Pirates and the South Africa Route


Best,

Bill
s/v BeBe

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by Doodles

Bill, from the looks of your chart what would have been so bad about this route you mentioned in your earlier post...I know its longer but the rhumb line seems to go right through an area of attacks.

I never said anything was bad about the northern route. However, I could argue that the rhumb line was better (remember, I chose transport rather than sail any course). My argument for the choice of the rhumb line is:

1. The rhumb line course will take 40% less time in dangerous waters
2. The pirate attacks I plotted are historical...and note that no two are in the exact spot.
3. We have no data as to where they will attack next...remember the IO attacks have increased 13 fold in a period from Oct to Feb vs the previous year...

My argument would be based on the amount of time a longer route exposes you to potential threats.

BTW, I know about 8-10 boats in the IO now...all but one of these is sailing a rhumb line course from various departure points. I am not saying the majority rules...I am just saying.

Best,

Bill
s/v BeBe