Somali Pirates Hijack Yacht with Four Americans Aboard

[97fxdwg]

Originally Posted by nv5l

I'm a Marine -- served in the 80's -- and although I have no death wish, I do not want anyone, Marine or not, risking their lives to save me if I do something dumb. And for me, it would be dumb to sail in that part of the world. You need to take responsibility for yourself.

As for those of you who keep whining about the military, how many of you served? Reminds me of Kipling's poem Tommy. I vividly remember not being allowed into some college bars in Virginia while I was in.

Yes I served. It is the duty of the US Government to send US Military personnel in where their citizens have been unlawfully detained/kidnapped/stolen/harassed, etc. Did I say, "Yes, I served?" We need to blow these pirates off the face of the earth. NOTHING else will get their attention.

Get over your, "Nobody loved me when I was in." I was in the Vietnam era military.

[Sam Plan B]

Pity the Pirates

I plan to be a pirate and take myself to sea,
For nothing pays near half as much as blatant piracy,
Now here I sit in my own cockpit with nearly naught to drink,
It's just past dawn and the gin is gone so I'll change my ways, I think,
The Somali coast where the sun can roast you brown as brown can be,
Is where the money comes and goes from small boat piracy,
No more will I try to just squeak by on but a pound or two,
When ransoms in the millions can be had for me and you,
Yes, it's ransoms in the millions and we never work again,
No more these nasty fishing nets for we the pirate men,
Oh, you may call us thieving, and you may call us vile,
But just be sure your bank can pay when we've had you for a while.
Yes, in that nasty little room where you're kept all neatly stowed,
It's hummus morning, noon and night, it's hummus over load.
So pity us the pirates, for we know not what we do,
The mullahs never told us not to be a thieving crew.

[estarzinger]

[Text in black type is that of s/v Alchemy - text in blue is that of Evans Starzinger. TJ]

the problematic nature of timing the Mozambique Channel and the Agulhas Current vs. marching lows and powerful westerlies.

The 'normal' cruiser route is Rodrigues, Mauritius, Reunion, madagascar, Durban (or Port Richard) - these islands are worth vising in their own right, they reminded me of the Carribean back in the '70's The last leg is about 1000 miles and yes you probably will see one gale. But it's no worse than the sail from the pacific islands down to NZ. Most people don't realize it but Cape Hope is not that far south, Auckland is further south.

The Agulhas is quite narrow and really not much of a problem - you cross it at almost a right angle going into Durban or Port Richard and your exposure is only perhaps 6 hours.

During the summer you do NOT have sustained westerlies. They are much further south. You will have prevailing winds from behind. When a low passes you do have a SW front come thru, but its usually quite quick and if along the coast you get decent warning and can be in harbour drinking a beer while waiting for it to pass.

The lack of safe "outs" is just a bonus.

There are safe harbours along the S Africa coast. You do overnight hops all down the coast, with good forecasting.

but that doesn't mean I want to beat to weather from Durban to the Cape for three days if I have an alternative.

As I said above, its not westerlies during the summer. Its easterlies. Last time we did it we had only one SWly at sea, just under Madagascar (which we skipped), which lasted about 12 hrs and we just hove-to and got a rest. If you get a headwind along the S Africa coast you are not paying attention to the weather forecasts.

I suppose the upside is that SA is happy to see visitors, it's not outrageously expensive, there is a great sailing culture there and we'd get to visit weird South Atlantic islands.

Yes, St Helena is one of out all time favorite stops.

I sound like I am on the SA tourism board, but I really remember it as a special place and the weather was just not that tough (we were in a 37'er).

Below is a snip from the January pilot chart, so you can see the easterly component to the wind. You can also see the current is behind/helping you.

[S/V Antares]

I wonder if "Quest" was a documented vessel?

With all those held captive one would think an unemployed bunch of mercenaries could liberate thes folks for 10 cents on the dollar and make out well.

"Just when you need a decent low yield nuclear device the price goes up!"

[kenny chaos]

Need security?
Have solutions, will travel.

U.S. Training Center - Training today to meet the challenges of tomorrow

[Mata'irea]

Bill,

First, I want to thank you and Judy for providing us with information about the evolving situation in the Seychelles while we were sitting in Chagos during the summer of 2009, trying to figure out which way to go. You have done such a tremendous job of tracking the pirate attacks these past few years and you've been so generous about sharing that information with others.

Below is a chart from your blog showing the data you have collected about the North Indian.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0eIMlJLVCq...600/Slide2.JPG

As Evans points out, South Africa is an amazing place to visit. But during the weeks surrounding our arrival in Richard's Bay in November of 2009, every other yacht that arrived had suffered significant damage during their approach. The yachts that suffered the most damage seemed to be those that did the run from Reunion or Mauritius around the bottom of Madagascar. Those of us coming down the Mozambique Channel got off easily by comparison.

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?

Best,
Danika

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

Just fyi . . . according to Castle Rock Global Insurance :

Top 10 Places to get Kidnapped From (in order by ransom payment):
(this seems a hard crime to get decent official statistics on because many are not reported, so the insurance industry seems the best source)

Mexico
Brazil
Colombia
Venezuela
Philippines
Nigeria
Chechnya Region of Russia
Afghanistan
Iraq
Haiti

Yes there's many lists and many have SA high on it and Trinidad even higher. But the fact that they don't list Somalia shows they are irrelevant for us cruisers.

In SA they don't kidnap you out at sea and the marinas will be safe too, as are some areas. But getting into a taxi is high risk already and this means it's not safe for us cruisers.

cheers,
Nick.

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Yes there's many lists and many have SA high on it and Trinidad even higher. But the fact that they don't list Somalia shows they are irrelevant for us cruisers.

In SA they don't kidnap you out at sea and the marinas will be safe too, as are some areas. But getting into a taxi is high risk already and this means it's not safe for us cruisers.

cheers,
Nick.

Nick do you know a single foreign cruiser who has been kidnapped in South Africa? As I said we have never heard of one.

[joey69]

They definitely knew where they were headed was a Muslim area and the risks involved.She talks about hiding the bibles under the floorboards of the boat.I have 2 cousins in Africa who are missionaries.They can tell you stories that will make your hair stand up.They have been ran out of the country 3 times.I told them they were suicidal to keep going back.

[John A]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

Nick do you know a single foreign cruiser who has been kidnapped in South Africa? As I said we have never heard of one.

The same for Trinadad and a host of other countries.

Anybody have the yearly totals for murder, rape, and robbery within the United States?

[joey69]

Somalia is not in "SOUTH" Africa.Look on a map.

[sailr69]

sailing though Muslin waters giving away Bibles. what else is there to say!

[joey69]

Originally Posted by sailr69

sailing though Muslin waters giving away Bibles. what else is there to say!

yep,hmmmmm......if I pour a glass of water on my head,will my hair get wet??

[deepstar]

As you seem to persist with photo's of firearms in Salalah

Originally Posted by stevensuf

Guns For Sale!! Downtown Salalah, Oman | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I said

Originally Posted by deepstar

Pistols, Shotguns and Semi/Fully Automatic weapons are not legally allowed to be owned by citizens. Anyone being caught with one could well face severe consequences.

You photo's have shown pictures of bolt action .22, Mauser Karabiner 98k, SMLE .303, Lee-Enfield N-4 - not a single AK-47 (iType A/B or variant)

I still therefore dispute your claim AK-47's are being sold on the street of Salalah.

Sorry Oman is not the wild-west - that's next door and called Yemen

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by sailr69

sailing though Muslin waters giving away Bibles. what else is there to say!

death warrant?? signed by selves?? could be.......
they are not gonna be released, nor is family gonna get any return on their dollars...is very sad.
i had relatives who were missionaries to kenya -- they returned in 1982, never to return, due to the dangers there at the time..those dangers havent yet been addressed......

once upon a time, used to be a death sentence to pirate or be a traitor-- wtf happened-- who lost the balls??/ who was in charge of this bs???? RIGHT?? to trial by PEERS???? peers are spozed to be dead-- how can there be peers... besides, they hae no RIGHTS -- pirates and traitors-- gimme a break.