The Pirate Situation near Singapore and How I Prepared for it

[tomyang]

First hand report from Kiwi Captain Clarke:
http://www.7knots.com/cgi-bin/list_f...aboard;view=84

[Olddan1943]

Originally Posted by tomyang

First hand report from Kiwi Captain Clarke:
http://www.7knots.com/cgi-bin/list_f...aboard;view=84

Not found

[Simi 60]

Yeah, I call BS based on the bolded bit.

Add, also note that this "story" is from 2003

OCEAN SAILOR Posts: 152 ** Vancouver Time: 2003-4-15_21:43:11 Quote Reply
I recently delivered a yacht from the U.S. to Singapore, a 70ft MacGregor. The passage from Darwin to Bali to Singapore gave me some restless nights as the stories and in particular the following e-mail from a Professional Sydney Boat delivery person who was going to be on board as 1st Mate and has been edited for obvious reasons.
Hi Phil, Just a quick one to make sure its all ok. My good friend who is a skipper for ..... Tankers rang me today and told me he was boarded by pirates at the top of the Malacca Straits just off Medan last week. So i Feel it is a very worthwile cause if you could arrange some $U.S. and im not talking just $50 just incase as this speaks a universal language. and if you dont need it then just cash it in later on. And furthermore the threat of war in Iraq is highly possible whilst underway. My friend ..... made it very clear that the threat of this occuring in that area is highly possible as he has just met them. They boaded his ship because he was going too slow and they came from nowhere and they left with a small amount of cash. So Phil please consider getting some cash in $US as these bastards dont give a crap who we are if we have something they like.

Another story was told to me that another yacht in the same area, within a month of us talking, had been riddled with AK 47 fire, boarded, all electronic gear wrecked and only escaped when a lateral thinking crew member who happened to be down below and had access to a handheld V.H.F. pretended to be the navy in close proxminity and asked whether they needed help, if no reply was heard within 2 minutes they, the navy vessel, would motor full steam ahead to there location to investigate and quoted the approx LAT & LONG. The pirates hastely retreaded without loss of life.

Now I was not going through the Mallaca Staits, north of Singapore, but my good friend advised me that there are pirates of the coast of Borneo near the intended route I was about to make. This caused me considerable concern for a period of time untill as one does talked to fellow sailors. One was a Kiwi who sailed frequently between Bali and Singapore on the inside between Samartra / Borneo. (Our intended route). This person gave me his waypoints of his route and advised me every thing would be O'K if (1) I stuck to the route and maintained radio silence. Radio silence was infacticuly spelled out to me, both S.S.B. and V.H.F. This I adhered to, with a wallet full of U.S. dollars and no incidence occured involving pirates,Thankfully.

After arriving in Singapore I had stories told to me that pirates do not like engaging in machine gun fire and veer of from vessels that fire a burst of rounds near their vessel. One boat owner told me he was going to purchase a AK 47 based on this story. Now I have not had a encounter with pirates and I'M not advocating such action but merely relating statements that have been made to me and received third hand. I personally would not bother with a AK 47 but would get my hands on a shoulder rocket launcher if I was going through the Mallaca Straits.

Now I do not want to be swamped with e-mails requesting the details of the route and waypoints disclosed to me as it is a frequently used route by Locals and the very kind person that gave them to me. Accordingly anybody wishing such infomation may obtain such by contacting the Webmaster Tom Yang who can verify your long term association as a 7 knots registered member and forward same (O"K) message to me before such info is given out in fear pirates may visit this web site and wish to get their hands on such information.

May the wind on our backs be not our own, Have a better than average day, And I hope this dialogue has been informative, PHIL CLARKE:: THE Captain from Hell NO 2.

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[sailorboy1]

Wow, just in time

Btw I didn’t read any of that