How to Avoid Somali Pirates ?

[hummingway]

Ah yes, pirate dodging ... the new adrenaline sport. Think I'll have a beer instead.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by SabreKai

how about camoflage? .


Sabre

You are spot on.

Next time you're out have a look with your binoculars at the furtherest distance sail you can see and estimate its range from you. Now look for a sailing boat without its sails up. They are very difficult to see at 5 miles.
When you see the level to the water of the skiffs the pirates use you'll understand they can not even see as far as you on your deck because of the curvature of the earth.

To spot the boom and mast when the hull is down below the curvature is extremely difficult.

So the boat is camouflaged.

In another way too, the pirates are looking for larger targets. a yacht is going to be at a different focal point for them if they are scanning the horizon for a ships bridge to come up.

So if a yacht is in the middle of the IRTC buffer zone, where they are meant to be, they have 6 miles on each side that are the traffic lanes. Most of the pirate skiffs remain outside these lanes looking inwards for a target. A yacht motoring in the buffer zone without sails up should be invisible to the skiffs.


It is another reason why the idea of convoys going up the Yemini coast is suiciadal, IMHO.



Mark

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

You are spot on.

Next time you're out have a look with your binoculars at the furtherest distance sail you can see and estimate its range from you. Now look for a sailing boat without its sails up. They are very difficult to see at 5 miles....
]

See also ➥ http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ance-1989.html

[MarkJ]

Gord, love that Arithmatic. I believe is was not my strongest subject at school (I can still hear the teacher's laughter )

So I have arranged a cheat

BoatSafe.com

Lighthouse Distance Calculator

the second one is good because one doesnt need to add the hight of the target to the hight of the eye (I'm so lazy!)

So, a man standing on the deck of his boat aprox 2 above the water his eye will be at 4 meters (ok he's tall) and looking at a boat 2 m off the water.
He can begin to see the winches at 5.19nms.

I doubt you could see a mast and boom at that range without extreemly careful observation with bino's. A grey boom cover may well help too!

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Gord, love that Arithmatic. I believe is was not my strongest subject at school ...

Thanks for the online calculators!

I’ve been severely math challenged all my life; and have to work very hard to grasp the concepts, or even remember the formulae. Accordingly, I use cheat sheets, with all sorts of esoterica.

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

........I don't think the convoys are worth a pinch of rocking horse poop if anyone really wants you. They dont care about the boat, you are much more valuable. The Chandlers family paid $800,000 and they have not been released as the criminals now want double that.

Many tales passed along among cruisers get amplified or increased. Mark said the Chandler's family paid $800,000 towards ransom. Another forum posting I have read stated that $960,000 had been paid. Odd this was not reported in the "news." Today I read another report claiming a far lesser amount.

"Also the direct approach by the family seems to have had some not so successful advisers, because an attempt to free the Chandlers mid June 2010 didn't work out, while the family according to Reuters allegedly already lost the 430,000 US$ they had collected by paying that amount blindly to to elders involved in the negotiations, a clan chief told Reuters. The pirates had demanded a $7 million ransom for the couple, but reduced the figure to less than $1 million."

source:
Piracy in Somalia Report by Ecoterra October 7

We will be transiting the Gulf of Aden in Jan/Feb 2011. Our families have been instructed not to pay any ransom in the unlikely event that we are captured. This is a risk that we are assuming on our own and we do not expect anyone to bail us out of any problem which we have brought upon ourselves by choosing to sail in such a dangerous area.

BTW, some of these postings have been humorous, although I don't think that was necessarily intended by the posters, i.e., suggesting having a dirty boat to be less desirable to pirates. Indeed.

Judy
S/V BeBe

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by svBeBe

Many tales passed along among cruisers get amplified or increased. Mark said the Chandler's family paid $800,000 towards ransom. Another forum posting I have read stated that $960,000 had been paid. Odd this was not reported in the "news." Today I read another report claiming a far lesser amount.

" Judy
S/V BeBe

Yeah, hmmm. I looked back on the earlier editions of the Ectoterra and they are all saying $430,000. Either theres doublage in my brain or errors corrected.... (or Big Brother!)
I also note from a Google News search that all articles have slowed to a trickle about them.
Hope they havent been forgotten.
The Save the Chadlers website hasn't been updated since July.

I would sugest theres movement behind the scenes


Anyway, Judy, I thought you'd be going up next year
The idea of telling the family not to pay is a good one. I had the solicitor do a document saying nothing of mine could be sold while I'm out of the country


Stow the Fender Steps!


Mark

[duncan_ellison]

Just spoke with the manufacturer of this : WatchStander# at the Annapolis boatshow.

This is a military technology already sold to DoD that they are trying to downscale and bring to the commercial market.

This thing has a 12 million candle power bulb which can be focussed to a 1 degree spot then strobed at a rate and duty cycle especialy chosen to disrupt the senses of an attacker. Even on one of the brightest days here for weeks, the demo was quite impressive.

They have an even brighter model and one which can automatically lock on to radar targets.

Don't get carried away though .... you are looking at $20K+ ! They do have a hand held version but even that is ~$5K.

Duncan

[osirissail]

Interesting news - not so new 28 Sept 2010 - about the Somalia pirate situation. See: Insurance firms plan private navy to take on Somali pirates - Africa, World - The Independent

[Lead paragraph]
Insurers have drawn up plans for the world’s first private navy to try to turn the tide against Somali pirates who continue to plague the global shipping industry by hijacking vessels for ransoms of more than £100m a year, The Independent has learnt.

[MarkJ]

Interesting story.
Another line that opened the eye was: "MSC, the world's second largest container shipping company, announced this week that it will decide “within days” whether to arm its vessels."
They have 400 container ships floating about...

[zopi]

Originally Posted by duncan_ellison

Just spoke with the manufacturer of this : WatchStander# at the Annapolis boatshow.

Duncan

yeah..we gotta widget does that with voice...you can talk to a guy a hundred yards away...like that guy on watch three piers over with his hands in his uniform pockets..."Sailor, This is god speaking..take your hands out of your pockets and stand a proper watch.." Done in the James Earl Jones voice...

Priceless.

If you yell into it however...ouch. it does "other" things too..

[markpierce]

Simple. Don't go there.

[goboatingnow]

Simple. Don't go there.

its not that easy a passge through teh red sea is a virtual requirement if you want to getinto or out of the Med. ( and circumnavigate)

Dave

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

its not that easy a passge through teh red sea is a virtual requirement if you want to getinto or out of the Med. ( and circumnavigate)

Dave

God invented another enterance.

Dave, don't be too critical about stuff.



Mark

[goboatingnow]

Seriously Mark, would you have gone around the outside to get into teh Med, especially since it means virtually sailing to brazil, its an incredably long route. ( which is why the goddammed canal got built in the first place).

God may have invented another entrance, but he made it dammed arkward to use it at times.

Im not being critical, its merely a response to the armchair "dont go there" responses.

Dave