Piracy off Somalia...

Certainly, but having a friendly 'face' in the region would make me feel a whole lot more comfortable! I hope we get to meet, Stephen!

ben

6 days and 19 hours to go

[Nausikaa]

Ben,

I would like that too.

Can I email you my contact details in the Yemen when I get to know them?

Cheers

Stephen

[Nausikaa]

Hi,

Of course. I will gladly do that

Cheers // Stephen

[GoneTroppo]

Hope your stay in Yemen goes well Stephen. My limited experience with the Yemeni Govt makes me wonder how they will be able to finance the on-going operations of a Coast Guard. Maybe you will be able to give us the low down after your employment is completed. We plan to pass thru that area again early 2007, so hopefully we will notice an improvement. All the Best.

Regards, Stephen

[Nausikaa]

Hi,

Apologies for the tardiness of my reply but I've been away for a while.

Sure, I'll keep you all posted as to progress. And yes, funding is a concern but I believe the U.S. is willing to pump in money to maintain security in the area. After all, compared to U.S. direct involvement in the Middle East the cost of running a small coast guard is miniscule.

I am just hoping that everything works out and that the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden once more be judged to be safe areas to sail through. To be honest, I am more concerned with what happens on the African side as the Yemeni Coast Guard will not be allowed to operate in Somalian waters. Anyway, one step at a time as they say. If we can secure the Yemeni side we will have made good progress!

Cheers,

Stephen

Yacht NAUSIKAA

[Holger]

Hi Stephen,

your project sounds great and will be very important not only for cruisers...

I do not want to advertise here, but if you feel that AIS might help you to fullfil your mission please contact me by email.

Best regards,

Holger

[haffiman37]

Piracy in Melacca Strait and Indonesia.

Have not seen any, have not heard of any last year! But: What some pople 'reports' as piracy attempts/attacs very often seems to be angry fishermen! The biggest problem when sailing at night in these waters are local fishermen putting out miles of nets and very often in the middle of your route. It happened to me a couple of times on the way from Bali to Port Dickson,Malaysia last October. In pitch darkness we went by spinnaker with nav lights on (sailing with spinnaker at night I even use my 'engine' light to see the spinnaker, all of the sudden the whole sea came to ligh and small engines started all around us. We were in the middle of at least one hundred small sampans. They normally do not use lights as soon as the nets are out, they save power! They get a bit annoyed when you passes trough, as you will probably cut a net or more if unlucky. However the nets are mainly at a depth of 2-4 meters, but one thing is dangerous. They tie logs at different intervalls to the nets to attract fish! To determine which net that belongs to which boat is impossible in the darkness. The boats normally puts up a green/white light, the other end of the net a red. But there seemed to be no order, probably the local shop was out of the red or green and they used whatever they had! The main 'rule' is just to keep on with your course unless you are obviously crossing a net, whatever you do DO NOT STOP! Indonesia was worst, malaysia was no big problems in this way. Here the biggest problem at night is the barges that are towed with wires of hundreds of meters between the tug and the barge, and proper navigation lights seems to be difficult.

What has been reported of piracy are some cases of hi-jacked cargo sampans going between Malaysia and Indonesia, but this happends allways on the Sumatra side of the straight. In some areas in Thailand there have been some incidents with yachters being robbed, but mainly at anchor. So sailing wise this area, for yachters, seems to be rather safe!

Welcome to Langkawi, Malaysia, and if you are comming in Nowember may I suggest you join the Radja Muda regatta Port Klang -Pangkor-Penang-Langkawi! No one can make parties like the Malaysians!

[Yachtmaster81]

Hello all,

I believe that due to the Egyptian's interest in boats passing throught the Suez canal, the Egyptian's should maybe help clean the area of pirates. Did any entity approach the Egyptian authorities in the matter? Just my 2 cents.

Said

[Baggywrinkle]

The Australian paper is reporting another yacht attacked off Yemen, with two naval vessels on the chase. Watch this space

@Baggywrinkle

Seems to be a false alarm.

See: http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/top...?TOPIC_ID=1965

[Nausikaa]

Hi folks.

I have been on holiday at home in Sweden for a while but now it is time to get back to the grind. I am off to the Yemen on 2nd May and I am looking forward to trying to make a difference in the area. Let's hope things work out and that the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea become safer places for all cruisers.

Cheers

Stephen

Yacht NAUSIKAA

[Yachtmaster81]

Good luck Stephen!

[Nausikaa]

Hi Guys,

I have been in Yemen just over a week now and have in some ways become a little disillusioned. Nothing works here.

The Yemeni navy bought 10 patrol bpats from Australia. These are about 35 metres long and do about 28 knots. These are all out of commission. A whole bunch of engineers went to Australia for training but these guys have all dissapeared. The engineers were probably not engineers but just friends of the Minister who were going for a 'jolly'.

The navy also have a couple of ex Soviet landing craft which do go to sea at times. They also have a corvette which has apparantly been at sea recently.

However, the is an acute shortage of navigators in the navy so their ships basically never go to sea. There is no cooperation between the navy and the coastguard, which is a shame as there are some competent people in the coastguard who could navuigate etc.

The US boats which were sent to the coastguard are only suitable for harbour work but the coastguard is more effective than the navy. Both the US and the Royal Navy are training coastguard people too. The US is concerned more with policy and strategy whilst the RN are working more hands on.

It will take time but it looks as if the coastguard will be a force to reckon with in the future but we are looking at a time line of about 10 years, maybe longer.

All in all, things are improving but it will take a very long time.

More later...

Cheers

Stephen

Yacht Nausikaa

[Yachtmaster81]

Good luck, it seems you will be needing it!

[David Shipton]

Stephen

As per my earlier post I am not surprised at all by what you have found and it proves that nothing has changed since I was there 25 years ago.

However, in that part of the world change is very slow to bring about and you need endless patience. The mind set there is completely different to what we know and this is very difficult to come to terms with. Time means nothing at all and there is no urgency. The Australian jolly you talk about is probably a very accurate assessment of what actually happened.

We all appreciate what you are trying to do and hope that you make some difference.

Best of luck

David