Piracy Mapped >> 1st Oct 08

[MMNETSEA]

The UN have just sent us the latest data mapped out showing piracy attacks and events for the period 1 January to 30th September inclusive.

Of interest to us cruisers is the Maritime Security Patrol Area 'MSPA' it seems to indicate a designated Shipping Lane - traffic separated :- the Northern Lane >> West to East, and the Southern Lane << East to West. (We will contact The Coalition forces to get Way Points for our type Cruising Yachts. Not advisable for yachts who probably average around 6kts to be sharing a lane with some 20 ships who average around 20 kts!)

Another point on interest is the why the main areas of piracy take place within 40nm of the Yemen coastline, yet the Pirates come from Somalia. Are they fueled in Yemen?

PIRACY MAP - FULL SIZE IMAGE (Large graphic but worth the effort)

Richard

[Nausikaa]

Originally Posted by MMNETSEA

Another point on interest is the why the main areas of piracy take place within 40nm of the Yemen coastline, yet the Pirates come from Somali. Are they fueled in Yemen?

PIRACY MAP - FULL SIZE IMAGE (Large graphic but worth the effort)

Richard

Presumably Richard, and this is guesswork because when I was there the shipping held mainly to the midway area between Somalia/Socotra and mainland Yemen, because shipmasters try to keep as far away as possile from the Somaliland coast. Thy are not fueled in Yemen. Without an effective navy or coast guard Yemen can't keep the pirates out. It would not take much to fix that situation - three fast patrol boats or, even better, four helicopter gushships and the pirates are history.

Someone in a high position in Yemen is making money on this otherwise the bad guys would be out.

[MMNETSEA]

Originally Posted by Nausikaa

It would not take much to fix that situation - three fast patrol boats or, even better, four helicopter gun-ships and the pirates are history.

Someone in a high position in Yemen is making money on this otherwise the bad guys would be out.

Richard

I wonder if we could reintroduce the treatment described by Cindy Vallar in her article :-

Click HERE

Richard

[Nausikaa]

Indeed, nothing like a good hanging to get folks in a festive mood and in this day and age it could be televised too.

Joking aside, I am not so keen on the idea of festive hangings but the concept of showing no quarter when none was given, whilst being very Old Testement, is probably the best way to bring an end to this scourge.

I vote "yay".

Aye // Stephen

[JeanneP]

We took a guided tour of Savannah, Georgia earlier this year, and there was one tidbit of information that Peter latched onto and gleefully repeats to all captive audiences. We were driving by a small commons area, where, the guide informed us, public hangings were conducted on Saturdays. Entertainment for the populace. When public hangings were banned, he told us that weddings took over the commons as a new form of public entertainment and cautionary example.

[Nausikaa]

Originally Posted by JeanneP

We took a guided tour of Savannah, Georgia earlier this year,

Lovely place, Ironically, the best deviled crabs I ever tasted were served there in a restaurant called The Pirates Den. I don't know if the place still exists. It was over 30 years ago but I remember it well. That is either a sign of senility or good food!

Aye // Stephen

[Nausikaa]

Oh, and I should add this little tail.....

The One Eyed Pirate

A pirate walked into a bar, and the bartender said, "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while. What happened? You look terrible!"

"What do you mean?" said the pirate. "I feel fine."

"What about the wooden leg? You didn't have that before."

"Well, we were in a battle, and I got hit with a cannon ball, but I'm fine, now."

"Well, ok, but what about that hook? What happened to your hand?"

"We were in another battle. I boarded a ship and got into a sword fight. My hand was cut off. I got fitted with a hook. I'm fine, really."

"What about that eye patch?"

"Oh, one day, we were at sea, and a flock of birds flew over. I looked up, and one of them pooped in my eye."

"You're kidding," said the bartender, "you couldn't lose an eye just from some bird poop."

"It was my first day with the hook."

Justice?

Aye // Stephen

[gails]

Hi,

we have just come through from the Red Sea to Salalah in Oman. We had a very slow journey of about 18 days as the winds and the seas were against us. Once we turned the corner into the Gulf we notified the Coalition Task Force we were there and constantly asked them for weather reports - just to make sure they knew we were in the area. Most of the time we hugged the northern part of the corridor which was full of container vessels. We had no problems at all from fishermen or pirates. The container vessels are very aware of their radar signals and we constantly saw them change track to avoid us. During the night they would shine large search lights on us to identify what type of vessel we were and once they spotted the sails tended to leave us alone. During the day - very little contact was made with the large ships.

We are a 68ft ketch which was admittedly looking very poorly - especially not cleaned on the hull for the pirates. We found out after we came through that there was a lot of activity and one large ship has highjacked - however, we did not really offer much bait or we were very lucky. One fishing vessel came along side at one stage - saw all our rust covered paint work and let us be - didn't even haggle over the price of fish.

The Nato warships are in presence - and easily findable on channel 16 - there were only three days they did not respond. However we did get scaffed by a fighterplane and circled by a helicopter and a frigate came along side - just to make sure we were okay. We also had someone landbased sending UKMTO our daily position report - so we felt pretty safe.

Anyway, good luck and good sailing - hope the winds are going your way.

gail