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Pirates
We were attacked and robbed by three
pirate boats in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday March 2nd 2003.
Our position was 13*31N 48*24E
‘Bambola‘, a Moody 36 with three people
on board was sailing in company with the German single-hander Ulf Reimer
in ‘Josephine’ towards Djibouti.
The following weekend the same pirates
attacked a group of five yachts sailing in company for mutual
protection. They came from some distance astern and were unable to
catch up. The group of yachts closed up and went at full speed. One of
the pirate boats started to blow smoke from the exhaust and they gave up
the chase.
The distance off the Yemen does not
appear to make any difference.
It is very dangerous to go near the
Somalia coastal waters. In 2003, the crew of a merchant ship were
murdered and a British yacht was attacked with extreme violence off that
coast.
It is interesting to note that during the
last five years, all the attacks on yachts heading for the Red Sea from
Oman have been in a corridor between 47*E & and 49*E. It is also
interesting to note that all except one of these attacks happened on a
weekend - Saturday or Sunday - the exception was a Thursday.
The pirates offered me no violence except
to poke an AK into my stomach. They took $600 US, my SSB, VHF,
Binoculars, wristwatches. They would have had the solar panels except
they were too well bolted on. Then they left.
In a radio program I contributed to about
piracy, the Malay, Piracy Reporting Centre described the attacks on most
yachts as ‘mugging’. I think this is accurate. It appears most pirates
who attack yachts are opportunistic after cash and valuables. They do
not want the craft (the reason crews of merchant ships are killed) they
want the valuables on board.
As in any mugging just be calm and placid
and give them whatever they ask for. It worked for us. We were not
harmed.
Michael Briant
S/Y Bambola Quatre
La Rochelle
France |
