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February 28, 2007

Into Pirate Waters

LOCATION: Arabian Sea Crossing
Day: 29
SEE WHERE WE ARE!
Longitude: N:14°53.085'
Latitude: E: 056°01.346'
Heading: 300°M
Wind: ENE, Force: 1
Miles total Mumbai - Djibouti: 1,856
Miles from Mumbai: 1,070
Miles to Djibouti: 786

We are now approaching a critical point in the voyage that was always going to be make or break in terms of actually getting to Djibouti: entering into the Gulf of Aden before getting swept south down the Somali coast towards South Africa. And on Sunday another variable entered the equation with a UN cargo vessel being hijacked by pirates just south of the horn of Africa at Raas Xaafun.

According to an Associated Press news report (which took over 20 minutes to download via the tortuously slow satphone connection!), the vessel was delivering UN food aid to the northeastern area of Somalia. The 'MV Rozen' had just dropped off more than 1,800 tons of food aid in the semiautonomous region of Puntland when the pirates struck. It was not immediately known if any of the 12 crew members aboard six from Sri Lanka and six from Kenya were injured in the attack.

The 1,880-mile coast of Somalia, which has had no effective government since warlords ousted a dictatorship in 1991 and then turned on each other, has emerged as one of the most dangerous areas for ships. Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and Global Positioning System equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades, according to the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia. The bandits target both passenger and cargo vessels for ransom or loot, using the money to buy weapons.

From our standpoint the attack probably doesn't change things that much. It sounds like the attack was very much targeting a vessel that the pirates knew might yield ransom money for the safe return of both crew and cargo (being UN). As Sher said, it might even be an inside job. It's unlikely that any of these characters would know what to make of this little pedal boat even if they knew where to find us. But there is the danger of them taking us hostage for ransom and just abandoning the boat. For this reason I've started to have Sher answer the VHF radio so he can speak Urdu with the local fishing boats that we've seen an abundance of these past few days, and who are all keen for a yarn on the radio to find out what the hell we're up to. With a range of over 60 miles on our radio there's danger one of these conversations might be picked up by some unsavoury types who then come looking for us, especially if they hear a Brit accent. Along these same lines I'm considering taking down our radar ball to lessen the chances of detection - assuming some of the more sophisticated pirate operations have radar themselves, which in the absence of knowing otherwise we have to assume they do. But this increases the chance of getting run over by a cargo ship out here, so these decision are never easy.

Perhaps the most alarming new development has been an aggressive one knot current pushing us southward for the past 48 hours. We're trying to counteract it with a corresponding aggressive 300 degree heading, but still we're being taken south, and the worry is that we'll miss the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, and worse still end up around the island of Suqutra which enjoys the dubious title as the world's #1 pirate hotspot! (Sort of like Freetown was for Jamaican pirates back in the 1800's). So the next 72 hours will be critical in how our fate plays out. All efforts are now being directed at pedaling as hard as we can at 300 degrees to slow the southerly drift. This is when a little mercy from Poseidon is very welcome, when we're maxed out in our ability to out-muscle mother nature. Thank goodness there are two of us on board to keep up the pressure.

jason

Posted on February 28, 2007 2:25 PM

Comments

Posted by: sharon at March 1, 2007 4:42 AM