Danish Yacht Taken by Pirates

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by zeta

Yea, I understand that Americans were killed but I haven't seen anything that they killed them only because they were Americans. I though money was their goal, but if they have claimed to be attacking and killing Americans then we have every right to open up on them, which we seem not to be doing. The harboring terrorist thing--"we will hunt you down".

You do know that the USA has 15 of their people (pirates) now. We could be in the works of a small war with each side taking prisoners.

Our prayers for all the hostages!

[RickD]

Originally Posted by ude123

Rick, I have no problem with unclassified, non-sensitive information but you referred to getting coordinates, etc. from your friends. I don't know what at this point in this piracy act would not be sensitive except for the basics. I understand your thoughts. I was simply trying to avoid any non public information from being reported here. Seems prudent. Obviously you are a upstanding citizen and all around good guy, I meant not to disparage you in any way shape or form.

Again, I think you perhaps misunderstood. I said "I have no coordinates, or boat information" (paraphrased) because that information was not in the official release.

Don't worry. I won't be posting "non public" data. Never have, never will. Been doing this a long time.

If I HAVE or OBTAIN such information that is not releasable, it won't be released by me. Period.

I'm trying to keep this board informed of what is going on.

Many folks prefer to sit in the dark of their basement and not see the world around them for what it truly is. I'm one of those world traveler guys whose been around awhile. I'm about to become one again, as a sailor this time. This time I haven't got the whole US military to back me up. Just my own, hopefully common-sense.

Anyway - I've done my job, reported on the story. I'll leave this one to the rest of you to keep track of.

As an aside, a Greek shipping vessel was also taken captive as well. A cargo ship. That's also "in the news".

Rick

[ude123]

I'll post more when I get it.

What I know is the boat is Danish flagged, it was captured Thursday, and it was somewhere near Somalia - but no coords or anything yet. Also don't know the name of the vessel.[/QUOTE]


I am sorry if I misunderstood your above quote in your original post. I took that to mean that when you got the coordinates you would be posting them. My bad...sorry for the misunderstanding.

[hellosailor]

del-
"You do know that the USA has 15 of their people (pirates) now."

It is more than fifteen. One that was taken in the Maersk hijacking last year has already been tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison for something like 30 years. Maybe two weeks ago?

I say we take the "free!" junker boats, put remote controls and explosive charges on board them, and send them off to Somalia as q-boats. "Please, come hijack my boat!" Oopsie.

Much cheaper than conventional munitions.

[smurphny]

It seems like "war" is an apt description of the situation between pirates and the people of the U.S. If it is true that the pirates have vowed to kill Americans then there is no difference between these pirates and terrorists and our government should now take similar measures to eliminate them. In any case, all negotiation HAS to stop or this will continue to get worse.

[nelson_dk]

Very sadly, I personally know the involved people of this danish sailboat, and I feel really terrible right now, and hope they will all be OK, and will return home unharmed.
Secondly, and very importantly, I feel, we should all advise all our friends sailing enroute Maldives-Aden, NOT to report ships position using internet maps such as sailblogs, SPOT or similar, when sailing in these waters.
I am convinced the pirates does some research, which allows them to find the small sailboats in this area, as the ocean is too big for coincidence to allow them find 2 sailboats in just 2 days (Quest 22. february and now the danish 24. fabruary.)
I hope authorities are looking into this also.
For now let us all hope and pray for the safety of the people on board, and that they will come home safely.
Many people read the forum here on CF, so please also think about this, in respect for the friends and relatives.
Kindly,
Niels

[RickD]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

del-
"You do know that the USA has 15 of their people (pirates) now."

It is more than fifteen. One that was taken in the Maersk hijacking last year has already been tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison for something like 30 years. Maybe two weeks ago?

I say we take the "free!" junker boats, put remote controls and explosive charges on board them, and send them off to Somalia as q-boats. "Please, come hijack my boat!" Oopsie.

Much cheaper than conventional munitions.

For the record, more than 600 people are being held by Somalian pirates, most of them are crews from large freighters, and tankers.

As of Christmas time last year, there were about 500 hostages. The numbers are growing.

I have no idea offhand what the percentages of Americans to others are.

[ude123]

From what I understand, none of the (I believe 660) hostages and 30 ships are American or American flagged vessels. The Quest was the first American flagged vessel taken(except for the Maersk Alabama which was freed)

[Juniper]

I wonder if any of them being able to locate these boats is from radio direction finders or AIS? Even with using a sat phone it sends out a radio signal, may not be able to hear what is being said but you can find out where.

[ude123]

It really doesn't matter to me that the hostages are not American. We, the citizens of the world, should not allow this to happen to citizens of ANY country. We here at CF are citizens of the seas and these hostages are our fellow citizens. We need to email our politicians and voice our disgust with this situation and get them to call for action, action that is meaningful and will stop this situation.

[smurphny]

So sorry Niels. Your advice regarding maintaining radio silence is logical. AIS, cruiser nets, VHF, SSB, Radar, cell phone...ANY electronic signal is likely to be picked up by pirates in this digital world and there are probably ways to calculate positions from any of these signals. I think if I were navigating here I would take down radar reflectors and anything that might be picked up on radar. If leaving from points east toward the Red Sea, it would make sense to let no one know other than via landline. I have always been leery of all the websites that track progress. They are a pirates dream come true. Tell about your trip when you get home.

[Palarran]

In an earlier thread relating to the Quest I said that this is like a terrorist attack and that afterwards, it would never be the same. The pirates have really made a committment with this latest attack. The best thing for them is to let the family go right now before it gets out of control for them. We have to pray that they have some ability to rationalize the situation before it escalates beyond anyones control.

[rowingdude]

Originally Posted by smurphny

So sorry Niels. Your advice regarding maintaining radio silence is logical. AIS, cruiser nets, VHF, SSB, Radar, cell phone...ANY electronic signal is likely to be picked up by pirates in this digital world and there are probably ways to calculate positions from any of these signals. I think if I were navigating here I would take down radar reflectors and anything that might be picked up on radar. If leaving from points east toward the Red Sea, it would make sense to let no one know other than via landline. I have always been leery of all the websites that track progress. They are a pirates dream come true. Tell about your trip when you get home.

The use of HF should be okay so long as you do not give out specific coordinates, perhaps coordinates of a few days ago. The bands that SSB operate on will bounce off the atmosphere unless you're REALLY close and can work "ground wave". I think if one MUST go through that region, they circle around under Africa and make for Australia. Do not go north.

[RickD]

Originally Posted by ude123

It really doesn't matter to me that the hostages are not American. We, the citizens of the world, should not allow this to happen to citizens of ANY country. We here at CF are citizens of the seas and these hostages are our fellow citizens. We need to email our politicians and voice our disgust with this situation and get them to call for action, action that is meaningful and will stop this situation.

I could not agree more.

Not sure if any of you are very avid readers, but you should read some of the historical accounts of fighting piracy throughout the world since the dawn of time.

Mostly it was the various navies of the world that fought them - of course, the merchantmen weren't light on guns sometimes.

I don't think this will be solved though - not easily, unless yachts stay clear and the navies start escorting merchant ships - and actually stop the piracy by either attrition or blowing them out of the water.

[RickD]

Originally Posted by rowingdude

The use of HF should be okay so long as you do not give out specific coordinates, perhaps coordinates of a few days ago. The bands that SSB operate on will bounce off the atmosphere unless you're REALLY close and can work "ground wave". I think if one MUST go through that region, they circle around under Africa and make for Australia. Do not go north.

Just for a point of reference, you can still triangulate to a close point the location of an hf transmitter (radio systems being my one, TRUE expertise in this world).

A doppler system can give you an exact direction even with ionosphere refraction. But, I don't think pirates use stuff like that. They DO use and are pretty proficient with radar these days having captured enough vessels with radar systems and of course having the crews there to train them in it's use.....