Winter 2017/18 in the Red Sea and / or Beyond

[miyagimoon]

Fancy next winter away from the rain and snow.

Check out https://www.facebook.com/medasiasailingsafari/

You can either come all the way or just hang around in the Red Sea.

Anyone interested can contact us via the Facebook Page or send me a PM.

Albert
S/Y Miyagi Moon

[GTom]

Should go to the Indian Ocean & Red Sea topic...

[miyagimoon]

Originally Posted by GTom

Should go to the Indian Ocean & Red Sea topic...

It could but it is really aimed at those people who are at present in the Med. Any one not in the Med is unlikely to get to the start location in time.

The rules of the forum do not allow multi posts.

[GTom]

Right, that's a path I would like to try once, down the Red Sea but to the southern direction along the African coast. However, I don't know how is piracy in that region.

[miyagimoon]

Originally Posted by GTom

Right, that's a path I would like to try once, down the Red Sea but to the southern direction along the African coast. However, I don't know how is piracy in that region.

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship- or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates.

If that act were carried out on land, i.e. someone broke into your house and stole your TV; then that act would be called robbery or theft.

Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear.

Theft is the taking of another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting, library theft, and fraud.

Piracy is obviously a major concern for any sailor and even more so for anyone considering sailing in the Gulf of Aden, The Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Prior to 2009 pirate incidents in this area were few and far between. However, 2010 through to 2012 saw a dramatic increase in incidents with it peaking at 176 attacks in 2011. After 2011 the number of incidents fell. This reduction came about from a number of factors such as:

• Less boats (particularly yachts) transiting this area.
• Increased protective measure utilised by commercial shipping. Armed guards etc.
• Increased Military presence in the area NATO warships along with EU Navfor.
• Military strikes on known pirate bases in Somalia.
• Arrests and sometimes killings of known Pirate kingpins.
• Civil War in Yemen.

All the above have resulted in:
Attacks 2013 – 7
Attacks 2014 – 2
Attacks 2015 – 0
Attacks 2016 – 1

N.B: According to the EU Navfor website -Attacks are the combined number of all attacks mounted by suspect pirates; those repelled/aborted and those leading to ships being in pirate hands and crews taken hostage.

It can be seen from the above stats that the area is much, much safer than it was during the period of 2009 to 2012. The number of incidents has reduced so much that effect from 15 December 2016 NATO has ceased Operation Ocean Shield.
Allied Maritime Command - NATO Operation Ocean Shield Closing


Current data shows that the areas with the greatest risk of piracy are the west coast of Africa and S.E Asia, with the Caribbean having more piracy incidents than the Gulf of Aden & Indian Ocean area.

If this data is analysed further is can be seen that the majority of piracy incidents involves people boarding a commercial vessel that is either at anchor or moored up and attempting to steal money or ships supplies/valuables. It does not involve the hijacking of vessels and holding the vessel / crew for ransom. It also shows that the percentage of piracy attacks on sailing yachts is virtually zero.

For more information on Piracy and Piracy Maps check:

European Union Naval Force Operation Atalanta Key Figures and facts at bottom of page. Click “Read More”.

https://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php/pi...ive-piracy-map Piracy Reporting Centre. IMB Piracy & Armed Robbery Maps 2017, 2016 & 2105. This page takes a long time to generate.

Live Piracy Map | Marine Armor System Live Piracy Map.

In Egypt, two main agents deal with yachts transiting the Suez Canal namely Prince of Red Sea and Felix.
According to Prince of Red Sea, 2015 they saw 27 yachts sail through the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea either heading towards S.E Asia or towards the Mediterranean Sea and in 2016 that figure was 27. At the time of writing, we are aware of at least 10 yachts that sailed this route so far in 2017.
Felix quoted that in 2015/2016 85 Yachts transited South through the Suez Canal with some 70 yachts transiting North and in 2016/2017 it was 70 and 50 respectively.

Not one incident was reported.

It should be noted that with most Yacht Insurances, Piracy is excluded from the hull, third party liability and personal accident cover in the area of the Indian Ocean/ Arabian Sea/ Gulf of Aden/ Gulf of Oman/ Southern Red Sea with the following boundaries:
• on the north-west, by the Red Sea, south of Latitude 15° N
• on the west of the Gulf of Oman by Longitude 58° E
• on the east, Longitude 65° E
• and on the south, Latitude 12° S

[Jubilee39]

Just finished the transit of the Gulf of Aden, Big military presence there. Several warships passed close aboard, frequent checkins via vhf and fly overs with aircraft. Had no problems. In Egypt now

[miyagimoon]

Originally Posted by Jubilee39

Just finished the transit of the Gulf of Aden, Big military presence there. Several warships passed close aboard, frequent checkins via vhf and fly overs with aircraft. Had no problems. In Egypt now

Thank you for this, it is good to hear from someone who has done it. I am sure you were very nervous despite all the military presence. I hope they are still there when we and the other 8 yachts (as of today's figures) go through next winter.