How to Avoid Somali Pirates ?

[SS Little-Devil]

What about CO2 canons? It would be pretty easy to rig a sleeve up with a 15 pound tank with CO2 at 600 psi and have it rigged to chop the valve to launch and punch a hole through their boat as they try to board. It would just look like dive tanks in storage sleeves and would be pretty cheap, easy to rig and pretty destructive. If nothing else it would scare the **** out of them and give you time to defend by other means as described above. Throwing a partially open propane tank in their boat and then adding a flare might work too. Be prepared to patch some bullet holes in your boat though.

[zopi]

Sigh...spent several months as a working part of CTF 151 last year...Somalia sucks..but then most of that end of the world sucks too..watching the pirates scamper with a trail of 7.62 mm rounds in their wake is amusing to watch on the FLIR..

I like the idea of the false rifles..but I wouldn't go there...some folks who are desperate don't bluff well..

85 parts gas, 14 parts eggs and 1 part salt in a glass jar makes pretty good napalm..ditto laundry detergent and gas...

as a pretty close to last ditch effort..a 12 gauge flare to the chest at point blank range is gonna ruin someone's day.

Spear gun likewise...

those are last ditch efforts..

Personally...I would not go there unarmed..but then, my entire career has been blowing up other peoples toys with very expensive hardware..

If I were going through there, I'd have a minimum of 2 marlin papoose .22 rifles,
1 small frame glock .40, and a lightweight easily concealable single shot 7mm or larger rifle..the purpose being to reach farther than the Kalishikov...or the Paki knockoff version...
Sooo..I doubt I'll ever go there..I have had quite enough of that part of the world in the last 20 years...

Oh..there is a such thing as oleoresin capsaicin .68 caliber paintballs...one in the vicinity of a headshot...WILL stop 99% of the human population..don't ask me why I know this. And a .68 automag paintball gun..a good shooter can get 8 balls a second in the air...nice.

And yes..Capetown is nice.

[goboatingnow]

This thread may have saved my life. I think that I might just head back across the Atlantic with ARC and then head for the South Pacific via the Panama Canal after a summer in the Med.

I have not sailed that area, but I do think the thing is over stated. There have no actions against small craft in 2010. The pirates are concentrating on bigger stuff. Equally everuone is pushing back. I recently was emailing with a friend of mine, who is the capitain of a bulk chemical carrier, and they went through with 8 other ships and hired a Russian Naval destroyer and some Spetnaz troops to ensure there was no trouble.

dave

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I have not sailed that area, but I do think the thing is over stated. .

dave

Hi Dave,

I think its totally under stated.
There was vastly more attemps of pirating going on than were making the Live Piracey Report. That means most attacks are NOT being reported where folks like us can read about them.

That there were no attacks on cruisers mean nothing.

Please read this attack on cruising yachts in convoy 5 years ago.

The other boat was firing an automatic weapon at both Gandalf and Mahdi from ahead, more at Gandalf. These guys were shooting directly at the cockpits, and obviously intended to kill us. The first boat swung around behind Mahdi’s stern to come up and board us. At that point I, Rod Nowlin aboard Mahdi and armed with a 12 gage shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot, started shooting into their boat. I forced them to keep their heads down so that they could not shoot at us. I am not sure I hit anyone at that point although I could see the driver of the boat crouched down behind a steering console. After firing 3 shots at them their engine started to smoke and I swung around to shoot at the boat ahead. At that point, I saw Jay Barry on Gandalf ram that boat amidships almost cutting it in two and turning it almost completely over. I turned back around to shoot again at the boat behind Mahdi and that is when they turned away from Mahdi and were heading toward the stern of Gandalf. Gandalf was beside us, about 100 feet away. The bow of the pirate’s boat came right up against Gandalf’s stern and two men stood up on the bow to board Gandalf. That was a serious and probably fateful error on their part. I shot both of them. That boat then veered away and I shot the driver,

Violent Pirate Attack On Two Yachts Off Yemen

Without being facious, Dave, go take a sail there! I don't think the risk is worth it.

By the way, many other people have a similar opinion to you. Indeed Fatty Googlander appears to agree with you and he was on the SAME convoy as us! He writes up some of the incidents we were involved in with a very different view point.
He was at the front of the convoy and once when he stopped his engine to do his daily oil check (one of the only boats to do this - other ran their engines 24 hours per day for 5 days non stop!) and the convoy passed him, he said on the VHF he felt much more vulnerable when he was back in our tail end group.
Also he was in Aden when we witnessed the attack on the container ship between Aden and the Straits of Bab el Mendeb.

Perhaps the pirates dont go for cruisers (by decree of the cheif pirate in Somalia?), perhaps they do and the daytime encounters with fishing boats are checking our vulnerabilities - like they did in the above article when they were shot dead - and seeing things like us aggresivly charging at their skiffs realised there may be other targets...

[sneuman]

avoid the northeast African coast?

[goboatingnow]

Also he was in Aden when we witnessed the attack on the container ship between Aden and the Straits of Bab el Mendeb.

its not clear though that that incidence was a pirate attack, it seemed to be fended off by water cannons.

Dontg get me wrong, but I dont think the activity justifies avoiding the area, precautions have to be taken, but in practice if you want to access the med, going around by SA is a very long detour, OK if you want to say end up in Brazil.

Ive being chased in the dark by very drunk spainish trawlermen, seemingly intent on running me over, very scary, but I still sail of La Coruna. while I know the Somalis are more extreme, I do think the "hype" is a function of modern instant internet hysteria.

There was vastly more attemps of pirating going on than were making the Live Piracey Report. That means most attacks are NOT being reported where folks like us can read about them.

wheres the evidence of that. its just hearsay

DAve

[PamlicoTraveler]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I have not sailed that area, but I do think the thing is over stated.

Do you have any valid reason to think that? It's a hotspot.

On March 30 2010, a Seychelles patrol boat rescued 27 hostages and sank some Pirate boats.


On 1 April 2010, a skiff manned by pirates opened fire on the USS Nickolas off the coast of Somalia. A U.S. Navy ship returned fire, sank the skiff, and captured the Pirates.

[goboatingnow]

I was specifically talking about small yachts.It would seem that the pirates are targetting bigger stuff. ALso I beleive the various Navys are having an effect.

Dave

[zeehag]

i wouldnt bet my family jewels on that, goboatingnow....is a lot easier to avoid the mess than to find someone with many dollars who actually likes you well enough to collect that much money-- good luck--is a really crappy market, nowadays and there isnt much spare change to collect for your rescue. have a good trip.

[goboatingnow]

I have to say the current situation wouldnt put me off trying thats all.

Dave

[MarkJ]

Hi Dave,

I'm not having a go at you. So don't take this that way

But you are not going there. So therefore you are not considering all the facts in the way that one would if they were doing the passage.

If you decide to do it, and you are in the area (Thailand or the Med etc), and then you look at the facts and opinions and you decide to do it on your own risk analysis then thats fine by me

However, some (of lesser wit and grey matter) may read your comments here and use them to justify why they should go.

It must be remembered that the Chandlers held your opinion too prior to their capture. Indeed they held them so strongly they put a notice on Noonsight declaring the area they were in to be safe.

They were wrong.

How desperately we wish no folks to be wrong.

To go in to the area thinking its safe is demonstrably wrong.

Do we wait for another couple on a cruising yacht to be taken before we consider the wrongness of this opinion of pirates not wanting yachts?

I would have thought the opinion of the Naval forces - remember I was briefed by the Intelligence Officer of an Brittish naval ship bteween its patrols - and the Chandlers preidicament would suffice.


If folks want to do it then its Volenti non fit injuria a voluntary assumption of risk. They must accept the consequenses of all their family members being bankrupted - not just the 2 cruisers...

And how does one do that? "Hey, Uncle Pete! I'm going past Somalia, just ringing to tell you if I get picked up by Pirates you will loose everything you have ever earned".

Who has that happened to? The families of the Chandlers. They have paid over $940,000 in cash, every cent all the familys have... yet the Chandlers have not been released.

[capngeo]

Observation #1] Absolute sillyness traveling through an area that you are unwelcome

Observation #2] Doing so unarmed is even more silly (but what do I know? I'm one of those crazy "gun-nut" Yankees) I'd pick up a semi auto rifle and a shottie, and dump them overboard later for sure

[IslandBorn]

That's basically it. You just go and listen to local travelers/sailors for the latest news. Stay away from ports with a bad rap like Mogadishu, and stay away from shore of countries like Yemen. You have to just go and find your way.. I sailed the Red Sea without engine and arrived too late to cross with the tail end of Southwest Monsoon to India, and so we hung out in Somalia for almost a year. There are not only ports and pirates that will rip you off, but thieves, diseases, reefs, bad decisions, a taxi accident etc etc. A zillion things can get you no matter where you go. We even got arrested by an Ethiopian Navy boat off of Eritrea. But the long and short of it is my wife and I had just an amazing adventure. Granted this was back in the 70's, but if anything, the area was much more unsettled and wild then with the canal just opened, and fighting everywhere. My advice is that you will find security in the doing, but only fear by looking for security without leaving. Most people are good by nature and helpful. IslandBorn

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by IslandBorn

... stay away from shore of countries like Yemen...

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, IslandBorn.

Given that they are on opposite sides of the Gulf of Aden, the further off Yemen’s shore, the closer you'd be to Somalia’s.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by IslandBorn

Granted this was back in the 70's,

A lot has changed there since. They have been in a state of permanent civil war and incursions from virtually all sides.

What you saw in the 1970's was prabably the best it has been since.