Indian Ocean

This is a story of a passage that worked out very differently as planned, mostly because of Somali pirates and their depredations on ships (and yachts!) in the Arabian Sea. It was a dark and stormy night..........

Our parting shot of Chalong Bay, Phuket.

It started pretty nicely, as this sunset with "spinnaker" suggests. We hadn't been really sailing in 3 years and were still trying to get into the rhythm of a long passage. By the time we got settled into a routine the wind picked up; the Bay of Bengal is notorious for high winds and squalls. We could see there was a funnel effect between Sri Lanka and India, where any NE winds became intensified. We started riding a runaway train rounding India, with winds over 30 knots and huge seas. We made the trip from Thailand to the Maldives, about 1600nm, in 9 days, which is fast for us. Most yachts shortened sail but we took the ride gladly without a hitch and enjoyed the fast track. We were eager to get to the Maldives and join our fellow travelers bound for the Red Sea.

This is our first glimpse of land in 9 days - Kuhlhudufushi, in The Maldives. Join us as we have a brief respite from our many thousand-mile journey before our convoy through "Pirate Alley"!

OK, if you made the side-trip to the Maldives section you will know that our original convoy began to unravel and we decided to join a convoy forming in Uligan that we though had a much better plan. The plan, which is depicted on the map at the top, was to sail south of the main shipping lane from the Gulf of Aden to a point off SW India, then sail about 200 miles east of the large island of Socotra, which is no doubt beautiful but also full of pirate dangers. Our goal was to get to the Gulf of Aden as quickly as possible without adding more miles and time to the journey. We felt that the less time at sea the less chance of getting hijacked. The rest of this narrative sings the praises of the Convoy.

One thing you will see in the rest of this section is rare footage of us at sea. Here we are seen leaving Uligan alongside the plucky little 28' boat, Asia .

This is our first convoy sunset, with 4 other boats visible.

This convoy reminded us of what seamen must have experienced when crossing the Atlantic during WWII and U-boats were lurking most anywhere along the route. We hoped that by staying south of the shipping lane we would avoid most pirate activity, which we did inasmuch as we never saw anything that looked piratical. Still, there was a constant tension that we might see a skiff loaded w/pirate carrying RPGs and AK-47s.

The nights were especially worrisome, although we figured they wouldn't try to attack then. At the outset we sailed under a new moon and it would get pitch-dark. We were sailing with no lights and there was constant thought about running into one another. The stress and lack of sleep became cumulative. Although most boats had radar, it was still challenging to keep at least one quarter mile away while remaining in formation.

Another analogy for this convoy is a wagon train, with the threat of Indian attacks ever-present, even when they are never seen. One tactic for defending the settlers was circling the wagons, which we did in a maneuver we called "Excalibur", in which we would bunch up as closely as possible in the hopes of looking like too much trouble. There is a reason animals form schools and herds: this was our herd. Above we see our one practice run at wagon-circling.

We stayed in contact with UKMTO and tried not to be a major headache for the various navies in the area. Here we get a visit from a warship in the middle of the Arabian Sea, a comforting sight. We don't know whose navy the warship belonged to. This sight to behold did a long lazy circle around us like some sinewy shark before departing south.

At one point one of the boat developed transmission troubles and had to be towed by us. We couldn't leave anyone stranded in such a dangerous area. Prior to our departure from Uligan the pact was that 'No boat would be left behind'. Our flock would stick together ,no matter what.

Or first major relief after 2 weeks was arriving at the IRTC, the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor, a shipping lane through the Gulf of Aden heavily patrolled by warships. Attacks in the IRTC have plummeted but as a result, the pirates have begun to roam the rest of the Arabian Sea.

Convoys are common in the IRTC. This was was caught on AIS. It consisted of Chinese ships being escorted by Chinese warships. We wish we had a picture as it spanned the entire horizon, but this was in the middle of the night.

Our first view of land in weeks - the Yemeni coast. It may sound strange but we were very glad to have arrived there. Let's go on a very small tour of Yemen!

Back in the IRTC, we're visited once again by a warship. They both looked after us and scolded us for being idiotic enough to be in the Gulf of Aden. Not sure whose navy this ship belongs to.

Although we were most of the way through the "lion's mouth" the next stretch was historically the most dangerous as it is very close to the northern Somali coast and near the straits, which is why the Brits built a huge naval base in Aden. We tried staying close to the Yemen coast, but got caught by fishing nets which caused the whole convoy to halt. We limped back to the IRTC where we could at least move around. The strain of so many different boats sailing in formation for weeks was starting to wear crews out. People were falling asleep at the wheel and careening through the convoy. The admiral's nails were chewed down to the quick.

As we said, this voyage was not full of pirate attacks, but the stress of constantly scanning the horizon for skiffs full of Somalis, the memory of the poor Quest on our minds and the added strain of running with no lights at night in a crowded convoy took its toll.

What's the lump of land just below the seagull? That's the Bab El Mandeb, the Gate of Scars. It is where the Gulf of Aden ends and the Red Sea begins. We could finally see the African coast.

All of the Arabian Sea, and most parts of the Indian Ocean as well as the Gulf of Aden have become a no-go zone for ships and yachts. The year of 2011 will probably be the last year that most small yachts traverse this large expanse of water headed for the Red Sea and Suez canal. Until the navies of the world do something to stop the carnage and hijackings of innocents on all shipping, this area is no longer safe.

The Red Sea itself is also prone to pirate attacks, we suspect by pirates that can't make it in the bigtime Gulf of Aden. We were protected from further attacks by an unexpected source. Follow us though the straits to the Red Sea!

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