Dutch Yacht Couple Leaving Thailand Demand Navy Escort

[moe666]

Funny,funny.

[LaoPo]

Dockwise Yacht Transport to deliver 20 cruising sailboats from Oman

Thursday, 17 March 2011

Dockwise Yacht Transport (DYT)* will be orchestrating the transport of 20 private cruising yachts from Salalah, Oman to Marmaris, Turkey in April. The company, best known for its fleet of semi-submersible "float-on/float-off" yacht carriers, also coordinates lift-on/lift-off arrangements with third-party carriers, and logistically can fulfill almost any request, even if it is driven by unfortunate circumstances.

"Due to increased piracy, cruising sailors are altering their plans for getting from southeastern Asia to the Mediterranean," said DYT President Clemens van der Werf. "By virtue of their independent and adventurous nature, some of these sailors had not previously thought about shipping as an alternative, but they are thinking differently now. Dockwise is committed to assisting them in all phases of learning about the process and then implementing a plan so they can ship to designated ports rather than travel through dangerous waters on their own."

Van der Werf explained that in mid-February four Americans, on board a sailboat hijacked by pirates off the coast of Oman, were killed by their captors, and more recently, Somali pirates took hostage seven Danes, including three children, after hijacking their yacht off the Somali coast.

Continues:

http://www.superyach...article/id/5925

* http://www.yacht-tra...m/homepage.html

LaoPo

[Buchholz]

^ a very reasonable option...

[Artificerman]

It is the British Royal Navy as they are in command of the Task Force protecting the area at present, their main task is to protect merchant ships, these people need to get a life and get REAL, as someone else posted, sell the frigging boat and fly.

Not sure the Thai navy are involved at all - indeed no involvement from Thailand apart from it being their port of departure. Royal Navy in this case will be the British Navy since it is aq quote from a UK newspaper.

Thai navy has just returned from a stint patrolling for pirates.

[LaoPo]

^ a very reasonable option...

A reasonable and wise option indeed.

However.......honesty commands me to inform that I received information that the Alondra is not booked on the Dockwise Carrier, sailing with 20 docked yachts in April from Salalah/Oman to Turkey.

That could mean that the Alondra is still with the other 9 yachts and maybe they left Salalah/Oman last night, IF I have to believe their info, as given in my last translated previous post of March 19th, written by the 2 cameramen on board of the Alondra.

May God have mercy for the crews on these yachts on their trip to Aden/Yemen although I assume they will stay very close to shorelines and knowing that past Pirate hijackings never took place so close to the shores of Oman and Yemen and that these waters are heavily patrolled by EUNAVFOR as well as Omani and Yemen coast guards next to the US Navy Ships from the 5th Fleet -from Bahrain- in the area; but which of course is no guarantee whatsoever.

The closest (to Yemen's shoreline) pirated Vessel was on March 29, 2010 which is, obviously pretty close:

Reports have been received by EU NAVFOR that the MV Iceberg 1 has been hijacked 10 nautical miles off the port of Aden, Yemen, outside the International Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC).

From: http://www.eunavfor....-close-to-aden/

UPDATE:

After I wrote the above, I found out that there was another report, written on March 20th by the 2 camera men on board of the Alondra.

In short it says that they watched the return into Salalah harbor of a pirated Bangladesh Vessel, the MV JAHAN MONI which was pirated on december 5, 2010 and released on March 14:

In the morning of 14 March, the EU NAVFOR French frigate FS NIVÔSE provided assistance to the MV JAHAN MONI after she was released from pirate control.

From: http://www.eunavfor....erchant-vessel/

The story about this Bangladesh vessel is frighening absurd; the crew told the Bangladeshi negotiator and 2 camera men that 3 weeks AFTER they were hijacked, they were attacked by another group of rivaling pirates who wanted to take the ship away from the occupying pirates.

The shoot-out took more than 5 hours between the 2 groups of pirates after which the new group disappeared...

AFTER the ransom of $ 4 million was paid, 2 British Marines came on board (they are paid by the owners of the cargo: 4,500 tons of nickel) and informed that another (third!) group tried to re-hijack the MV JAHAN MONI....it took them quite a while of shooting before the skiffs with pirates disappeared.

Apart from the story about this Bangladesh Vessel and film they made on board this ship, they informed that there were indeed 14 other yachts in Salalah/Oman and all of them booked passage on the Yacht Carrier.

BUT: the crew of all yachts knew the 4 American crew/owners on board of the Quest Yacht* and who were murdered by the pirates; the pirates who are now on trial in the US.

The crews on these 14 yachts are so frightened that they don't want to sail any further and took the option of boarding the Yacht Carrier of Dockwise.

* Quest Yacht: 5 Facts on the Americans Killed by Somali Pirates

http://www.aolnews.c...somali-pirates/

LaoPo

Edited March 22, 2011 by LaoPo

[LaoPo]

UPDATE:

The Alondra, sailing in a convoy of 9 yachts, left Salalah/Oman on Sunday night March 20th and sailed to the harbor city of Al Mukalla in Yemen where they had to stay because of necessary repairs on several yachts.

Some yachts were having troubles with the many fishing nets, close to the shores of Oman and Yemen.

From there they sailed to Aden/Yemen where they arrived yesterday, Monday March 28th.

They will leave in a few days and sail to a harbor in Eritrea ; possibly Masowa in the Red Sea.

From: http://www.dvhn.nl/doordegolfvanaden/

LaoPo

[LaoPo]

UPDATE

April 12 - 2011

The convoy has 10 yachts now.

After they left Aden, Yemen they sailed for three days and nights to Bab-el-Mandeb, the "entrance" to the Red Sea between Yemen and Djibouti on the mainland of Africa.

They didn't see any warships from the combined navies nor any pirates.

From there they set foot on land in Eritrea since one of the 2 camera men on board of the Alondra has to travel to the Capital City Asmera/Eritrea from where he will travel further to The Netherlands via Egypt, because his camera went down and he has to work on the film, made so far about the journey.

The convoy sailed and motored (because of Northern winds) further to Masowa in Eritrea from where they will sail further north to Egypt and Suez Canal via Sudan.

For a visual idea of the locations between India, via Oman, Yemen and Eritrea (with numbers of captured vessels) see this link on PAGE 2 (scroll down!)

http://www.eunavfor.eu/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Pirated-Vessel-11.04.2011.pdf

From: http://www.dvhn.nl/doordegolfvanaden/

Conclusion: the convoy made it through the most dangerous pirated areas and is now in the Red Sea, way north of Somali shores. To give an impression about the distances.....The Somali coastline is more than 3,300 Km's long! (more than 2,000 Miles)

LaoPo