Pirate Preparations
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2008
1
129
150
Trip End
Dec 20, 2008
Where I stayed
MV Aenne Rickmers
Arabian Sea, Oman
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Gulf of Aden N 14° 57.0' E 53° 59.6'
A fine day and no-one painting the decks, so I was able to do a few extra laps to make up for recent limitations. I don't know whether the non-painting is because it's Sunday or because extra crew are now deployed as lookouts. No boats in sight so far, I'm pleased to say.
The captain gets a wire service that amounts to being "Pirate News". Today's reports two incidents from yesterday, both within a few miles of where we're currently heading. In both cases, armed men in boats attempted to board large ships. Neither was successful in capturing the ship being attacked, but the intensity of the activity has increased so much that I've had to revise my previous view that it was statistically extremely improbable that anything would happen.
At 10:00 we had reached a point about 120 miles off the Omani coast and we'll be heading WSW down the northern side of the Gulf of Aden, at about 20kt; the most critical time will be early morning tomorrow.
Apart from the pirate issue, it was a very pleasant day, especially after 17:00, when it was cool and calm with the occasional ship passing and just a few clouds. First mate saw a sperm whale; apparently, I had just missed it when I went to look at the chart at 17:30.
