Pirates

On Jan 29th I set sail across the Indian Ocean with Crisa, from Brazil, on his 36ft sailboat, Vagabond. Stopping in Maldives along the way, we were at sea 16days from Phuket to Maldives and then 9 days at sea from Maldives to Oman. The Maldives to Oman stretch is notorious for pirate activity, as such Crisa made plans to join a convoy of 25 or so other boats, named "TTT" (Thailand to Turkey). This was supposed to be the route, and as you can imagine I was stoked. Dream come true!

Over 600 hostages are currently being held captive by the Somali pirates. The vast majority of the hostages are from large freighter/container ships. Before I set sail from Thailand the most recent pirate attack on a private yacht was in Oct 2010-- This boat was quite close to the Somali coast, further south than the typical Indian Ocean Passage from Maldives or Somalia. Within the past few weeks however "the rules of engagement have changed", as yachty's everywhere are saying, with two private yachts captured within days of each other. These boats were captured during the same time frame I happened to be smack in the middle of my passage from Maldives to the Red Sea.

Friday, Jan 14 journal passage, before leaving Phuket: Spent my first night on the Vagabond. Crisa and I drank a bottle of wine and started conversation with "what's the one thing that people do on your boat that really pisses you off" and "what do your good friends posses in life that you wish you had". Conversation was good. Crisa is a beautiful, Brazilian bachelor that likes to party, admittedly looking for his wife as he sails the seas. Not desperately seeking by any means, just "focused" as he put it. He would prefer to have children with a woman from another country so the kiddos "have perspective". He left Brazil in 2007 and has been sailing around the world since. He lived in the states for a bit as a kid and despises "American competition" ... says he feels bad for us, actually. He loves pancakes or a toasted cheese sandwich in the morning and sometimes takes more than one shower a day. A little too clean for my taste. Though he denies it, when he asks if I want to take a shower I can't help but think that its a strong suggestion and not a simple question. I can be a stinky hippy sometimes, after all. He attempted to grow a beard while at sea because I told him men were most handsome with beards. He couldn't get past the itch and it was preemptively shaved. With a thick Brazilian accent, any word ending in in "ed" is pronounced literally, so I'm constantly thinking he's talking about some guys named Ed (ie, "Use Ed" instead of "Used"). Also when he says "chart plotter" it sounds like he's saying "shark blocker", as such, my heart jumps in fear when he says "im gonna go bellow and look at the sharks". He believes in god, but a unanimous, unaffiliated, non-dogmatic, sort of god-of-all-gods. He believes wholeheartedly in a humans ability to "switch", in an instant, one's outlook for the better, regardless the circumstance. Stay positive. He does not know any constellations (shame) and I make it my goal to show him some of my favorites. Crisa seems unmoved by the whole pirate situation and thinks that the chances of run in with said vagabonds are very very slim and that everyone is blowing things out of proportion.I'm not so convinced.

I really grappled with my decision to go because of the pirates. In an email to my mum before going:  "I trust Crisa and his experience. Ive observed him carefully the past two weeks- taking note of the things I like and the less desirable traits. Watching how he interacts with other people. How we communicates on the boat. I feel confident and comfortable. Ive gone over my list of 20x10 questions for him about safety and operations. Ive met many other people on boats sailing tandem-- just the two of them, with various levels of experience. I think that I work harder and pay closer attention to the technical aspects than alot of other ladies. Still, I know  Im not superwoman and need to keep my head on straight while im out there. I was scared shitless actually, having never sailed such a distance before through pirate waters nonetheless. For two weeks as Crisa and I prepared the boat to leave Phuket, I constantly weighed the pros and cons. I made lists. Every chance I got I talked to other yachties and cruisers and land-locked people alike. Thing is, everyone had their own opinion. Opinions varied greatly-- maybe that's a sign in itself.... when the masses can't agree on something, "somethings" up-- right? Some days I felt determined and at ease about going- so excited for what lies ahead. Scared other times, I awoke from sleep once, abruptly sitting up, gasping for air, my heart pounding with anxiety. Sometimes it literally felt like I was taking on a decision "to die or not to die". A sign of intuition... right? Don't go. Thing is, since beginning my travels in November I've been learning loads about my propensity to exaggerate. Anyone that knows me well can attest-- I tend to exaggerate ... tend to focus on the negative... create fear and self doubt when reality doesn't necessarily warrant it! I kept thinking that perhaps this was one of those situations and that maybe this was a chance to move beyond my fears and doubts and manifest positivity-- POOF! But in the end, make no mistake, this trip was something to be reasonably concerned about.

The Thailand to Maldives passage was a good challenge and I feel like I discovered a lot about myself. It seems that emotional patterns and ways of being are much easier to over analyze when the daily hustle and bustle of life is gone. So, being the compulsive over-analyzer that I am, I was in luck! Day after day of "nothingness". If you're not careful actually, the ocean starts to look and feel like a desert. Empty solitude. But then you remember that this is a blue planet, after all, and the ocean below is teeming with life and your sail boat is reliant on the very hydrosphere that, well... makes the world go round! It's humbling and inspiring. As you'll see from my photos, I saw some incredible sunsets and sunrises!  An email to my family upon arriving in the Maldives: We were at sea for 16 days. For much of the journey the waves and current and wind were not in our favor so it was very slow going. Plus we stopped at one of the Nicobar islands along the way and stayed for two nights, repairing the auto pilot (its all good now) and waiting for some bad weather to pass. There was no civilization on this island- otherwise would have contacted you! The island was a total creep show- like something out of Lost. very erie. I was very scared the first few days sailing, being new at this and all. the waves seemed huge to me-- as i had more days under my belt i realized they really weren't that big. The trip was pretty emotionally challenging sometimes. so much time to think. i have a hard time doing "nothing". I wrote a lot, played guitar (I can play!), worked on crossword puzzles, read, slept. Its also very physically tiring because the boats always moving and your constantly having to hold yourself steady. Even in your sleep.We had some storms- some very wet nights, but also some sunny days too. During the stormy bit my feet were pruned for 2 days straight! I was really looking forward to the stars at night, but the clouds during the day are actually even more spectacular! Im on watches at night from 10pm-2am and 6am-10am, while Crisa sleeps. I think about all of you a lot during these times. When we passed the 10 day mark i often closed my eyes and thought of each of you and tried to reassure you that I was ok. We will leave with our group from here, likely in two days. This next passage to Salalah, Oman will take 10-15 days. We should for sure be there by the 1st of March if we leave this Wednesday from Maldives.
 

Upon arrival in Maldives, we discovered that the TTT convoy had pretty much dissolved. A boat that was in the convoy greeted us and said "the pirate situation has exploded" with some new tankers being recently seized. Some of the TTT convoy left the day before we arrived and decided to go north, hugging the Indian coast all along the way. A few boats decided that that presented it's own risks, keeping you in potential pirate waters even longer. Some boats thought it better to make a straight, quick dash across the Indian Ocean, thereby decreasing the amount of time spent in pirate waters. Some boats had given up all together, deciding to "ship their ships" to Turkey for $30,000 or more. Crisa and I teemed up with two other boats, LaPalapa and Scot Free III. They were of the "make a straight, quick dash across the Indian Ocean" pirate-water-philosophy. They thought the other boats had too much time to sit and stew in fear in the Maldives and were blowing things out of proportion. They reiterated again that up until that point, the only private vessel to be taken was the one further south, close to Somalia in Oct, far from our proposed route. "We're small fish" they said. They don't want Yachts. It's tankers the pirates are after. Big money.

The 3 of us set sail from Maldives on February 17th. Soon after we set sail we got word that a private sailing vessel called Quest had been captured in route to Oman. The next day we found out that all the passengers were shot and killed.

To complicate matters, after the first couple of days it was apparent that there were some miss-communications between my boat and the others about a minimum speed to maintain during the passage. First of all, the other boats were capable of going much faster than us just because of their sail set-up and motor sizes. But on top of that, it seemed that Vagabond was under-preforming while motoring without wind. Crisa insisted there was nothing wrong with his engine but the others were not convinced. Actually, Crisa was being quite stubborn I thought and I was beginning to fear that the others would leave us. LaPalalapa was hinting that maintaining such a slow speed increased our exposure to pirates as we bobbed along slowly in the ocean (not a bad point, all in all). Scot Free was an excellent mediator, trying to provide sound, reasonable advice, in good compromise. Afraid of being left by the others, one day I was in and out of tears. It was my opinion that if we lost the others, we lost every ounce of our pirate prevention. Our boat did not have radar or AIS to track other boats. We would lose our "power in numbers" protection. Also, Roger on LaPalapa was in touch with various governments and orgs every days about recent pirate activity and weather updates which gave us a step up making safe changes to the route to avoid pirates. I felt extremely helpless, scared and anxious. Finally Crisa ran some diagnostic tests on the engine, realizing that it was under preforming and discovered that our propeller had fallen off! If you're not clear on what this means, loosing your propeller means you have absolutely no way to propel your boat forward unless there is wind.... aaaaaand the weather forecasted NO WIND coming our way for days and days. Not an ideal arrangement in pirate waters. As Roger from LaPalapa says, "sub-optimal".

To make matters worse, at the same time all this was happening with our propeller AND after the sad news about Quest, another boat was taken by pirates. They were quite close to us actually, and Scot Free could hear a VHF transmition from a helicopter responder trying to communicate with the boat. The boat had sent an e-purb signal but was not responding otherwise. This incident hit close to home. The boat's name is "ING" (like the bank) and they left the Maldives the same morning we did. When they arrived on the island they asked me for advice on accessing the internet -- hard to come by on a small island with such basic provisions and a steady population of about 400. 3 beautiful blond children clung onto their tall, matronly mother. They were all so tall with deep tans and beautiful smiles. The 17 year old son had hair so blond it was almost white. Their boat was anchored right by ours and as their laundry hung from every spare space of line I couldn't help but feel they were living a dream I'd like to replicate someday with my own family. I was very curious and envious of them- so many beautiful, smiling people on that boat! I think there were 6 or 7 in total on the boat. My imagination wondered around an adventurous family at sea. What a life for those kids! Crisa gave them our convoys way points and invited them to tag along on the passage to the Red Sea. As Crisa reached up from our dingy to hand the mother our coordinates, all the others on the boat curiously peered up from the cabin. They were noncommittal about joining our group but graciously smiled and thanked Crisa. "We'll see you guys around" he said. The morning we left our convoy flew past ING at 5.5 knots- they must have been strictly sailing. Again, my mind romanticized about a family committed to traveling the world by wind and minimal engine use. "Oh... they're even 'green'!" I thought. I tracked their boat on the horizon for a couple of hours, every few minutes looking back. As they shrunk on the edge of the horizon I couldn't help but think how vulnerable they looked, all alone out there. It's been confirmed that all aboard ING are being held hostage and are alive. I'm really disturbed to think of what they all must be going through... the kids especially. This is the most recent news I can find on ING. If you find other updates please post.

My group of three boats were extremely lucky. Extremely blessed. After we lost our propeller we had remarkable wind, enabling us to sail at even a steady 8 knots for hours sometimes. Occasionally during this time the wind would dip and for a few hours we would bob along at 4 knots or just below. Again , this was very stressful, feeling so vulnerable. Especially in light of what happened with ING and Quest just days before. I tried to steer my mind from the thought of death... from imagining very specifically what it would feel like to die from gun shot wounds... from what the pirates might subject young women to before death. All very scary thoughts. More lessons in the pros and cons of  over annalyzation.

On Feb 25th, a US Warship rendezvoused with us. Journal entry, Feb 25, N13.44 & E056.40, 1:20 am: The warship has arrived! They will escort us to Salalah. What a night. The Bio-luminescence and stars shining strong. At frist a helicopter flew by overhead and then 2 US warships closed in on us. On ship has continued SE, presumably to ING. No one knows whats happened to all aboard ING. Our warship is such a comfort. I experienced highs and lows beyond anything I ever felt before. Death and fear in face. Pirates... loss of our prop. Wow. I feel so indebted to our accompanying buddy boats, LaPalapa and Scot Free. I'm also feeling a lot of guilt for having put my family through this. Wondering how they are keeping up with my status out here. Wondering if they even know there is a warship here?! What have I gotten myself into... that I'm being escorted by a warship?!

At this point we were still sailing, having wind sufficient enough to keep us moving forward without arranging a tow line from another boat to our, prop-less, vessel. When the wind would leave us at times, though, I was amazed that the warship stayed with us at 4 knots. How slow for a warship! They must be itching to move! The VHF communications with the warship were amusing. A strange combination of serious business and emotion in light of the situation. My most favorite warship quote is "US warship 84 copies all". I felt more patriotic than ever before, having a warship from my own country protect me halfway around the world from the states. Why they chose us to shadow to the coast is a mystery to me. Roger on LaPalapa is an ex-marine from the states. Maybe he pulled some strings? Its not like we were the only boats out there. Others would have greatly appreciated the protection. I gues there are only so many warships to go around? As we found when we reached Oman and met other yachts, every boat had their story. Some even with near misses with pirates attempting to pull them away from their convoy. We were so lucky. 

How far are you willing to go for adventure and self-discovery? What exactly are you willing to risk? What's your limit? How do you even know what your limit is until, perhaps, its too late? What are you trying to prove, if anything by taking such risks? What's the impact on others... on your loved ones? Is the impact worth it to you? Is that selfish? What if your loved ones disagree with your decision to push on? How do you reconcile their disagreement with your own desires and need to push yourself? These are all questions that have been heavy on my mind since arriving to Salalah. Its always been my philosophy to never have regrets in life, but this came very close.

Ive spent the past few days in the United Arab Emirates, stocking up on a little bit of comfort and luxury before re-entering the back-packing scene. Tomorrow I catch a flight to Kathmandu where I'll meet up with 3 guys that also crewed on boats these past few weeks on the same passage. We'll all enjoy the comfort of knowing what one another has been through while we traverse a new land-locked adventure in Nepal. 

Roger from LaPalapa in his Dingy at sea, setting up a tow rope from Scot Free to our boat.

Scot Free III towing us into Salalah Port, Oman.

Another convoy, Blue Water Rallie (BWR) having a most "private" meeting in Salalah Port. Many BWR boats are paying upwards of $40,000 to "ship their ships" to Turkey instead of sailing on through the Gulf Aden, to the Red Sea.

You can see our route penciled from Maldives to Oman-- off to the right, center-right-ish in yellow marks where SV ING was high jacked by pirates. My boat, Vagabond lost it's propeller somewhere around bottom right.

This is me in my most patriotic moment, with my new BFF, U.S. Warship 84.