Leaving Oman, we headed into more troubled waters. Our two ports of call in Yemen were cancelled because of increased unrest and kidnapping of foreigners. We hate when that happens. Yemen was one of the countries we had most hoped to visit, but it was quite clear that this was not a good time to come calling. Out of the frying pan and into the fire – we proceeded directly to the Gulf of Aden, scene of all the piracy and ship hijacking in the last year or two.
Traversing the Gulf of Aden had been a topic of conversation among passengers and crew for quite some time. In fact, the passenger count was down significantly because not all were willing to risk it. (We, of course, thought of it as a great adventure). The crew had started preparations in Mumbai, installing barbed wire along the lower crew deck to make it difficult to climb up the sides with grappling hooks. Later they installed high-power fire hoses on the outside decks to spray off any pesky pirates. The crew ran drills. We received an ominous note telling us to keep the curtains shut at night to minimize visibility of the ship (not a problem for us in our inside cabin). We were assigned new muster stations (gathering places in case of emergency) in the deep interior of the ship. The ship was assigned to go through a particular “corridor” that was being monitored by the multi-national naval force in the area. At the last minute (and without warning), the satellite link (TV, Internet, cell) was cut so that we would not give our position away electromagnetically.
We entered the outer edge of the pirate’s domain as the sun went down, and would remain in danger for about 36 hours. Crew were assigned around the clock on all the outside decks, to scan with binoculars for danger. The passengers continued on with their normal comfortable lifestyle.
We awoke in the heart of pirate's territory, and after breakfast I told Scott jokingly that I was going out on the back deck to look for pirates. It was a lovely, clear, sunny day. As I scanned the horizon, I noticed in the far distance a little streak of waves – looking more closely in was a small, open boat, moving at a very high rate of speed toward the ship. Hmmmm……these were just the types of ships favored by the pirates. I chatted with one of the bar waitresses, and she said “Look over there!” – and there was another very fast, small open boat coming towards the ship from another direction. More people started scanning the water, including a growing congregation of staff. Another two boats were spotted, closing in on the ship from yet more angles. This was getting interesting. Scott & I dashed to our cabins to grab our cameras, thinking we might be able to sell the pictures to CNN or something.
At this point there were five fast pirate-like boats streaking towards the ship. I asked one of the staff, shouldn't they point this out to the captain? They got closer and closer, but the ship didn't make any evasive maneuvers. Finally, the captain came over the intercom to announce that was a rich school of tuna up ahead, and all the boats we saw were Yemeni fishermen racing towards this hotspot, which lay directly in the ships path. Sure enough, within five minutes, were surrounded by dozens of open fishing boats pulling tuna from the sea. This was 70+ miles from the Yemeni coast, hence the need for the fast engines.
Alas, no photo sales to CNN. But we still had another 24 hours to go till we were safe. There was no more excitement, and we exited the dangerous waters the following morning. But only five or six hours behind us, two ships had been seized, including the one with the American captain who was taken hostage. We were lucky to get the excitement of pirates without the reality of pirates.
Next: Awesome Oman
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