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Subject: RE: [worldcruising] Re: Routes to UK - Piracy
From: Geoff Duniam (tropical_guru@XXX.XXX)
Date: Thu Jan 11 2001 - 01:55:13 EST
Morning all,
Some more food for thought - I received this reply from a friend of mine in
June last year. He's currently preparing his boat in Malaysia for a crossing
to the Med and the UK.
"The general gass on pirates is that it's a very, very
small risk. Everyone I've met up here who've cruised around
all over Indonesia / Malaysia / Thailand, and even
Philipines had no encounters, nor have I heard of any from
these contacts. I think the pirate fable is all grossly
over-rated and stories get generated from lack of
information. Maybe one in a thousand yachts have any kind
of encounter up here, and those are the stories which get
amplified amongst the would be cruisers to the area. My
uncle has spent 15-20 years up here with no problem at all.
We thought Indonesia too risky at the time too, but now I
regret not having seen much more of the small islands to
the north of Flores, then Komodo, Lombok and Bali, though
we would've spent a lot more time travelling. The Malacca
Straight is safe, I don't know what urged your friend to
ship his yacht from Darwin."
Perhaps I should also point out that Steve's been up that way and cruising
there on and off for a couple of years, and his post is in reference to SE
Asia only.
Red Sea - another friend of mine returned from a delivery there last year,
and reported no problems. Personally, I think I'd have to agree with Rick -
generally speaking, there would be more pressing concerns to worry about. In
fact, I think my friends experience bears this out - while he had no
problems with the locals, a navigational error put him on a reef and he lost
the boat. Spent eighteen hours in a liferaft and was picked up on the Somali
coastline. BTW, he has nothing but praise for the locals there.
Of course, these are only individual experiences, and there are well
documented cases or boardings, theft and assaults; all I'm suggesting is
that it's put in perspective. If we worry ourselves into paranoia over every
problem that could cause us harm, we'd never go anywhere. And that would be
a shame.
Just my 2c worth.
Fair winds all (it's cyclone season here!)
Geoff.
PS Lew - how's that boat coming along?
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