October 1, 2006 - Anniversary of 9-11
by Al & Beth Liggett

We have been in the United States for the past six months, taking a sabbatical from sailing and doing some land cruising for a change. Thus, we were in the States for the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 disaster. On September 11th we were driving our car across the state of Kansas and missed the nonstop TV coverage of the replay of the event and the ceremonies of commemoration. Maybe that was a good thing.

I see that my report concerning this tragedy five years ago has been recently re-posted from the archives of SetSail. When that disaster happened in 2001 we were in a quiet marina in Malaysia. We wondered about the possible effects that changes in the world would have on our cruising plans. We also wondered how it would change the cruising plans of other cruisers enroute to Malaysia, Thailand, and points West.

As I thought then, our plans changed very little. We continued to sail the coasts of Malaysia and Thailand. We continued to fly our American flag and felt no hostility. We continued to make plans to sail to the Chagos Islands, and then sailed out there in January of 2002. There seemed to be a record number of yachts in Chagos that year, quite possibly because the US war in Afghanistan had turned cruisers away from plans of a Red Sea passage.

That being said, there were also record numbers of yachts going across the North Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea too. Pirates were a bigger problem for boats in those waters than either wars or politics. Crossing the Indian Ocean was still on - in any direction. Quite a few yachts also stayed in the waters of Thailand and Malaysia to travel and explore SE Asia better, and to work on their boats. Perhaps it was just a record year for yachts, period.

In June 2002 we left Chagos and returned to Langkawi, Malaysia, our newly adopted home base. There had been no changes to affect our status as visitors to the country, nor were the people hostile in word or deed to us. We continued to fly our American flag, and still do.

We are quite happy to be based in Malaysia, a Muslim country. One thing that really struck us on this visit Stateside, was how many people expressed concern that we were living in a Muslim country. They assumed that the people in Malaysia hated Americans. One can only think this is a media-presented outlook. We are quick to point out how cordial our relationship is with the local people in our area.

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