Like most Americans, we have sat stunned with horror by the events unfolding in New York for the last 2 days. This is one time a major news story did not pass us by.

Tom and Bob came knocking on the hull Tuesday night. (Remember: we are 12 hours ahead of New York time.) "Turn on the BBC," they said, "a plane has just flown into the World Trade Center in New York." And so it began.

At first, we just turned on our radio and listened with disbelief. By then reports of the second plane crash were being broadcast, as well as live reports from BBC commentators on the scene in New York. The words "terrorist attack" were being used. When the breaking news of the crash into the Pentagon Building came over the air it struck like a physical blow, jerking us upright in our seats, holding our breath for the next deadly piece of news.

Six of us cruisers -- 4 Americans, 2 Canadians, gathered in TULUM's cockpit to listen to the BBC reports. It was a somber group. Opinions, conjectures, reactions were tempered by the sheer audacity of the attacks. It helped to be together. All of us had been to the WTC at some time. All of us had seen photos and TV footage of plane crashes. Four of us had witnessed a building in Guam coming down in a controlled explosion. But none of our mental pictures prepared us for seeing the reality of what actually happened.

The next morning Elliot, an Australian living in a nearby apartment, invited us over to watch the news on CNN. And we saw those staggering, unbelievable videos of the fire, of the plane crashing into the building, of the collapse of the towers, of the inferno at the Pentagon, and the wreckage of the 4th plane. It was hard to make sense out of something that looked like a Hollywood production. Those images will be on instant replay in our minds forever.

Here in Malaysia, the World's Tallest Buildings, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, were evacuated on Wednesday with a bomb threat. Several American companies have offices in those buildings. Security at the US Embassy was increased. International schools were closed or imposed special security measures. Flights and tours to the US were canceled. A hotline for Malaysian citizens with family and friends in New York has been established.

On a personal level, Malaysians have been extending their condolences and sorrow to us as American citizens. Some hold our hands and shake their heads, not having enough English to express their feelings adequately. Some have questions we can only reply to with information from listening to the BBC radio news broadcasts. But then, there really aren't any answers yet, are there?