Bad news always makes the news and overshadows all the good news. So we would like to preface this report with the proviso that in 9 years of cruising we have felt more safe and secure than we ever did living in an intruder-alarmed house with a police station at the end of the road. And we have encountered more friendliness and a warmer welcome from complete strangers and the many seafaring friends we have made than ever we did from our neighbours in London.

So it is sad and disappointing to report the very bad news of two armed attacks on yachts in the Gulf of Aden in the past couple of weeks.

The facts are as follows:

In position 13.31 N 48.24 E, approximately 30 miles off the coast of Yemen at 0630 hours (local time) on 2 March the British flagged BAMBOLA QUATRE and German single hander yacht JOSEPHINE were approached by three boats and fired on. BAMBOLA was rammed and boarded. The pirates threatened the crew and stole money, watches and electronic equipment, including all the yacht's radios.

A second attack took place at 13.11 N 48.40 E in the morning of 9 March by the same boats against five yachts traveling in convoy--PENLYNN, GYPSY DAYS, IMANI, NARINA, and SEA DOVE (Nationalities: American, Australian, British). The convoy outran the pirate vessels.

The boats responsible for the attacks were smuggling people from Somalia to Yemen and it seems as if they simply came across the yachts and the robberies were just opportunistic. Yachts are very careful not to broadcast their position in this area and minimize their use of VHF.

Every yacht planning to transit the Gulf of Aden is an avid reader of the Red Sea Pilot and the various updates and piracy reports in the Internet. The Pilot gives an excellent and well balanced account of the risks and the precautions that yachts can take to avoid them. (The main action most boats took was to travel in convoy but clearly this does seem to deter these criminals. Only an official armed escort would seem to serve this purpose.)

This year in particular yachts had other risks to consider, i.e. the impending conflict with Iraq, but one of the more positive byproducts would be the increased presence of warships in the Gulf. When we transited the Gulf we heard substantial amounts of warship traffic and at night were even picking up low flying helicopters providing top cover for warships on our radar. It was rather disconcerting to see a target zapping around the screen like a demented insect.

So when the yacht BAMBOLA broadcast a Mayday it was with some relief that owner Michael Briant heard a US fleet auxiliary reply, saying they would come to his assistance. When the ship arrived the captain checked on the yacht's crew then pursued the pirate boats, locating them easily and circling them several times. It seems that the captain did not feel that he could take any further action other than report the incident to his HQ, which left BAMBOLA now without a radio (JOSEPHINE did not have an SSB) to head for Djibouti to effect repairs and replacements. No doubt the captain's decision, which he referred to his HQ, was based on sensitive political considerations but it left cruising yachts feeling very vulnerable, as no doubt the pirate boats concluded that they could act with impunity. Hence the second attack a few days later.

When the second attack took place a routine SSB cruisers net was underway and the skipper of PENLYNN asked for a description of the boats that had attacked BAMBOLA then confirmed he too was under attack. BAMBOLA was by then in Djibouti and owner Michael Briant alerted a German warship in the harbour who communicated with other coalition warships at sea and ensured that aid was dispatched. The yachts outran the pirate boats on this occasion but despite the nearby warships being made aware of events the pirates were once again allowed to escape.

Latterly the problem seems to be receiving some attention and yachts currently transiting the Gulf are reporting seeing military aircraft overflowing their routes. Also the UK Maritime Component Commander in Bahrain has requested a point of contact to provide yacht locations so that appropriate cover (probably aircraft patrols to alert warships) can be provided. The time and frequency of the cruiser's SSB net has been passed to him (8173 kHz at 0500 UTC).

Most yachts intending to travel up the Red Sea to Suez are through by now, but the flow of boats heading south to carry the SW monsoon across the Indian Ocean is only just beginning. Listening to the reports of these attacks on the radio must be very disturbing for them.