Worrying Incident Near Ayerabu Island, Indonesia

Created by doina. Last modified on 2007-03-27 10:18:53
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Topic: Piracy Reports 2005

20th May 2005

Report from: SAILING VESSELL “TEN LARGE ”

Captain: Mr Christopher Turner

Owner: Mr Bryan Lewis, Ms Dawn Strawford

Route: Tioman Island to Port Bintulu. Destination: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

“Ten Large” is a 60ft Cutter Rigged Sloop, built in 1999 with a Perkins 135BHP Engine.

We left Tioman Island (Teluk Tekek) on Wednesday 4th May at Midday, travelled through the night and sighted Ayerabu Island, Indonesia around 8.00am. 5th May 2005. We decided to take a short stop to check and make possible repairs to our Fuel Change Over Pump. As we neared the Island a young man (early Thirties) came to the bow of the boat and was directing us to where he thought we should anchor, we kind of followed him in to the bay and thought “Oh that’s really nice” a friendly face; he had a long tail type boat with outboard engine. This was at 10.30 am.

Whilst we where looking for a good place to set the anchor another boat which we did not see or hear came alongside us. The boat was around 4 meters in length, somewhat like a fishing boat, with an inboard engine. One male was waving a very large gun at us (looked like an AK47 machine gun) I would estimate that there were around 10-12 persons in this boat. We stopped our boat and allowed them to board us, the male with the gun boarded us first followed by 8 others, these where all young males in their thirties. The male with the gun was wearing jeans and a brown and white t-shirt with a marine motif on it, the rest were all dressed in shorts and t-shirts.

The male with the gun asked our Captain to go below decks with him, which he did, this male could speak no English and the only word he uttered was passport, we produced all of our passports for him, he looked at one for a second and then proceeded to the Aft Cabin with the Captain. All he could say was dollars, dollars you have dollars. We told him we didn’t have dollars, the captain offered to him cigarettes in the hope that they would leave, he took the cigarettes but still insisted on money. The male had been onboard now for some 20 minutes or so, the other 8 males were walking around on deck or sat in the cockpit with Bryan and myself.

The captain then gave him around 300.00 Riggits which was all we had close to hand, we did not want to open any cupboards or drawers, due to the fact that the male with the gun was following the Captain at all times. The male was still not satisfied with this amount and then showed it to the rest of the males onboard, they muttered something in Indonesian, and the male (with gun) came back below decks, Bryan followed him this time, to see if it was possible to get him to leave. We think that this agitated him or unnerved him because he proceeded to smash our saloon table with the butt of the gun, as he did this one of the other males immediately came below and again they where muttering in Indonesian together. The male then spotted our hand phones which he took, but they still wanted more money, I gave to them my handbag, I opened the purse and showed them all the money in it around 250.00Ringgits, I gave it all to them and explained that was it, no more money, he could see the purse and all its contents on the table, he took the money and showed it to the others (some of it). They stayed onboard at least another half hour picking up sunglasses, cigars, cigarettes lighters etc anything that was on show they took, but they did not take the fishing rods, outboard engine, or other big things that were above decks.

I did have a digital camera in the saloon, which they could see, but they did not take it or show any interest in. I have pictures of us arriving at the island. They had a few more looks below to see if we had anything else and then decided to leave. They shook hands with us all before they left, the male with the gun called back to the fishing type boat which came alongside, they all departed happy and jolly as if it was just another day at the office. However the first young male who directed us into the anchorage, followed us for about 1 mile before he turned back to the island.

The coordinates where the event took place are: 02.46.064N and 106.12.285E.

We tried to contact Richard on the Asia Net to let him know, it was not possible to contact him, we tried for 3 days, on the 4th day we arrived at Port Bintulu where the Police made us very welcome and helped us moor the boat, we said that once we had everything sorted with the boat we would come and see them for check in etc. We did go to see them twice, but were informed that it was not necessary. Whilst at the anchorage in Brunei we where informed that Richard from the Asia net was trying to locate us, we managed to inform Richard of this incident on 18th May 2005.

We will wait until our arrival at Kota Kinabulu to report this incident to the Police.

Dawn Strawford

SY “Ten Large”