Mediterranean to Singapore: Cruising Report

Created by doina. Last modified on 2008-01-17 14:27:32
Contributors:
Topic: Piracy
Countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Oman, Yemen

We have received the following report from a yacht that recently sailed from the Mediterranean to Singapore:

The transit of the Suez Canal was easy and simple even if the pilots were the usual pain. The second pilot was very pushy and demanding from the moment he got on - he wasn't content with cigarettes and some cash he also wanted the clothes off our backs and was quite argumentative and disgruntled when he left.

An update re Gulf of Aden: No sign of any pirates, although it was rough weather. Our boat left Djibouti and was tracking a central line through the Gulf of Aden but suffered an equipment failure so headed for the coast of Yemen and hugged it to Salalah, Oman. The only comment re pirates was from conversations we had with locals once we got to Oman: that the baddies have the boats and gear and if they want to go after and get a boat they will. We also had several email exchanges with yachts that had recently transited and none had any problems.