Gulf of Aden

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Pirates

The commodore announced as we approached the Gulf of Aden and the coast of Somalia about his counter measures in the event of a pirate attack. He informed us that if the alarm was to sound we were to lock ourselves in our cabins and not under any circumstances ‘go have a look’, reminding the ladies that not all pirates look like Johnny Depp!!! He reassured us that the tricks he had up his sleeve (hosepipes and secrets) would defend us well, and anyway the ship would be bigger and faster than any pirates vessel. However the image of pirates being splashed by water as they emptied their rounds of bullets out of their machine guns on us did not fill us with a great peace of mind! Hopefully there were more planned tricks up his sleeve. As we walked the decks through the danger areas we noticed that there were extra look outs as fellow passengers had their eyes peeled on the horizon. One dear lady was convinced she’d seen something suspicious and spent most of the day trying to convince the security guard. The poor man tried to convince her it was just a fishing boat going about its business, she obviously was convinced otherwise and repeatedly graphically drew the picture in the air with her arms of the impending threat! Glad she never had the chance to say ‘I told you so’!

The evening brought extra vigilantes as passengers lined the rails in what looked like a hope of seeing some action and a look of ‘standing together against the blighters’, spotting every brightly lit Christmas lookalike boats as they went about their job of fishing, as if pirates would use any lights and risk getting squirted. There was an uncomfortable vulnerable feeling though during the 3 days of passing through risky territories. However the commodore had placed a big polite sign on the side of the ship for all prospective Jack Sparrows to see asking them not to come any closer than 15m to the ship or else!! (hope they speak English!!) so that was ok.

Little did we know as we were leaving Dubai of the seriousness of our situation on the seas. We were scoffing cakes and watching land disappear whilst a sail-away party arranged by the entertainment officers roared away on the top deck. We thought their choice of music was a little insensitive-Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory etc. obviously the psychology was to prepare Dads army for the impending charge through pirates seas. This was also enhanced by the intelligent choice of movie on that first dodgy night shown on cabin TVs of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’—TRUE.

Anyway our commodore and crew did a grand job steering us through these troubled waters which we are grateful for.

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