Friday 21 November 2008 08:28
Ericsson 4 - Guy Salter (Media Crew Member)
I guess it must be huge news onshore but in the last day, we have been getting the news of the piracy off Somalia, apologies if this is the thousandth blog mentioning the fact!
Pirates come in all shapes and forms, from the fully organised terrorist style, which we are reading about so much, to the opportunists. There are a lot of reported incidents, which are not piracy at all. I have sailed many, many miles throughout SE Asia and piracy was one of the big worries in this area, all too often curiosity is reported as piracy.
Many a time I would be several hundred miles from land and a small fishing boat would follow you - sometimes for hours on end. On the odd occasion, the fishing boat would come right along side - often with the occupants fully clothed - even the face covered up - and in 30 degrees or more heat.
Now this always looks a worry when confronted by masked assailants, but in reality, the fishermen cover themselves completely to protect themselves from the sun, they can’t go and buy sun cream - no matter what factor! They often come and try to sell you very, very fresh fish - usually for next to nothing or some western food.
These fishermen have probably been on the ocean every day of their lives since their early teens and have not seen a state-of-the-art yacht, which we are so used to in our world. If they are ‘for-real pirates’ - then they will have so much fire power that you would not be able to do anything even if you wanted to.
We are jib reaching along in 16kts of wind, there is still the odd wave over deck and a lot of spray - but nothing like a few days ago. The temperature is rising quickly and the kit bags are filling up with the thermals - which we won’t see until washday (by which time they will probably have learnt to talk...). Life onboard is definitely more civilized
Back to pirates - the only pirates I can think of right now are CBBC's ‘Space Pirates’ - a show all parents of the young ones will be familiar with and all of whom will surely be able to sing the theme song - which will probably be stuck in my head for the next 24hrs
All good here
Received 08:28 GMT