OWNER REPORT
Keith and Rosemary Hamilton set out on a circumnavigation in their
Oyster 62, Carpe Diem, from the Balearic Islands in September 2004.
Here, Keith describes their passage through the Gulf of Aden and the
Red Sea on route to the Suez Canal and their return to the Mediterranean.
February 2008 was a great month competent negotiator brokering the
for Carpe Diem, our Oyster 62. deal to minimize the chances of
We arrived in the Maldive Islands after damage to the product (us!).
an uneventful trip from Langkawi,
Malaysia and spent several wonderful We had no discussion about weapons.
weeks swimming and snorkeling in the Being brought up in Great Britain and
fabulous waters and reefs of the area. having lived in Canada for several
As we were getting close to decades we do not have a ‘gun
completing our circumnavigation that mentality’. My belief is that carrying
had started in England in 2004, guns on board turns what is a
we felt that we had enough tropical primarily robbing situation into a
experiences to be able to make killing situation (which I would
pronouncements on the quality of certainly lose), and that in a primarily
waters. Without doubt the reefs, corals killing situation a mild mannered
and fish around the Maldive Islands Canadian with a shotgun is not going
were the best we had seen anywhere. to prevail over a gang of pirates with
The population density is quite low AK 47’s who have been using them
once you are outside Male, the main for many years. I am not trying to
island, and there are many many spots convince anyone of the correctness of
that are essentially untouched. In an my views, or justify them, I just state
attempt to protect their environment them. Over many years of cruising we
(or the local boat chartering industry) have found that the topic of carrying
the Maldive government makes it quite arms on board a vessel, like the topics
expensive to cruise the islands, but it of religion and politics, is not
is well worth it. Be wary (as always) amenable to rational discussion.
of electronic charts in the Maldives
as there was significant offset in some We also decided not to join a convoy,
of the atolls as you can see in the and to motor/sail at maximum speed
photograph of our chart plotter. in the danger area, with no lights at
night, and radio silence.
All good things come to an end
however and in mid-March we left The weather forecast was good when
Male on our next leg to Suez though we left Male with a forecast of fair
the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. winds from the NE. We planned to sail
The thought of this passage had been directly to Djibouti, about 2300nm,
hanging over us for some time. giving Socotra a wide berth and staying
Our major concern was piracy around in the middle of the Gulf of Aden.
the Island of Socotra (off the Horn of In this fashion we would be as far
Africa) and the Gulf of Aden. We had offshore from Somalia as possible,
discussed at length whether to avoid without getting too close to Yemen.
the problem altogether and head The other advantage was that, unlike
South around the Cape of Good Hope normal practice, we wanted to be as
and then through the South Atlantic to close as possible to the shipping routes
the Caribbean, but we really wanted to where we hoped the concentration of
cruise the Eastern Mediterranean and Coalition warships would be highest.
that was the clinching factor.
We then had seven continuous days
A disturbing element that was of absolutely no wind over 4 knots!
becoming more obvious with regard to
piracy was the increasing incidence of There was a very experienced crew of
kidnapping and ransom (in fact this five aboard and none of us had seen
became a very significant pirate such a long-lasting windless stretch.
strategy during 2008). As a means of
LEFT CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:
The only consolation was that there
Carpe Diem at Anchor in the Maldives
limiting the problems of kidnapping was no swell. By our third day of
Cooling off in the Oyster pond!
we took out kidnap insurance with a motoring it was obvious that we
A sting ray in the Maldives
major European company who wouldn’t make Djibouti if the wind
specialized in this business. The didn’t pick up, and the forecast
Looking for wind
rationale was not so much to cover showed little sign of that. We had
ABOVE: the costs of the ransom, as to ensure filled our 2000 litre tanks in Male
Keith and Rosemary in the Maldives
that we had a professional and before we left, but motoring 2300nm >
www.oystermarine.com 49
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