OWNER REPORT
was a stretch! As we were about to yacht, Le Ponant, had been captured
enter the most dangerous part of the and its crew of thirty held for ransom.
passage when we really wanted to be The attack took place in the same
able to use maximum rpm we decided location that we had just passed through.
to divert to Salalah, Oman. Salalah Fortunately the crew were eventually
was a very friendly and efficient port. released and we in fact saw the vessel
Mohammad Saad acted as our agent in Corsica later in the summer.
“
in purchasing fuel at an incredibly
We were extremely happy to
cheap rate. The huge increase in the number of
have passed what I think was
pirate attacks in the Somali area in
As we were feeling time pressure we 2008 is extremely disturbing, both
the most potentially dangerous
only stayed in Salalah long enough to for commercial and recreational
refuel, which was a shame, as Oman vessels. I would be very keen to take
part of our circumnavigation
seemed to be a very pleasant welcoming Carpe Diem back to the Maldive Islands
“
country with very friendly people. and Thailand for a winter season as a
and our arrival party lasted
change from the Caribbean, but unless
Setting sail from Salalah we ran the situation in Somalia improves the
until dawn!
straight, with still no wind, to Djibouti. risks seem too high.
It was happily uneventful in terms of
bad guys. We were buzzed once by a Djibouti is a very vibrant, strongly
Coalition helicopter and heard quite a French influenced town, with excellent
lot of warship radio traffic, which was restaurants and provisioning. It was
reassuring. Our only stressful moment obvious when walking around town
came when we saw a ‘fishing trawler’ that Djibouti is very close to one of
on the horizon, from which two high the worst war ravaged areas of the
speed RIBS came towards us as we world. Refugees begged in the streets,
turned to pass further from it. As this many with missing limbs. There was a
was a classic pirate manouvre we were very different approach to life and
fairly stressed until they came close death from our culture. I was on
and started to offer us fresh tuna! anchor watch one night and came up
on deck after making a cup of tea at
We finally arrived in Djibouti late in about 0230 to find a young man on
the evening. It is an easy harbour to board. Just wearing shorts he had
enter, apart from unlit sunken ships. obviously swum about 1 km through
Several agents came out to meet us the harbour to get to us. He had no
in their speedboats to offer their knife or weapon that I could see and
services. They strongly advised that seemed almost as frightened as me
we keep an anchor watch all night as (which was considerably). I shouted at
a precaution against thieves. As a him and he jumped overboard and
physician I was distressed, but swam away. When I mentioned the
interested, in the large facial tumours incident to the Agent the next day he
that many of the men seemed to have very matter of factly said that we
until I realized that they had huge should have killed him. I said that
wads of Qat, a narcotic leaf, tucked seemed excessive and he was
between their gum and cheek! surprised. If you are in society where
you have so little, someone who steals
We were extremely happy to have from you is potentially killing you.
passed what I think was the most In fact, putting the situation in
potentially dangerous part of our perspective, I was surprised that we
circumnavigation and our arrival party were not targeted more often. It’s hard
lasted until dawn! As our skipper Sam to make judgments if you don’t live in
Ringdahl and I waited, somewhat the same world.
bleary eyed, to clear in at the
Capitainerie later in the day we were After a few days in Djibouti we made
extremely surprised to see a pair of the short trip up to Massawa, Eritrea.
camels apparently floating in the air One of our crew had been here before
outside the window. At first I and spoke very highly of it. Eritrea has
attributed this vision to the very late had many years of war as part of its
LEFT CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: night we had just finished, but the separation from Ethiopia, and still bears
Hot, sunny and windless
dock agent explained that this was the scars. Most of the buildings in the
Bullet ruined building in Massawa how they loaded camels from the dockyard were damaged and bullet
Flying Camels, Djibouti dock. They were on their way to marked. A fishing fleet of six, modern
Carpe Diem motley crew, island outside Massawa
Dubai. A very unusual sight. boats, given to Eritrea by an aid
organization, sat idle on the dock as
ABOVE:
A few days after our arrival we were very there was no diesel available, and no
Typical street in Djibouti
distressed to hear that a large French engineers or parts to maintain them. >
www.oystermarine.com 51
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80