At the briefing yesterday morning emotions were running high with everyone very much in shock and still exhausted from our traumatic trip across the Indian Ocean to Salalah.

After exploring all possibilities it was decided that we had the following options open to us:

1.    Depart Monday morning 0600 in our group for the 800 mile passage up to and through the Gulf of Aden to Djibouti.

2.    As above but by pass Djibouti to avoid pirate activity at the start of the Red Sea when leaving Djibouti, and continue a further 300 miles to an anchorage at Suakin on the Coast of Sudan.

3.    Put the yachts on a transporter ship and have them taken to Akbar in Egypt where we would continue with the rally

4.    Ship yachts as option 3 but delivery to the Mediterranean if Akbar not possible

5.    Transport the yachts overland to Egypt (probably not a good possibility because of getting through Saudi Arabia)

Since the sailing option is dependant on being accompanied by the rest of your group it was decided that we would split into the three respective groups for discussion followed by a vote on our choice of option.

We then reconvened and the result was 13 for shipping and 6 for sailing. Group 4 agreed to depart for sailing to Djibouti on Tuesday morning.

Our group decided to ship.

I have to say this is not a decision that was taken lightly, the shipping costs are around $US 40,000 for each yacht and since Blue Water Rally were reinforcing the opinion that the next passage was safer than the one we have just completed, we were inclined to choose the sailing option.

However we have a lot of respect for the other yachts in our group and they all thought we should ship – so really it was a no brainer.

The relief after having made the decision was tangible and since it was Mark’s birthday we relaxed in the evening by joining our friends for a meal and a few beers at the Oasis Club, the venue for the briefing earlier.

Today we attended a memorial service for Phillys, Bob, Scott and Jean who were killed on their yacht Quest whilst on their way to Salalah to meet the rest of the rally.

It was an emotional service but so good to get together, pray, sing and remember the times we spent with them. John & Gill from Spirit of Nina put together a wonderful memorial including several antic dotes from individual ralliers including some from Charlie and Annie, the children from Miss Tippy.

Sheila showed a photo slide show with some great memories and some very amusing moments, especially with Phyllis, who was always the life and soul of the party.

Lisa form Sol Maria prepared all the music and sang at the ceremony, leading us in a hymn at the beginning and then having us all in tears by singing a beautiful solo at the end.  

Brian & Sheila also recorded the event on video and film.

Captain Michael Lodge, Officer in charge at MARLO Bahrain, who we had reported to regularly during our last trip, attended the memorial and was very keen to address the whole rally afterwards with regards to our onward passage.

MARLO is the Maritime Liaison Office whose mission is to facilitate the exchange of information between the US Navy, Combined Maritime Forces and the commercial maritime community in the US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) Area of Responsibility.

The presentation and discussions that ensued were extremely informative and left no doubt in our minds that we have made the right decision.

Michael informed us of the history and current escalating situation with regards to pirate activity and clarified the ability of the coalition forces to assist or protect yachts.

We were told in no uncertain terms that we would not be protected, the forces are already stretched ensuring the safe passage of commercial shipping through an area of expanding pirate activity and they do not have either the manpower (in terms of military ships) or the ‘Terms of Engagement’ to respond or assist in the event of a yacht being pirated.

However they do have a good system for recording and reporting incidents and they would be able to assist by providing us with this information and advising with regards to what action we should take.

It was interesting to hear that it could take up to 30mins for a warship to come to our assistance, whereas it could take less than 8 mins for a pirate ship to get to us from the horizon to boarding. We are ‘soft’ targets since we are slow and we have very low freeboards (distance from sea to deck as opposed to tankers).

Once the pirates are on board the military is powerless to intervene and after the events of Quest it is now likely that the pirates will not hesitate to shoot hostages.

We also had a debriefing with regards to post traumatic stress which we will all be suffering with the events of the last couple of weeks.

Following this question and answer session group 4 decided to ship as well.

We are now in negotiations to ship all 21 rally boats.

Unfortunately we are unable to ship to Egypt so we will be unloaded somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The good news is that the rally will all be together.

The not so good news is that to combat our post traumatic stress we should keep talking as much as possible especially to friends and family who are independent from the events that we have experienced. So – sorry folks you will have to endure my ranting and raving for some time to come !

A big thank you to our children Katie & Adam & Kirsty and to Mum & Dad and Bev & Martin who have undoubtedly kept us sane throughout.

We love you all – but please no more bad jokes.

Friends and family who have already booked flights to Crete to come and visit us – don’t worry, be happy – we will get ourselves to Crete and we are so looking forward to seeing you all.