How and if to proceed?
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sun 20 Feb 2011 12:05
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Phuket Sunday 20th February 1819 Local 1121
UTC
08:10.25N 098:20.38E
As you have seen and read, me spending any time
lying down causes my blood to boil about some issue or other. I need to get busy
again on circumnavigating things lest the mental damage to me will outweigh the
physical improvement.
For some time, actually most of the
circumnavigation, the issue of the Pirates in the Indian Ocean has been hanging
over us. I had hoped that situation would improve and the
international community would do something about the issue before we would
confront it. The issue has however got worse,
very much worse. I have been studying the
number of attacks and the area covered by these attacks and there is barely any
totally safe area left in the northern Indian Ocean.
I am aware that our proposed time to pass through
the area is late in the season and in fact so far I have not had one single
response to my offer to organise a convoy in the late spring from Salallah to
Massawa in Eritrea.
The other thing is I have a broken back. This
has added greatly to the complex series of issues I have to consider in planning
how to continue from here.
I have not told you, or anyone yet, that before my
accident in Langkawi we had decided that Trish would go home from Thailand and
that I would single hand Rhiann Marie via the western Thai Islands and the
Andamans to Sri Lanka. I have single handed on more difficult boats to sail than
Rhiann Marie and in fact from a sailing perspective to all intents I often am
single handing her. I was looking forward to sailing alone on
that section of the circumnavigation. We had thought that Trish would come
back out to the boat perhaps at Sri Lanka, but certainly the Maldives and
then go home again until perhaps Egypt. That is all up in the air now. We
have no clear plans and cannot fix any.
The frequency and scope of piracy attacks is
increasing dramatically. It is difficult to expect that we will have an
abundance of volunteers wishing to crew for me on the passage through the Gulf
of Aden or in fact the whole Northern Indian Ocean.
I could hire professional crew perhaps. I could
leave the boat and place it in the hands of a delivery crew. Perhaps I should
hire two armed security crew to come aboard for the passage. Can this be done
from here? Not easily, the law is complex and it could be all too easy to make a
mistake. I could just wait where we are and cruise SE asia, leaving the boat
here long term until the will to solve the piracy problem is mustered. Can I
afford to or would I want to take any more time than planned away from Gael
Force which has exciting growth plans? Perhaps I could have the boat shipped on
a yacht transporter from here back to the Mediterranean next
year.
Alternatively I could hang a left and take the boat
round the South of Africa and the cape of Good Hope before a long hike north
through the South Atlantic via Brazil and the Carribean.
Can I take any of these options this year
with new steelwork in my back?
I have a lot to think about so I will try to focus
my time on this and preparing myself and the boat for any one or
combination of the above, because until the back is good I cannot go anywhere
and the doc said three to six months. Can I get myself in shape in three to six
weeks?
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