Pirates on the High Seas

In between Dubai and Mozambique we had 9 days at sea along the Oman coast and through the Somali basin. When we had boarded the ship in Singapore we found out that the Seychelles port of call had been cancelled because there had been so much pirate activity in the area but after checking in with local authorities they decided to re-instate it. Pirates were on a lot of people’s minds during these days at sea. Although it is not common that they would hijack a cruise ship they have in the past (Seaborne Spirit in 2006) it was still a bit of a worry for the crew and passengers. There were numerous hijackings in the area we were sailing in one in particular off the coast of Oman and it was hard to not be aware that it was a possibility and that it could happen to us. We had a lot of extra security on the lower decks who would stand watch 24 hours a day and we also had to practice a pirate safety drill called “Code Sierra Papa”. During the drill you have to sit in your room with the door open so you can get any info you need from the stewards. It ended up being a way for us to meet some of our neighbours (the ship’s priest is staying across the hall and told us that if pirates attacked the ship we had the safest rooms because we had no windows). Also on board to defend against a possible attack we have these huge water hoses as well as what’s called a sound cannon. A sound cannon is this circular machine with a remote control that when pointed at a boat or skiff it will blow out the ear drums of those on the boat without hurting anyone on the ship. Overall we felt pretty safe on board especially with the presence of a lot of naval ships in the area...although a group of pirates did try to take over a naval ship last month at night thinking that it was an oil tanker...boy were they wrong.