Piracy On The High Seas

Piracy is back in a big way off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden as you see in the news almost everyday.

Most of the attacks are on big cargo ships and oil tankers
However Recently there was an attack on the PONANT: an 850 ton three masted French yacht that was sailing back to the Med from the Seychelles with a crew of 30.
French commandos Finlay freed the yacht and its crew by a raid on the pirate's village in Somalia.

For years there were pirate attacks in the South China Sea but nothing like the lawless Somalia piracy in recent years,they are using AK-47 and RPGs to captured ships and demanding multimillion dollar ransoms from the ship owners.

The 20,000 annual shipping voyages across the Gulf to get to and from Suez Canal reduce the voyage by almost half, thus saving the ships owners huge amount of money compared to sailing around the Cape of Good Hope.

There are some sailing yachts traveling these waters on their way to the Indian Ocean the Red Sea and the Med, most of these small yachts are sailing in convoy in this area for better security but this is far from a guaranty of not being attacked.

At this time 24 nations have their navy patrolling and escorting their merchant shipping but it is impossible to patrol all 2.5 million sq miles of dangerous waters in this area.
That is why some nations have called on their ship owners to use private security contractors to protect their vessels from being attacked.

The largest ship to be ever captured by pirates was a Saudi VLCC 1,080 foot oil tanker the Sirius Star, with 100 million dollars worth of oil on board for a total of 250 million dollars in ship and cargo value and a crew of 25. the Somalian pirates demand $25 millions in ransom and they are still negotiating.

This situation demand immediate and dramatic solution either by serious private security or by international naval coalition.

For more yachting and maritime info click here http://www.yachtinginsider.com/

Crew Phone Cards.

Working on a yacht as a crew is one of the best job out there, but it comes with a little price - being away from friends and family for a along period of time.

Most yachts have a satellite phone system on board for the boss to use for his business calls and such, and for the captain to use for the day to day operating of the yacht and for emergencies.
It is still expensive to use a sat phone, the lowest rate are .75 cents per minute and most yacht owner's not allowed the use of the sat phone for personal calls.

Almost every mega yacht has international crew on board that need to make (in most cases) international calls, and that can be very expensive from a cell phone or any other land line.

The best solution is: International Phone Cards that are getting very cheap these days or PC to phone calls It's cheap,It's fast,It's convenient.
Click here to Buy pre-paid international phone cards at ComFi.com

Swimming With Sharks In The Bahamas.

This video was taken by us in our trip to the Bahamas this summer in the Exumas .Visit: www.yachtinginsider.com to see more Exumas photos.
The swimmer is a professional diver. Do not try this in any circumstance .

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