Though there was Somali pirate activity when I bareboat chartered in August of 2008, it was confined to coastal area of Somalia, so, we really weren’t concerned about pirate activites in the local waters around Mahe and Praslin. That may still be the case, but, recent pirate activity is getting much closer to the Seychelle Islands.
First, the British couple Rachel and Paul Chandler aboard the Rival 38 Lynn Rival were captured around 60 nautical miles from Victoria, Mahe enroute to Tansania in October 2009. Then on 16 November 2009, the Singaporean-operated tanker MV Theresa VIII was taken 180 nautical miles northwest of the Seychelles. It’s obvious that the pirates are now operating dangerously close to the Seychelles.
How this affects bareboating in local waters is anyone’s guess. The passage between Victoria and the main bareboating grounds in the northern island group dominated by Praslin and La Digue is around 25 nautical miles of open ocean. Other than this passage, most of your bareboating activity will be within a couple of miles of the coast. It’s probably still a safe place to bareboat and it certainly remains one of the most beautiful, but, you just might want to think a bit more if this is the year to sail this tropical paradise.
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