Hubby and Wifey's Blog

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Dec 15 to 16, 2008 this was our 2^nd transit to Gulf of Aden. The old crew knew how dangerous to pass this area. We came from Singapore for bunkering and next destination was Le Harve France. We have new crew on board and we told them that passing Gulf of Aden is no joke and it’s very dangerous. They knew that we were not making jaki tacky on what we were telling them. Our new master gathered us in crew mess hall for familiarization of our duties while passing the Gulf of Aden. He told us he doesn’t have any idea of what will be our situation while passing Gulf of Aden. He just told us that we were lucky because the convoy for all ship would start on December 15. The crews were very happy to hear that from our new captain.

As per master instruction the crews prepared all the things that they have done before when we first passed the Gulf of Aden months ago. They prepared Ropes, fire extinguishers, fireman’s outfit, pyrotechnics, and nets on poop deck. Dec 15, 2008, we arrived in the position where the convoy starts. Our captain was shocked when we arrived there without seeing any convoy in the area. All ships were traveling with different speed. There were no coalition warships around the area. Our captain was so disappointed for there were no Coalition warships to assist us. It was my first time to see our new captain got very nervous and scared. He told me that he doesn’t like to be seized by Pirates. He was just doing his job, to be the captain of the ship that’s all and he went down just to relax his mind. VHF channel 16 was very silent. Nobody was talking and making funny on each other. All were serious and monitoring the area. It was my very memorable experience. As I told the Master all the informations came from me, chief officer and 2^nd officer regarding what we experienced in our tour of duty, he made a letter to our company (summary) informing them how we experienced the pirate attack. Almost closed as an inch (kabuhok nalang) to be attacked by the pirates for 2 times in a row, we were very lucky to pass this area safely.

I include here the statement of our master so that you can read the summary of our experience while passing Gulf of Aden. I also include picture of one mother ship of the pirate in Gulf of Aden, the preparation and actual footage of distress relay by container ship MV BOSPORUS attacked by pirates. MV BOSPORUS was seized by pirates.

Real footage of MV Bosporos Board by pirates
in Gulf of Aden