TELL-TALES

A page of general bits and pieces on sailing the Indian Ocean. Some of it is from the Skylax blog, some from talking to fellow cruisers, and some from my own past articles and musings.

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'Crossing an ocean in a small yacht is a bit like living your life backwards. At the beginning you die, then you get fitter and younger, and then when you arrive you have an orgasmic celebration and the idea that life is just beginning.'

From the Skylax blog 02-03-09

This information supercedes the older information below from the Skylax blog in December

The piracy question in the Gulf of Aden

Foremost on most cruisers minds is piracy in the Gulf of Aden. At the outset its important to stress there have been no reliable reported cases of piracy on yachts in India/Maldives or the Red Sea. Piracy is an issue in the Gulf of Aden and specifically off Somalia. There has been a lot of uninformed reportage on yacht piracy in the Gulf of Aden (and elsewhere), much of it just plain wrong. While there is a risk in the Gulf of Aden, there are higher risks of yacht piracy in other parts of the world, notably Venezuela. In 2008 29 yachts were attacked in Venezuela, 3 people were killed and 5 badly injured (data from the Caribbean Security & Safety Net). In 2008 there were 3 incidents of yacht piracy off Somalia and none off the Yemen with no-one killed or injured (according to MAIB statistics). It’s also interesting to note that two of these yachts were close to the Somali coast which has always been a big no-no in this area for fifty years and more. There have been other incidents in the Gulf of Aden in previous years and it is a worry for anyone transiting the area. That said there needs to be more objective assessment of the situation rather than the scare mongering so evident in the yachting press and on internet sites.

There are problems making these sort of comparisons. Some of these are outlined in the section on Piracy in the Introduction. Basically piracy is armed robbery in international waters as opposed to armed robbery at, say, an anchorage. The distinction is to some extent irrelevant as the outcome can be the same: injury, death and loss of possessions. Its not much help talking about piracy in this theoretical sense when the outcome can be so dire for yachts on passage and at anchor. None of us want to be the victim of piracy and for most the chances are slim. Some 250-300 yachts transit the Red Sea every year and for most the real concerns are the age old ones of cruising sailors, namely wind, sea and weather in general.

Some yachts will get together in Salalah and sail in convoy down into the Gulf of Aden to Aden or Djibouti or sometimes straight through to Eretria. Yachts wanting to sail in a convoy with other yachts must be able to do a similar speed under sail and power. Generally a diamond-shaped convoy shape with a yacht at each corner is favoured. There can be real problems here when yachts cannot make the same speed as others in the convoy and the group must slow down. General rules are that yachts do not show lights at night, VHF communication is kept to low power only, and some even take down the radar reflector.

Recently the increased piracy against merchant shipping (the real targets for pirates) in the Gulf of Aden and off the east coast of Africa has prompted the EU, USA, Russia, China and India to increase the naval presence in the area. A safe corridor has been established where the chances of a naval vessel being nearby is increased when using the corridor. The joint command cannot guarantee you will be safe in the corridor, but the odds are that you will be. The safe corridor is shown below and west bound ships will use the northern side and east bound ships the southern side of the corridor. Each separation lane is 5 miles wide and the two separation lanes are separated by a 2 mile buffer zone.

The location of the corridors is as follows

West bound northern corridor: 14°30’N   053°E   14°25’N   053°E   course 252° to 12°00’N   045°E   11°55’N   045°E

East bound southern corridor:  11°53’N   045°E   11°48’N   045°E   course 072° to 14°23’N   053°E   14°18’N   053°E

Recommended communication procedures are

• Call for help on VHF Ch 16 and MF/HF DSC.
• Contact UKMTO phone +971 50 552 3215   Email UKMTO@EIM.AE

If no answer call Marlo Bahrain +973 3940 1395  Email ARLO.BAHRAIN@ME.NAVY.MIL

From the Skylax blog 21-12-08

Pirate Alley

'Safe' corridor set up by combined task force through the Gulf of Aden

 As the waters of Somalia pop up in the news every day with yet another ship hi-jacked by pirates operating out of Somalia, it’s interesting to take a look at the piracy map from the IMB (International Maritime Bureau) and the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre. There are a lot of ships out there getting hi-jacked and a lot more attempts. (Note: I find the map a bit clunky and slow, but it may just be my computer.)

Looking through the data that comes up on the map for 2008 it’s interesting to see that the two yachts which the pirates boarded were very close in to the Somali coast, one off the east coast and one off the northern coast. The strategy for this bit of coast has always been to keep closer to the Yemen coast, around 100 miles off Yemen, which keeps you well away from the Somali coast.

 With all the pirate activity going on here the naval fleets of the world are finally sending warships into the zone. A Maritime Security Patrol Area (MSPA) has been set up by the Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150) to provide a safer route through the gulf. The patrolling warships cannot guarantee that attacks won’t happen in this area but yachts sailing through the gulf will be much safer along this patrolled route. Warships in the group are given a certain sector of the MSPA to patrol so yachts should be able to reckon on one of them being nearby. Yachts going through in a convoy may be able to set up a radio sched with the MSPA though there are no details for doing this at present.

 The co-ordinates for the ‘safe’ corridor are as follows. I’ve put them into ‘gates’ and they run from WEST to EAST.

Gate 1: Waypoint: 12 35N 045E   Waypoint: 12 15N 045E

Gate 2: Waypoint: 13 40N 049E   Waypoint: 13 35N 049E

Gate 3: Waypoint: 14 15N 050E   Waypoint: 14 10N 050E

Gate 4: Waypoint: 14 45N 053E    Waypoint: 14 35N 053E

I’ve plotted these waypoints roughly onto google earth so you can see where the ‘safe’ corridor runs.

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This is an article I wrote on going the wrong way at the wrong time from the Med to the Indian Ocean. We sailed on from India to SE Asia and then I sailed the right way at the right time back to the Med.

 'This is the BBC World Service. There are reports that Eritria has invaded the Hanish Islands near the bottom of the Red Sea and occupied Greater Hanish Island. A number of Yemeni soldiers manning the garrison have been killed and the commander of the Eritrian force reports that 80 soldiers have been taken prisoner. The Yemeni government is sending forces to repel the invading force including a number of naval craft and Mig fighters'. None of us said anything but just looked at each other as we tacked towards the Yemen coast under Greater Hanish. We had spent five days in the anchorage at the top of the island wistfully hoping the strong southerlies would die down a little from the 30-35 knots they were blowing at. Partly because we were getting frustrated at just sitting there and partly because Colin had to fly back to London, we had decided to buckle down and beat to windward whatever the wind Gods were doing in this part of the world. Now it seemed there was going to be a bit of a war as well.

Tetra in the Med

I had left Turkey in September and sailed Tetra down to Cyprus where Colin and Frank were to join me. Tetra is an old fashioned long keel yacht built by Cheverton in the Isle of Wight in 1962 and rather small yacht at just 31 feet for this sort of voyage against the prevailing wind and current. At least she does steer herself to windward with nothing more than a bit of rope tying the tiller off so really it was a matter of the three of us accommodating ourselves in the space available along with the truckload of provisions from Orfanides supermarket in Larnaca. Once through the Suez Canal we pottered around the coast a bit before picking up a good northerly blow reaching Massawa in Eretria in something under 5 days. Even loaded down the old lady had averaged 130 plus mile days.

As we listened to the BBC World Service at the southern end of the Red Sea there were some strange theories about the reasons for the Eritrean invasion. The most popular was that the Hanish islands were going to be turned into a tourist resort by an Italian company. You have to wonder whether anyone had done their homework and worked out why these arid, volcanic and quite unattractive islands, at least in the tourist sense, without even a decent beach, would make a good tourist destination when there are much better places scattered all around the Red Sea. The only thing they have in abundance is fish and maybe some oil underneath them. The only occupants we came across were Yemeni fishermen who were as piratical a looking bunch as you could wish for, but after the exchange of a few gifts we were showered with more grouper and snapper than you could reasonably eat in a week. In their leaky old dhows, constantly pumping to keep them afloat, the Yemenis were after shark for the dorsal fins which can fetch up to $300 a kilo in Hong Kong. Every evening they came in and anchored nearby and if successful hoisted their sharks aloft and cheered.

The problem is that I knew that the wind and current would be against us, but only in theory. The bruising reality of beating to windward in 30 knots and against the current meant that a days run was lucky to be 50 miles and it was difficult to sleep, eat or do anything except wedge yourself in the cockpit and turn your head away as green water cascaded over the deck and into the cockpit. There are times I wish for 150 feet of ocean-going motor yacht instead of 31 feet of old fashioned sailing yacht. Our worst patch was 12 miles made good in 10 hours, but eventually we made the small strait on the east side of Bab el Mandeb and as we passed through the 'Gate of Tears' we had our own personal version of why it was called thus and it had nothing to do with sorrow at leaving the bottom of the Red Sea.

In the Gulf of Aden the wind dropped to 20-25 knots and the current also lessened although there was still enough of it to make it slow going. The coast is real 'Lawrence of Arabia' stuff with sand dunes, crusty brown old lava flows, brown rock and hardly a blade of vegetation anywhere. This is rugged desert country although the high mountains depart from that picture of rolling sand dunes going on forever which normally make up notions of the desert. At sunset it was mesmerising as the land turned to a ruddy brown and seemed to be outlined in a ghostly mist although that may have been helped by the encrusted salt on my eye-lashes. The oil refinery at Little Aden in the approaches to Aden proper was a welcome sight.

In the bumpy bits at the bottom of the Red Sea I had rashly promised all sorts of things to Colin and Frank to avoid a mutiny. Amongst these promises was a slap-up meal with all the beer they could drink. The thing is, nobody had mentioned that in the last war in 1994 the north had won and being more fundamentally minded than the south, alcohol was banned. Except for a few of the large hotels where beer was $5 for a small can. It was an expensive promise but Yemen is probably one of the few places in the world where you can duck out to borrow a handful of riyal from Omar, the local yachty’s friend and taxi driver, in order to pay the overwhelming bill.

Colin left us in Aden and flew to Oman where he was due to fly back on Christmas day. Frank and I reinforced the rudder with a steel band welded up at the local garage and carried on beating up the coast against the wind and current. We spent Christmas in Balihaf, a near deserted bay that looked like something out of Beau Geste with a ruined sand coloured fort set in a sand coloured landscape. Huge sand dunes several hundred feet high rolled on into the distance nearby punctured by black lava plains and peaks. Christmas pudding complete with custard was conjured up by Frank although the visiting locals preferred the biscuits and tea with a minimum of 5 teaspoons of sugar.

Somehow I had never thought of Yemen or even the Middle East as volcanic, but it is scarred by lava flows and there are small peaks and craters everywhere along the coast. The beaches here are the best in the world and the water so clear that you can see the bottom at 10 metres. Fish are abundant and in the end we had only to put out the line and within an hour you would have a good sized tuna of some description or occasionally dolphin fish. We had to declare no-fish days in the end because we got so sick of it, and I love fish.

Mukalla is some 300 miles up the coast from Aden and is like a different world, a sort of mini-Manhattan from the distance although closer in it is a little more derelict. The British influence is still much in evidence along the coast, but it did come as a bit of a shock to find Omar (another Omar) the immigration man reading not just E M Forster’s A Passage to India but also a critique of the book. We spent a week here stocking up with fresh fruit and vegetables and generally relaxing before setting off for India. Omar was rewarded with a bottle of Cypriot brandy for smoothing the way and it is worth noting that in countries where something like alcohol is banned, it is a currency with which you can get just about anything.

Most yachts on a west to east passage choose to come down the Red Sea in July or August and then cross to India or Sri Lanka on the tail-end of the southwest monsoon in September or October. In my research for crossing the Indian Ocean at the wrong time of the year I had little to go on except for an account of a crossing A.G.H. MacPherson made in Driac in 1937. MacPherson is little remembered these days, but if you visit the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich you will come across the MacPherson collection, a wealth of nautical pictures and prints collected by MacPherson over many years and then bought by Sir James Caird for the museum. (Spell Driac backwards.) MacPherson started sailing late in life in his late fifties and the boat he sailed in was not dissimilar to Tetra at just 32 ft and of similar shape and displacement. His description of beating out of the Gulf of Aden was none too encouraging: ‘… accused Niko (a hired hand from Paxos in Greece) at first of steering his favourite course of WNE; but the cause was soon apparent …. with the current dissipating some of our hard-earned winnings’. MacPherson tacked 230 NM up the coast to Oman before heading SE for the tip of India. We in fact only went about 100 NM up the coast before attempting to tack out of the Gulf of Aden. With some effort we finally broke free of the current and it is an indication of how hard we were pushing that we covered 120 miles hard on the wind in the first 24 hour run before we realised the current was no longer pushing us back. The only problem was that we were headed for the Seychelles and not for India.

One of the reasons for tacking out of the Gulf of Aden and trying to stay high was not just to get a more favourable slant towards India, but also to stay clear of Somalia and Socotra. Socotra, the large island on the southern entrance to the Gulf of Aden has long had a reputation for piracy. However the state of anarchy in Somalia and the rapid evacuation of the American peace-keeping force in 1995, leaving behind a sizeable amount of modern weaponry, exacerbated the situation and in 1995 at least 15 ships and yachts had been seized by pirates operating out of Somalia over an 8 month period. In 1996 the area was declared a no-go zone for shipping of any sort. Consequently yachts have tended to hug the Yemen coast and keep well clear of Socotra. As it was we slipped past just 60 miles off the coast and within the known zone for piracy, running no lights at night and keeping a good watch out by day.

It is one thing to sit down with charts and pilots to sort out how you are going to get somewhere. It is quite another to be out there with currents pushing you back and daily runs of 50 miles however hard you push it. Looking at the wind direction for the time of year I reckoned it would be blowing in an arc so that on the W side of the Arabian Sea it was a true northeast going to north in the middle and northwest towards India. After we had been hard on the wind and heading down towards the equator for ten days with only northeast I had to admit that my protestations to Frank that it was all going to be alright and the wind would become more northerly, sometime, were beginning to sound a bit hollow. Privately I was beginning to think that the Seychelles might be a nice place to go anyway. And then one morning we were magically heading east and a few days later ENE towards Cochin in India. In the end we got down to just 9º above the equator and by the time we reached Cochin had covered something over 2100 NM hard on the wind when the direct route is just 1700 NM. It took three weeks to do it. On the return trip a year later it took Tetra 13½ days to get from Cochin to Mukalla, a 126 miles a day average and testament to going the right way at the right time of the year.

‘What’s that smell’ said Frank. ‘India’ I replied. A combination of smoke and dust and steam. The smell of land and fecund vegetation. After the Red Sea and the Sahara, all baked rock and sand, the palms lining the shores at Cochin are a vision of the Tropics. We were shocked by the verdant green of the jungle after not seeng any real vegetation for several months. Closer in the green opens up to the dust of Cochin and dust-coloured buildings around the edge of the water.

Much of old Cochin still stands on Fort Cochin at the entrance on the starboard side of the channel. Warehouses line the water, Diaz and Son, Harrison and Co, the Seagull Hotel, reminders of past powers and old trading companies from the golden days of the spice trade. Cochin was known to Roman sailors and Nero was said to wear only  silk imported from this area. Vasco de Gama died here in 1524 looking after the Portuguese interests in the port and was buried on Fort Cochin until his body was returned to Portugal 14 years later. The Dutch replaced the Portuguese and in 1795 the British arrived. They controlled the outer port from 1795 until independence shipping out tea, pepper, spices and coir. In the early 1920’s Willoughby Island where yachts clear into Cochin was built from mud dredged out of the channel so that the harbour could accommodate ships drawing eleven metres, the maximum draught of the Suez Canal.

There are reminders of an older civilization in the entrance channel. Great cantilevered Chinese nets hang over the water on either side of the entrance with an ingenious system of stones on the landward end to adjust the balance. The net is lowered into the water and when the head-man decides the time is right, half dozen pairs of hands pull the pole down and whoosh the net out of the water. I didn’t see them catch very many fish but then perhaps it was the wrong time of the year.

Cochin is built on islands in an estuary and much of the communication is by boat. It has been called the Venice of India, but it’s better than that because it is a real working port and city with none of the tarted up façade of a tourist town. Old pinnaces with BMC diesels ferry the population around and for 15 rupees (less than 30 pence) you can do the whole harbour circuit. Sailing canoes with patchwork sails carry all sorts of goods, flour, rice, fruit and vegetables, tins of dried milk and ghee, to the different parts of Cochin around the spits and islands. The canoes are poled until a favourable wind lets them set a sail made of old sugar and flour sacks stitched together. Around the Bolghatty Hotel where yachts go to anchor after clearing in at Willoughby, dugouts follow the tide line to catch small fish and prawns. Throw-nets are used and I found a renewed respect for the balance needed in these frail craft when I missed the last ferry back and had to haggle with a lone fisherman for a ride. The old gnarled fisherman made me lie on my back in the bottom of the dugout amongst all his slithering shiny fish and then went like stink for the yacht anchorage. My extra weight in the dugout caused it to leak a bit faster than normal and he was worried he couldn’t keep up with the baling. For days afterwards I discovered little fish lodged in my shoes and my clothes.

Shifting cargo around Cochin

Cochin is becoming more popular with cruising yachts in this part of the world. You get a hurricane proof anchorage off the Bolghatty Hotel, some of the cheapest living and the best fruit and vegetables in the area, and with a bit of looking around and ingenuity you can get most boat repairs done. India makes a lot of stainless steel goods and you can get stainless thermos flasks, food containers, dishes and tumblers, and in the backstreets there are a few workshops which will weld stainless steel boat bits as long as you supply a clear and precise drawing.

Cochin is a secure place to leave a boat and we spent two weeks travelling up the coast to Bombay and on our return Tetra was sitting there safe and sound. You can hire wonderful 1950’s Morris Ambassadors which are still made in India and with a driver the cost is minimal, around 6 rupees (14 pence) a kilometre. From Cochin the coast up to Goa is little travelled and there are wonderful deserted sandy beaches, thick jungle, and not a lot of tourists in sight until you reach Goa itself.

Few yachts cruise the west coast of India. For every port you visit you must clear in and out, a labyrinthine process which can take anything from four hours to a full day. In practice most yachts come across on the tail of the southwest monsoon in August to September and head towards either Bombay, Goa or Cochin. The officials in these three harbours are used to visiting yachts and can cope with the clearing in process. Of these harbours Goa and Cochin are the two worth bothering with. From Goa you can get a fast catamaran ferry to Bombay and spend some time visiting there if you are so inclined. The anchorage off Panajim is a bit out of it but well protected. Ashore in Panajim there are lots of good restaurants and adequate shopping for supplies.

Cochin is the overwhelming favourite of the three harbours and many yachts will make straight for here from Oman when going east and from Sri Lanka or the Maldives when going west. Cruising along the coast is also complicated by the fact that you need a visa BEFORE you arrive and those visas start running from the day of issue. That can mean you only have a month or two left to run on your visa and it is difficult to get an extension in India.

Sailing along the west coast during the NE monsoon is literally a breeze with land and sea breezes prevailing. Up to 20-30 miles off the coast the land and sea breeze effect is well developed and consistent. The sea breeze normally fills in around 1200 and blows onto the coast at around 10-15 knots until it dies in the evening and the land breeze takes over around 2200-2400.

Around the state of Kerala there is much to see if you feel disinclined to make a long trip through India towards Bombay and the north. Kerala has the same sort of Portuguese and old English architecture you find at Goa, but without the tourists. In the backwaters south of Cochin there is a maze of waterways, some served by small ferries and others by poled canoes. In small clearings and on larger plantations the pepper vines that the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English fought over grow curling up around trees as high as 10-15 metres up. I have a lot more respect for black pepper after seeing how laborious the process of gathering the tiny fruits from the twisting vines is.

You can’t take your yacht into the waterways and in any case the relatively shallow depths and shifting banks would make it very difficult, but you can get around on local craft and the ferries. The jungle is overwhelming and the bird life prolific. And it is all so quiet you can hear a coconut drop at half a mile. Further south there are long sandy beaches of the sort that make tour operators drool at the mouth and small shacks serving freshly grilled tiger prawns. There are few good anchorages and in case you can’t go ashore if there is a policeman in sight so it is best to travel by land leaving the yacht in Cochin.

From Cochin we sailed down to Galle in Sri Lanka and then across to Thailand and Malaysia. In all Tetra clocked up some 7000 miles, much of it to windward, by the time I reached the Dinding River on the west coast of peninsula Malaysia where I was to leave her for the southwest monsoon and the rainy season. Frank returned to teaching in New Zealand after his sabbatical and I returned to noisy bustling London. In late 1996 and early 1997 I sailed Tetra back to Turkey.

Yemen

India

Rod Heikell   1997

Indian Ocean Cruising Handbook  by Rod Heikell published by Imray 2^nd edition now out.

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NOTE   In 2007 new regulations were introduced for yachts intending to stop in the Chagos archipelago. At the time of writing the following regulations are to be implemented, though things may change in the future.

IMPORTANT NOTE

For the latest information on regulations, charges and permitted anchoring areas go to:

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029394365&a=KArticle&aid=1174558806718

1.           All yachts must obtain a permit IN ADVANCE from the British Indian Ocean Territory Administration (BIOTA) in London.

2.           Mooring fees for the Chagos Archipelago have been raised from $100 per month to £GBP500 per month. IMPORTANT NOTE: tHIS HAS NOW BEEN REVISED TO £GBP100 PER MONTH.

3.           On application for a permit a Visitor Permit Request will be sent. This must be filled in with the dates that a yacht will be in the reserve and sent back with the mooring fee to BIOTA. At present there is no way of paying over the internet but it is hoped that in the future a system will be in place so credit card payments can be made.

4.           Once the form has been completed and payment made then the BIOTA Permit, the regulations governing the reserve and the co-ordinates showing where yachts can moor will be sent. It is expected that moorings will be laid at some time in the future.

5.           Yachts attempting to enter the Chagos area without a permit may be liable for a term of imprisonment up to 3 years and/or a fine of up to £GBP3000.

6.           Regular patrols of the Chagos area will be made and visitors must abide by the regulations concerning the marine reserve (no fishing, fires, damaging coral, harming native species, etc.), must keep pets on board, and must conform to customs regulations regarding illegal drugs, firearms, etc.

British Indian Ocean Territory Administration, King Charles Street, London, SW1A 2AH,

United Kingdom. Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7008 2890 or 2691  Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7008 1589 e-mail: BIOTadmin@fco.gov.uk

In an environmental report entitled the Chagos Conservation Management Plan (2003 by Dr Charles Sheppard) the damage caused by yachts both in the anchorage and in activities ashore is specifically mentioned as having a detrimental effect on the marine reserve. Given that visitors here illegally speared fish, set up permanent moorings in the coral, set up makeshift camps ashore and cut wood for barbecues and fish smokers, then it should come as no surprise that drastic action would follow. Sadly future cruisers will either have to pay the hefty permit fee or as is more likely, avoid Chagos altogether. As the SSCA says... 'Leave clean wake'.

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