At 1:00 am on January 15th we entered the Gulf of Aden. For the next 27 hours the ship was on pirate watch. We cruised between Somalia and Yemen via the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor. This corridor keeps traffic in the middle of the Gulf and less likely to encounter problems with these criminals.
For the past few weeks attacks on ships have been daily so we had to be diligent. The promenade deck that goes completely around the ship was closed at night and into early morning for crew lookouts and the 12th and 13th decks were dark as well running in stealth mode at approximately 23 knots (top speed for a ship this size). We were required to close curtains directly after sunset and to use minimal lighting in our staterooms and even had a knock on our door at midnight because of a 2 inch gap…wow! The stern of the ship had barbed wire wrapped around the rails as an additional precaution. A special drill took place to practice procedures in case they did try to board. The drill went very smoothly with the intention of keeping us from windows and outside walls.
During the daylight we saw many other ships in the Gulf and some were military as well as helicopters and planes watching from above. The TV channel that had the ships’ GPS location for the last 14 days was taken down and there was no guest communications such as email or cell service.
At 4:00 am on the 16th we were through the Gulf and the critical zone and all procedures had returned to normal as well as closed areas being reopened.
No pirates were encountered and our passage was uneventful.
We spent most of the day cruising along the coast of Oman and looking forward to reaching Dubai in two days.
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