Everyone agrees. Laura Dekker should avoid a large part of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden during her upcoming voyage around the world. And that's because of Somali pirate activity.
On Tuesday, a judge ruled that 14-year-old Laura Dekker may begin her solo sailing voyage around the world. The judge laid the responsibility for the decision as to whether she should go in the hands of the girl's parents. Laura wants to establish a new record as the youngest person to sail single-handed around the world.
Sailing advice
Privately owned yachts are being advised not to sail via the Gulf of Aden. The warnings come from, among others, the International Sailing Confederation ISAF, the European anti-piracy organisation Operation Atlanta, and NATO. Commodore Michiel Hijmans, from the Netherlands, is currently commanding NATO's Operation Ocean Shield in its bid to prevent piracy. He emphatically advises Laura Dekker against sailing through the Gulf of Aden.
"I would advise her not to choose the northern route. The Gulf of Aden and a large part of the Indian Ocean are currently under threat from piracy. The pirates usually pick slow-moving, easy-to-board vessels, and a sailboat is an obvious example of that."
Too slow
Laura's boat Guppy - a twin-mast, 11.50 metre yacht (Jeanneau) - can travel at perhaps ten knots using its engine, approximately 1.8 kilometres an hour. Sailing yachts are no match for motorboats.
Michiel Hijmans continues. "An English couple, the Chandlers, were attacked by pirates around nine months ago and overpowered immediately. It was just the two of them, they didn't have the ghost of a chance, and now they're still somewhere on land in captivity, in dreadful circumstances, despite the fact that at least half the ransom has been paid."
Convoy
Laura Dekker has said herself that it may be possible to sail through the Gulf of Aden in a convoy. But Commodore Hijmans says that's not a practical idea: convoys sail at a higher average speed than a sailing yacht could keep up with.
"With a sailing yacht, it's practically impossible to maintain such a speed, let alone keep it up for hundreds of miles over several days. She'll also, at a certain moment, have to get some sleep. But sailing with a convoy doesn't allow for sleeping, because you have to stay constantly alert to all the other ships around you."
Cape of Good Hope
All of which makes it look as though there is just one safe option for Laura Dekker when she sets course for the Netherlands after leaving Indonesia: the long detour around South Africa via the Cape of Good Hope.
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They should take some lessons from history. In the 17th till 19th century there was a scourge of piracy in the Mediterranean by pirates from the Barbary Coast. This only ended when western navies took drastic action against the pirates with the Bombardment of Algiers by the British Royal Navy and the Royal Netherlands Navy at the climax. Only by stern military action were the Barbary pirates stopped.
It's intolerable that the Suez Canal, one of the most important shipping lanes in the world is rendered almost unusable by these pirates in their dinghys. At least the Barbary pirates had ships which were a match for the ships used by the European powers.
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