Thread: Dare you Cruise the Gulf of Aden?

There have been seven reported incidents of piracy in the last seven days.

Five of those were in the Gulf of Aden.

One in the Gulf of Aden was an attempt on a cruise ship - Oceania's Nautica. Luckily, the Nautica was able to outrun the two boats of armed pirates, but not before being fired upon.

The Nautica is the second cruise ship to experience an attack. The Seabourn Spirit was attacked by pirates armed with grenade launchers off the coast of Somalia in 2005.

Given all this....

Would you reconsider booking a cruise with an itiinerary that included sailing through the Gulf of Aden, or past the coast of Somalia?

What do you think should be done by the cruise lines? Other vessels? The international community?

I personally would not.

While the absolute most dangerous waters seem to be the Gulf of Aden, and along the eastern coast of Somalia (recently as far out as 450 mi) piracy is not exclusive to these areas.

The following link is to a map with markers of incidents of piracy around the world:

Live Piracy Map

We wanted to do the repo cruise from Barcelona to Dubai onboard the Brilliance but because of the piracy activities in the Gulf of Aden we decided against it.
Its way to dangerous at the moment.

What the cruiselines and other vessels should do?? Not sure but either cruise in more safe waters, which would be the easiest solution, or sail in a convoy escorted by navy ships.

Heard this morning that Cunard has cancelled planned March transits through the Gulf of Aden.

I am not surprised. I belive we will see more cancelations in the near future.

Yes - I think that is a given, Lars.
And, I also believe y our decision was a wise one.

they've always had problems in that area for as long as i can remember.
our family was there in the mid sixties,we had to be evaced out of there because of serious trouble

No, thank you! Some say bad things can happen anywhere, but I believe in the law of averages.

Unless you're in the military, police, or fire services, or just plain daft, why would you take a chance on putting yourself in harm's way? It's a vacation!!!!