Rival 38 "Lynn Rival" EPIRB Activated - No Information

[BlowingOldBoots]

R38 Lynn Rival Skippered and Crewed by Paul & Rachel Chandler is on passage and her EPIRB has been activated.

Lynn Rival's EPIRB has been activated on October 23rd.
They departed from the Seychelles yesterday, 22/10/09, for a 150NM passage SW to the Amirante Islands, en route to Tanzania.

If anyone has any news of the vessel or the whereabouts please leave a message here.

[lenseman]

Have you posted on the Cruiser or any other Forums?

I presume that as you are aware of the EPIRB being activated, you have been informed by Falmouth Marine Rescue & Co-ordination Centre?

The area in which they are cruising is now very dangerous for pirates. Since the Coalition Forces have placed warships along the Somalia coastline, the pirates are now working much further out in the Indian Ocean operating from mother ships and are known to be operating close to the Seychelles (see Noonsite)!

http://www.noonsite.com/Members/sue/R2009-05-14-5

Do you have any further information as their blog entry stops in the Seychelles on the 21 OCT 2009?

[lenseman]

I have cross posted on Cruiserlog for you:

http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/ind...howtopic=13919

[BlowingOldBoots]

Lensman - thanks. I have not posted on any other forum. I became aware of the message through a colleague. It is posted on www.rivalowners.org.uk and I am simply spreading the word.

[lenseman]

I have also posted on Noonsite.

http://www.noonsite.com:8000/Noonsit.../R2009-10-24-1

[BlowingOldBoots]

The EPIRB has been reported, by a UK contact, to have ceased transmitting after a few hours, which of course could indicate either premature failure or manual switching off after the discovery that it had been activated accidentally.

Lynn Rival is in an area where their satellite phone does not function. An air search has found nothing. If the yacht is safe, we may not know until it closes the Tanzanian coast, perhaps 10-14 days from now.

The above information has been taken from the www.rivalowners.org.uk

[Ariadne]

Can you keep us posted on this please PM if need be. They have passed on a load of useful info to us over the last couple of months.

[lenseman]

UPDATE:

From the American National Intelligence Agency 23 OCT 2009.

The EPIRB on "LYNN RIVAL" was activated at 01:33Z on the 23 October at the location 04° 31.43S 054° 26.10E. This is 60 nautical miles west by north of the town of Victoria in the Seychelles. There are SIX crew on board.

Further traffic:

Earlier at 05:55Z (22 OCT 2009) there was a thwarted pirate attack on a merchantman in the area 04° 09.00S 052° 35.00E this is very close to the last known position of LYNN RIVAL. The area was listed as 'High Risk for 24/48 hours'.

This update also cross posted on Noonsite and CruiserLog.

[ChrisE]

Originally Posted by lenseman

UPDATE:

From the American National Intelligence Agency 23 OCT 2009.

The EPIRB on "LYNN RIVAL" was activated at 01:33Z on the 23 October at the location 04° 31.43S 054° 26.10E. This is 60 nautical miles west by north of the town of Victoria in the Seychelles. There are SIX crew on board.

Further traffic:

Earlier at 05:55Z (22 OCT 2009) there was a thwarted pirate attack on a merchantman in the area 04° 09.00S 052° 35.00E this is very close to the last known position of LYNN RIVAL. The area was listed as 'High Risk for 24/48 hours.

I hope all goes well for them. I was talking to someone last week who told me that a pleasure fishing charterboat in the same area was recently hi-jacked.

[Ubergeekian]

Originally Posted by lenseman

The area in which they are cruising is now very dangerous for pirates. Since the Coalition Forces have placed warships along the Somalia coastline, the pirates are now working much further out in the Indian Ocean operating from mother ships and are known to be operating close to the Seychelles (see Noonsite)!

I hope the people in question are well. However, I do wonder why anyone would sail through these areas. The dangers are very well known and very well reported.