If you knew there had been a recent piracy attack, would you still head towards that destination? It's something we had to consider when leaving Tioman to get to the Anambas
Three weeks prior to our departure there was a successful attack on a cargo ship slap bang along our route. The attackers were armed with one gun and several knives, more than enough to overpower our humble crew.
This threw up a dilemma – should we change course or risk it anyway? In the end, we decided to carry on with our best-laid plans, albeit with a few tweaks.
In situations like this, keeping a vigilant look-out is crucial, and we made sure we were ready to announce our presence to any ships or yachts passing nearby via VHF.
We had sailed this particular stretch of sea before, but this time was different, with 4 metre waves and 2 knots of current trying to push us north towards China.
This made for slow progress at first, but after dark, the winds picked up and Esper was in her element, rattling along at over 7 knots.
It would seem that modern day pirates don’t like the rough weather as much as their forebears did!