Pirates of the Indian Ocean and the Big Tuna

Prepared March 1, 2012, in port, Phuket, Thailand


February 17 to 20, 2012, en route to Male, Maldives:  "High Risk Area for Piracy"

On returning from dinner on the evening of February 16 (still in port in Port Louis, Mauritius, taking on fuel), a two-page letter from the Captain was delivered with the ship's plan-of-the-day (Silversea Chronicles) for February 17.  The letter began with the following paragraph --

On the evening of February 18th 2012, whilst underway toward the Maldives, the Silver Whisper will be entering the portion of the Indian Ocean which together with the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, and the Red Sea has been designated by the International Maritime Organization as High Risk Area for Piracy.  Acts of piracy reported in this region by Somali Nationals, have been affecting several ships transit in this geographical part of the world.

The letter went on to attempt to describe the threat, ship's countermeasures, and actions to be taken by passengers if the ship were to be attacked by Somali pirates.

Before turning to priacy, the Somali national livelihood was stealing cattle.  The Swahili word for any Somali is shifta, which literally translates as "cattle thief."  When not stealing cattle from other Somalis, the Somalis would raid eastern Kenya and steal cattle there, until the Kenyan government set up a special force, called the BDU (Border Defense Unit).   Over the years, the BDU curtailed shifta cattle raids into Kenya, and in the process, they drastically reduced the number of shifta!  One can only wonder if yesterday's shifta cattle thief is today's shifta pirate.  An old Kenya hand, who J met when we lived in Kenya, summed up Somalis this way -- :"The women are the most beautiful in the world, and the men are worthless."

Because of the pirate threat, our course to Male, Maldives was modified.  Normally, the ship would take a northeasterly course, approaching Male from the western side of the Maldives;  however, our course took us due east from Port Louis, until we passed south of Diego Garcia Island.  Then, we turned north-northeasterly, approaching Maldives from the eastern side.  This course added about 12 hours sailing time to the Port Louis - Male leg of our journey.  The modified course reduced the risk of piracy, because it put us near the U.S. base on Diego Garcia, probably an area less frequented by pirates.  Even ones who chew kat.

On the afternoon of February 18, the Captain held a meeting with passengers and reiterated the security points in his letter, emphasizing the very limited possibility of actually encountering pirates, and discussing the ship's countermeasures in a general way.  After the briefing, he asked if there were any questions.  Big mistake!  Since the questions were nearly endless, and mostly irrelevant to any piracy attack not conducted by Gilbert and Sullivans' Pirates of Penzance, only the winning question will be immortalized here.  Question:  "If the pirates get on the ship, should we lock our valuables in the safe?"  Answer:  Long pause, followed by, "That should not happen."  To paraphrase Kermit -- It is not easy being Captain.

Starting at or about sunset on February 18, our butler came in and closed the drapes.  The ship was to be blacked out from dusk tell dawn.  This darkened-ship exercise is difficult on a cruise ship.  The evening of February 19, we were with Enzo, the Guest Relations Officer, and one old trout commented that as soon as the butler left, she opened the drape.  She wanted "to see out."  One can only guess how many other trouts also wanted "to see out."  Anyway, the effort was made!

Sea days were largely spent the same -- bridge lessons and bridge play.  Bridge is a very frustrating game, best summed up as -- the more you improve, the worse you get!  J & E continue to improve, having moved to the middle part of the rankings instead of being permanent anchor, but on some days, it is back to anchor.

Late evening on the 19th, we passed about 70nm south of Diego Garcia and changed course to the north-northeast, making for Male.

February 20th was a special day - E's birthday.  Even though she tried very hard to keep it from leaking out on the ship, the ship's company knew and so did many of our passenger friends.  Although initially not intended to celebrate E's birthday, we had ordered a special roast duck dinner with Danny and JoAnne, and Richard and Robert.  For the dinner, we had three crispy roast ducks, wurst, rotkohl, and hot German potato salad.  A real German dinner.  The duck was superb.  Even J, who is not the world's biggest duck fan, had a second portion.  It was truly a wonderful meal.  When we arrived back in our cabin, we discovered it had been decorated with birthday ballons and rose petals, plus rose.  Also, there was a small chocolate mousse birthday cake and birthday greetings from the Captain and our cabin staff, Mary Ann and Regan.  So, we topped off the crispy duck, with half the chocolate mousse birthday cake.  We couldn't let it get stale.


February 21, 2012, at anchor off Male, Maldive Islands:  The Big Tuna

Having escaped the grip of Black Beard (or would it be Black Abdul), the pirate and his jolly band, we arrived off Male, the capital of the Maldives.   About 10:00am, we anchored and launched the tenders by 11:00.  J & E had not made any plans for going on tour, so after the tours had departed, we went ashore to walk around Male and to visit the local museum.  The tender docked in Male's small boat harbor at the local interisland ferry pier, and it was a beehive of activity with numerous fishing boats and interisland ferrys loading and off-loading.

After disembarking, we walked across the main road past  the Friday Mosque and into a small park that had been the Sultan of the Maldives' old palace grounds.  The palace, a modest wooden structure, still is standing, but was not available for touring.  Also, the National Museum was closed, so cultural tourism in Male came to a dead end.  Walking back to the port, a local man gave us directions to the markets, and we walked along the pier side to visit two different vegetable markets, and the fresh fish market.

Friday Mosque - Male, Maldives

Cannons Outside National Museum

Why there are two vegetable markets was not clear to us, probably the growth of Male required additional market space, and there was not space directly available at the old market site.  Or, as E pointed out, the one vegetable market (closest to the pier) may have been to provision ships and the outer islands and was for men only, and the other, closer to the town and out of the port area, may have been for local consumers, both men and women.  This was supported by the gender of the customers in the two markets.  Both markets were well stocked, with tropical fruits and vegetables, including some that we did not recognize.  For example, there was the "pinenut" fruit, which appeared to be a mutant relative of a pineapple.   However, the sample given us by the local vendor tasted more like an apple or pear.  The image of the pinenut fruit below gives you some idea of its size.  A monster.

Local Vegetable Market

Mysterious Pinenut Fruit

Closeup of Mysterious Pinenut Fruit

Leaving the second vegetable market and our encounter with the pinenut fruit, we visited the fish market.  It was about 1:00pm and the local fishing fleet had returned with numerous yellow fin tuna (ahi) which were being laid out on the concrete floor of the local fish market (suisan) just like in Hilo or Honolulu.  Here, we met our ship's Executive Chef and two ship's officers buying fresh fish for the ship's table.  It was very busy at the fish market and along the pier, as the catch-of-the-day was carried or wheeled from the pier to the market.

Fishing Fleet is in Port

Big Tuna on the Move

Tuna by the Bucket

Executive Chef Finding the Right Fish

As we were leaving the fish market, a local man asked us if we were interested in antiques or souvenirs.  Lacking anything better to do, we walked  a short distance up a side street and up the stairs into a very large souvenir shop -- anything you desired, new or used, from the Maldives (supposedly).  Having enjoyed the day, and since we were the only ones in the shop, J bought a Maldives t-shirt, but it is now E's t-shirt (like it or not), because it shrank from XL to XS on first washing!  Well, what can you say!  Anyway, we did a little bit for the tourist sector of the Maldives' economy.

Returning to the pier, we waited (with other Silver Whisper passengers) for the tender, and watched the local scene.  Since it was 1:45p--before the Restaurant closed, we had a light lunch, followed by, in J's case, a long nap in preparation for a rigorous round of trivial pursuit and dinner for two in the Resturant.  At dinner, we were served absolutely the best fresh Trevally direct from the fish market in Male!   Our Executive Chef has a good eye for fish.

Returning to the Silver Whisper

With Dinner in the Bucket!