Piracy, an area of concern during the leg two of Volvo Ocean Race?

Since the fleet passed the scoring gate at Mauritius, the discussion is about the piracy. As the press release says, "The seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia has placed piracy on the global news agenda over the past week, and the issue has become a talking point on board as the fleet head north towards India."

It was in the view of piracy threat, Volvo Ocean Race organizers made change in the route. Thereafter, a new scoring gate was introduced below Mauritius and a new direction was announced. This led the fleet to take a new route, which includes exclusion zone to keep the fleet east and away from Somalia. A Philippines chemical tanker with 23 crew was recently hijacked in Somalia. The fleet is thus cruising 1,500 miles away from the incident spot.

The organizers have taken safety measures - i.e. practices and procedures to deal with any untowardly incidents. According to Debbie Hawden, the Chief Duty Officer, whose team safeguard the boats 24x7 from race headquarters says, "We are sending our three-hourly reports to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization who are responsible for security and piracy in the region,” she said. “In return, they regularly report to us on what warships are in the waters the fleet are traveling to should assistance be needed."

Piracy, is definitely a cause for concern for the race team. Guy Salter, the Media Crew Member aboard Ericsson 4, in his email said. ”I guess it must be huge news onshore but in the last day, we have been getting the news of the piracy off Somalia,” he wrote. “Pirates come in all shapes and forms, from the fully-organized terrorist style, which we are reading about so much, to the opportunists. ”There are a lot of reported incidents, which are not piracy at all. I have sailed many, many miles throughout South East Asia and piracy was one of the big worries in this area, all too often curiosity is reported as piracy.”

Gustav Morin - MCM, Ericsson 3 writes, "There has been a lot of talking about the dangers of piracy in the areas we are sailing into. Their best business is to take hostages and demand money. Hmm, I wonder how much a bunch of professional sailors would be worth?"

He further says, "We will probably never find out. Firstly, because I’ve heard that you should never pay people for hostages, since it will only make them commit the same crime again and they will probably kill you anyway. The other reason is that I don’t think we will see any pirates at all. We will never be closer than 1400 NM to the coast of Somalia and if the waves are higher than two meters and we are sailing in more than 15 knots of boat speed, I don’t think they will even consider trying to catch us."

Piracy is a part of what the Volvo Ocean Race team could face during the race across the world. And the team carries on with much efforts and hopes, though they do think of piracy, still hoping they won't be taken as a hostage!

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre finds a place at 'Ocean Race Trade Fest'

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) is to utilize space at Ocean Race Trade Fest, an exhibition of Indian Brands at the Race Village in Kochi, with a special focus on the tale of "Chandrayan." For children and adults alike, VSSC's participation will be an opportunity to information related to Indian space science. The press release says, "Basic information on the functioning of remote sensing satellites, communication satellites, Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles (GSLV) and Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) along with the history of the Indian space programme will be made available to the people."

Leg Two Report - 1

Reports from Leg Two have started reaching my inbox. However, my lack of knowledge and awareness of sailing and Volvo Ocean Race forces me to stay away from discussing the details mentioned in the latest reports. In brief, the latest press release mentions "But, it is a perplexing time for the skippers and navigators: whether to go further south and into the stronger breeze for maximum scoring gate points, or stay further north, in lighter conditions but closer to the finish." As long as one doesn't understand the do's and dont's and what it makes to win the race or score points, such a note and its explanation in the report doesn't make sense! All I could sum up from the reports is the eight teams are spread across a north/south divide. And the distance between this north/south divide is under 40 nautical miles.