Le Ponant has been seized by pirates off Somalia

[Goldryder]

PARIS (AFP) — Pirates boarded a French luxury cruise yacht off the coast of Somalia and took its entire crew hostage on Friday, a French military spokesman said.

 

The yacht, the Ponant, "was the victim of an act of piracy early this afternoon as it was sailing between Somalia and Yemen," spokesman Christophe Prazuck said.

 

The 850-tonne three-masted yacht was carrying around 30 crew but had no passengers on board at the time, Prazuck said.

 

"As far as we know, no shots have been fired," he said.

 

French military forces and a US-led task force, both present in the area, "were able to confirm the situation and are following its evolution," he added.

 

France has a patrol aircraft based in Djibouti, as well a dispatch boat........

 

Article continues here...

 

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gC9E3n5nDa1cJ9IAnkN-ikfw9SfQ

[SuziClue]

Just read about Le Ponant and I wonder: has any one else ever been on a ship that traveled through that region? While cruise lines don't often stop at ports along the way, it's the only way to go directly from the Far East to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal) and ships DO sail through there....

 

Reminded me of the Seabourn incident a few years ago, roughly same area.

 

Interesting that there were no passengers. Wonder if cruise line was trying to take as few risks as possible.

 

I was on Europa a couple of years ago. It's a German cruise ship and we had the German equivalent of the Military shadowing us the whole way.... kind of creepy but in hindsight, perhaps not!

 

 

Suzi

[keltic]

OH GOD. My favourite cruise line. I am devastated. Although only been on Le Diamant, I hope everything will end successfully.

 

These are called sea voyages. Positioning ones. Sometimes, they sell them, sometimes they don´t.

 

My support for the company.

[shoshona2]

Hi,

 

We were on the Le Ponant eight years ago from Malta to Nice and we still can't stop telling our friends how wonderful it was. Tauck Tours leases it most of the year from the French company who owns the yacht. It was repositioning to the Med for a cruise. I checked Tauck's website just now and it was scheduled to pick up passengers in Malta on May 11th. My prayers are with the wonderful crew and for their families. These pirates have been attacking vessels for quite a while and I really think they must have been disappointed when they found no rich passengers. The French are saying that they have made contact with the pirates and the crew is safe at some port.

 

 

Sheila

[Louise22]

Zegrahm, based in Seattle, had just finished leasing the ship for a Seychelles cruise and was scheduled for another cruise beginning April 10th - "Jordan and Egypt Under Sail".

[shoshona2]

Hi Louise,

 

After that, Tauck has leased it for its Med Sailings beginning in May. Tauck leases it for about 3/4 of the year.

 

Sheila

[Johnny B]

We just returned from the Amsterdam's world cruise, during which we sailed in the area you mentioned. It was one of the two times (the other in Indonesia) where they put up the sound dishes on the Promenade Deck. These look like medium sized TV "dishes" and focus piercing sound on any place they're aimed. While we were in pirate areas (I didn't even know there still were such things!), each of the two dishes was manned by two security guards who watched the sea for any threats. The Chief Security Officer, Mark, told us that they've never had to use them and hopefully never will, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

[Aplmac]

While we were in pirate areas (I didn't even know there still were such things!).....

You need to visit URL...

http://www.icc-ccs.org/prc/piracyreport.php

and update yourself as to incidents, piracy prone areas of conflict, the whole lot!! :)

 

 

Interesting map showing "where it's at"

at URL

http://www.icc-ccs.org/extra/display.php?yr=2008