British couple victims of kidnap off Seychelles
- Tue, 27 Oct 2009
- Comments (6)
A British cruising couple appear to have fallen victim to kidnappers near the Seychelles, according to reports in the Sun and Telegraph, Reuters and the BBC.
Paul and Rachel Chandler posted a pre-departure message on their blog last Wednesday (21 October), then activated their Emergency Position Indidicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) early on Friday just 60 nautical miles west of Mahe.
A further message was posted on their blog two hours later saying: PLEASE RING SARAH. They were on a 150NM passage South-west to the Amirante Islandsen route to Tanzania.
On Wednesday the couple wrote: 'We'll be at sea for 8 to 12 days, maybe 14 as we are now getting into the period of transition between the south monsoon and north monsoon, so the trade winds will be less reliable and we may get more light winds. We probably won't have satellite phone coverage until we're fairly close to the African coast, so we may be out of touch for some time.'
The couple have been cruising around the Indian Ocean in their Rival 38, Lynn Rival.
Pirate activity has picked up in the area in recent weeks due to the change in the weather.
Reuters and the BBC have reported that a commercial vessel had been snatched by pirates just hours earlier in the same area, and that there has been a statment from a source in Somalia: "The British couple are in our hands now. We captured them as they were touring in the Indian Ocean."
He said the two captives were healthy and ransom demands would follow.
If you have any further information of use to the family or the authorities, post it on YBW forums
Latest comments
November 01 08:45
Andrew
I believe it's unfair to say the armed forces do nothing. As a person well connected with the RN I know that they do a lot of anti-piracy work off the somalian coast. But the area of threat is so large that it's impossible to cover all of it all the time. Some are bound to slip through the net! Though are attention should be on the well being of the couple and that they are rescued or released soon.
November 03 16:03
John C Payne
Yes it was a silly thing to be doing, and its also badly informed to suggest an inability to deal with the issues by armed forces. The 30 or so naval vessels have foiled many attacks since the monsoon season ended, and the pirates have now managed to successfully hijack several vessels way out in the Indian ocean, and policing that is an impossibility. The battle is being fought very actively, and on the terrorism front there are a bunch of other naval ships in the region also devoted to that. For yachts the real piracy no go area is around Venezuela. I have been working on another book on the subject of piracy and its going to surprise many just how bad the problem is around the world. Lesson is don't go putting yourself in harms way without considering the consequences.
November 09 14:33
Rach
The armed forces have tried really to help these people. If you knew how hard these people worked you would not slate them! These people should of not been sailling around that area really considering the incidents that have occurred in the past. R
December 28 19:45
roy cattermoul
pirates are criminals,we used to hang them,they are still criminals today.They havn´t changed why should we?Don´t forget who started this;it wasn´t the innocent boatowners.