Convoy of cruising yachts successfully transit Somali pirate zone

7:42 PM Thu 31 Mar 2011 GMT

'Alondra, Rene and Edith Tiemessen&rsquo;s yacht which led the TTT Convoy to safety' .

The Thailand to Turkey Convoy (TTT), led by Rene Tiemessen, rejected for escort by the combined navies, has safely transited the pirate zone around Somalia, which has now spread so wide that vast stretches of the Indian Ocean have been deemed too dangerous for cruising sailors. When the convoy left Thailand in January this year, transiting yachts had found a largely-kept-secret route to navigate the former danger zone through the Gulf of Aden between Salalah and the Red Sea. However, during their voyage from Thailand, the scope of piracy activities increased dramatically, both in violence and in geographic reach, so ...

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by Nancy Knudsen