Rally/convoy heading to the Red Sea rejected for Navy escort

8:19 PM Tue 8 Feb 2011 GMT

'Thailand to Turkey - organised by Alondra, who has been sailing in Thailand since 2007' .

Britain's Royal Navy has rejected a request by a cruising couple to give a convoy of around 30 yachts escort to the start of the Gulf of Aden, Salalah. Dutch cruising sailors Rene and Edith Tiemessen, who previously sailed with kidnapped sailors Paul and Rachel Chandler, have organised a rally/convoy from Thailand to Turkey and appealed for help from the British Navy several months ago. Sailing with their two-year-old daughter Devi and an American crew member Kate Schafer on a 60ft yacht called Alondra, the Tiemessens are now in an anchorage at Ulugan in the Maldives waiting for a propitious ...

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by Nancy Knudsen