2008-Mar-05 Noon Position

Indian Ocean
7'58.6N/71'14.4E

• 93 nm last 24 hrs
• 1142 nm to Salalah, Oman
• 113 nm from Uligamu, Maldives
• Winds N 10kt (sometimes)
• Seas 0-1 feet N

You're in a small boat in the Indian Ocean... and suddenly pirates!

We have been listening to the BBC daily on our SSB radio while bobbing around out here. Today they had a 3 part special on pirates and that phrase is how they started the show. Today's (part 1) part was about the history of piracy. Next week will be about modern day pirates and will talk about piracy in the Somalia area. What timing.

Not many miles made last 24 hours as the wind has really been messing with the Piper. Around sunset last night the wind died, forcing us to motor through the night until sunrise when a light breeze piped up from the north. It gave us an average of 3 knots all afternoon.

The ocean last night was flat and glassy. One of those rare nights where all the stars were out an you could see right down into the ocean. When it is that calm out, we have movie night in the cockpit. We put our portable DVD player in the cockpit and plug it into Sandpiper's stereo speakers for booming audio.

We looked off Sandpipers starboard side during movie time and noticed large green glowing objects under the Piper as she motored along. We shut off the running lights so we could get a better look, but could not see anything. We turned the running lights back on and there they were again... large glowing blobs all over the place. I figured they were sea monsters. But Amy decided that they must be squid that were reflecting in Sandpipers starboard running light. Very weird.

Yesterday at 1800h S/V Shiraz was over the horizon off our starboard side. Off our bow was another boat named 'Friendship' (from New Zealand). We had left the Maldives with them, and they are also going to Oman.

More in 24 hours,
Tom and Amy

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Note From Ron: You can listen to part 1 of the BBC pirate documentary over the web with streaming audio and Windows Media Player. (No download option) Click here. I'll put up links to parts 2 and 3 when the BBC puts them up.