S/V Quest

Note: I had written this before the tragic events that befell the crew of the Quest.

An American yacht with four people onboard was recently captured by pirates in the Indian Ocean. Although we didn't know them personally, our paths overlapped in Galle.

Since the first sailboats trickled out of Sri Lanka, I had been watching the news and my email nervously to see if they would all make it.

Since the attack, there have been few developments, but the news certainly has received quite a bit of press (more so than the 38 commercial ships attacked by pirates in January). Many of these news stories have public comment areas, and I have found many of them critical of Quest's decision to transit pirate waters. Some have related it to the incidents involving the American backpackers that have been arrested in Iran and North Korea.

Although I will not comment on my feelings concerning Quest's decision, I do want to shed some light on the cruiser thought process.

Sailing around the world starts as a dream. After sufficient research and thought, this dream all of a sudden sounds 'crazy enough that it might work.' Then comes the planning, personal investment, and the naysayers. In our own experience, although the vast majority of people we met were unbelievably supportive, we still encountered a fair bit of criticism. We had fellow cruisers telling us to skip locations (Bahamas, Jamaica, Colombia, Galapagos, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore), friends at home advising us on how to outfit our yacht, and people on both sides telling us to slow down or speed up (respectively). Most advice is conflicting and eventually proven incorrect.

Cruisers get accustomed to this cacophony and become rather adept at ignoring it. By the time the Indian Ocean is reached, the advice to avoid pirates sounds all too similar.

The sailors we met in Sri Lanka were all aware of the piracy situation. It didn't help that most of the information on the topic (available at noonsite.com) was woefully inadequate and outdated, but even if it wasn't, a majority of yachts would still have chosen to sail on.

And so, at the end of February each year, a group of yachts will sail westward across the Indian Ocean. The size of the group will vary, but each sailor that sails on will always be irrationally certain of themselves.

If a sailor failed to possess this trait, they would have never left home in the first place.