The Unimaginable
Page 23
I highly encourage you to read more about their family and their incredible journey at www.sailimagine.com.
The second story is extraordinarily moving and astonishing, yet sadly doesn’t end with a safe return. On February 18, 2011, a sailboat by the name of Quest carrying two American retired couples—one of which ran a Bible ministry and had been distributing Bibles to schools and churches in remote villages in places, including the Fiji Islands, New Zealand, and French Polynesia—was hijacked in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Oman. Their boat was boarded by nineteen Somali pirates, who held them captive for five days until finally killing all four Americans below deck without warning. During the days they were being held, the naval ship USS Sterett was trailing their boat, and two of the hijackers were taken aboard the USS Sterett to begin negotiations for the release of the Americans, but during that time something went very wrong.
Below is an excerpt from a February 22, 2011, Fox News article.
The yacht Quest was hijacked on Friday off the coast of Oman, and US forces had been closely monitoring the vessel.
Unlike most pirate incidents, these pirates boarded the Quest directly from their mother ship, rather than using faster skiffs. The mother ship remains free.
Vice Admiral Mark Fox, commander of Centcom’s naval forces, explained the timeline of events during a press briefing with Pentagon reporters. According to Fox, there was “absolutely no warning” before the hostage situation turned deadly.
On Monday two pirates boarded the USS Sterett (one of four US naval ships monitoring the situation) to conduct negotiations for the release of the American hostages. They stayed on board overnight and it’s unclear if any ransom was offered before the killing took place.
At 8:00 a.m. local time Tuesday morning a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the Sterett from pirates on board the Quest. The shot missed, but immediately after gunfire erupted inside the cabin of the Quest.
“Several pirates appeared on deck and moved up to the bow with their hands in the air in surrender,” Fox said. That’s when US Special Operations Forces (SOF) approached on small boats and boarded the yacht.
When SOF soldiers—from a classified Navy SEALs unit—reached the yacht, they found two pirates had already been killed by small-arms fire. As they went below deck, there was an exchange of fire that killed one pirate. The other pirate was killed by an SOF member who used a knife in close combat, Vice Admiral Fox said.
The SOF found some of the Americans still alive, but all four soon died of their wounds. Vice Admiral Fox called it the deadliest pirate incident to date.
This was the same week that my friends Jane and Marc and their family were also making their way across the Indian Ocean. Needless to say, it was a harrowing, frightening, and challenging time for them.
For me, the story of the Quest was both deplorable and intriguing. After reading about it on Jane and Marc’s blog and then hearing about it on the news, I couldn’t stop thinking about the conditions the Americans on board had to endure. No one will ever know for sure, but I can only hope they were treated with a modicum of respect and that their families can find solace in the fact they were doing what they loved.
It’s important for me to address one lingering question that I know many readers will have: Why do boaters sail this passage if these dangers exist? So I’ve asked Jane and Marc to answer it for me. Here is their answer.
We realize that there are a lot of people wondering why reasonably intelligent people would actually sail through these waters and do this not because they have to, but because they want to. As with all of the decisions regarding this passage, each captain and crew has its own reasons for what course it chooses. We were fully aware of the dangers in the Indian Ocean at the time, and we evaluated all of the alternatives available to us to avoid the piracy.
First of all, we were unarmed. Although there was indeed a small handful of boats who were armed with a handgun or shotgun, in reality even if we were armed we would be no match if confronted by skiffs full of pirates with fully automatic AK-47s and RPGs.
We knew we were on our own, and could not rely on US or other military support. It’s a massive ocean, and impossible for the military to patrol. The US & UK military agencies that we were in daily communication with months before our passage and while crossing the Indian Ocean, cautioned all sailboats and recommended they not sail this passage. It was simply too dangerous in their view.
We were close to abandoning our dreams of continuing our cruising life and sailing around the world, and even looked at selling Imagine in Southeast Asia or Australia. We considered sailing east back through the Philippines, Japan, and the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to get back to the west coast of the United States, but that 4,000-mile passage across some of the most treacherous waters was not appealing. We evaluated changing our course to go south around South Africa and back up the South Atlantic, but the sailing conditions along that route too are extremely poor, and it is also fraught with piracy.
For months we tried to organize a transport ship (transport ships carry yachts across the Indian Ocean on into the Mediterranean), but at the time no ship was available. Months later, we did learn of a transport ship that was newly launched which ended up carrying over thirty sailboats safely from the Maldives to Turkey. For many cruisers, however, the cost was too expensive, since it exceeded their entire cruising budget for a year.
For our friends from Europe, this route was about their only way to get home. Some felt that the safety of a convoy was enough to get them through the scariest waters. A few even felt that the risks were overblown, and they believed wholeheartedly that yachts would not be of interest to the pirates. In contrast, many others believed that the best approach was to go alone, fast and stealthy. It is a vast ocean out there, and what are the chances that a pirate is going to come across them?
And shockingly, there were also those that just didn’t know about the increased danger of piracy in the Indian Ocean. And we can’t say anyone was so bold as to think they were invincible or immune to the dangers, but there were a few who either concealed their fears better than us or were far braver than we were.
As for our decision . . . rather than crossing through the center of the Indian Ocean—the traditional sailing route—based on the locations of the known piracy attacks and our boat’s ability to motor long distances, we chose to sail along the coast of India. We kept close to the Indian shore, sailing far north of the northernmost known piracy attack toward Pakistan, en route to Muscat, Oman. This was a difficult 1,500-mile detour that most boats could not attempt, motor-sailing into headwinds. But Imagine could, and Muscat was a safe and welcoming home for Jane and the kids for four weeks as I continued on with my two crew members, Mike and Kieran, through the Gulf of Aden into the Red Sea. Once safely through to Egypt, Jane and the kids flew to meet us and were reunited with Imagine and me.
The day I left Jane and the kids behind in Oman was the day we heard the news that the crew aboard Quest had been killed.
Acknowledgments
The words “thank you” can hardly express the awe and gratitude I have for Jane, Marc, Caroline, Grant, and Noah Adams. Without their unimaginable journey and courage to follow their dreams, this story would not exist. Jane and Marc spent countless hours with me reliving their travels and telling me stories of the countries they visited, as I would take notes and live vicariously through them, seething with jealousy. They have also each read this manuscript almost as many times as I have over the past year. Love you guys!
During the course of writing this book, I was also blessed to find a partner in crime in editor Madison Seidler. Madison, thank you for your encouragement, your texts, your generosity, and most of all your insight. You have a true gift when it comes to knowing what appeals to readers, and I thank you for that and so much more.
Next, a huge, mega thank-you to my beta readers. I cannot stress how much I rely on them and how much their opinions mean to me. Meg Costigan, Tammy La
ngas, Iris Martin, Kelly Konrad, Beth Suit, Wendy Wilken, Rebecca Berto, Amanda Clark, Nicole Angle, Angela Schillaci, Liis McKinstry, and of course, my mother-in-law and my mom, who are my biggest and most vocal fans/critics.
I was also fortunate enough to have some amazing naval contacts, who helped me navigate my way through the chapters dealing with the rescue and the protocol on board an aircraft carrier. They are Becki Moran, Spencer Langley, and Justin Krit. Thank you for your service and for your invaluable help with this book.
Lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to those I affectionately refer to as Team Dina.
My agent, Deborah Schneider, thank you for telling me I’m a better writer than I think I am. I needed that.
My developmental editor on this book, Andrea Hurst, thank you for enjoying this story as much as I do, and for making it better than it was.
My publishing family at Lake Union Publishing. Many, many thanks for your continued support, your enthusiasm for this book, and your belief in me.
It takes a village . . .
About the Author
PHOTO © ROBIN MILLER
DINA SILVER is an author, a wine drinker, and an excellent parallel parker. She lives with her husband, son, and twenty-pound tabby cat in suburban Chicago. She’d prefer to live somewhere where it’s warm year-round, but then she’d never stay home and write anything. For more information about Dina and her other books, visit www.dinasilver.com.