French luxury yacht seized by pirates. Arrr!
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I have some friends who are ADDICTED to pirate stories in the press, and you can understand why. It's just so RADICAL in this day and age to think that there are ACTUAL PIRATES, cruising around, hijacking yachts and ships. I think it's fucking AWESOME!

Le Ponant - quite a serious yacht

Like this one that happened about 3 days ago off the coast of Somalia. Luxury French yacht, the 288-foot Le Ponant, was stormed by about 10 PIRATES! They took over the ship and are now holding about 30 crew hostage. Hah! Can you imagine the pirates as they arrived on board, tuning the chicks, "Avast, me proud beauty! Wanna know why my Roger is so jolly?" Hahaha! If the chicks were into it (which MOST chicks are - let's face it, pirates are a MAJOR turn on) then they would probably reply something like, "That's quite a cutlass ye got thar, what ye need is a good scabbard!"

Back to the story - look, I know it's quite serious, but it's still fucking cool when they say things like "the pirates took the yacht back to their lair." AWESOME! I want a lair! I suppose I have a lair, don't I? The Safe House is my lair. And I'm pretty much a pirate. This was effectively proven the day when The Kitesurfer and I hoisted the skull and crossbones at the other Camps Bay property I sometimes dwell at - The Castle!

Pirates in Camps Bay!

Treasure inside..

I know! It's just too amazing to behold! Click link to find out more about The Camps Bay Castle.

Back to the story, The Independent reports that the pirates and yacht are being followed by the French navy, who are hoping the pirates negotiate nicely for the release of the yacht and crew. A yacht of this size (four decks, two restaurants and a swimming pool) could result in quite a handsome ransom for the pirates ("handsome ransom" - I like that). In February the Danish government forked out $700,000 for the release of one of their tugboats. Nice, guys! VERY effective returns! Check it out:

"Although piracy is on the increase, it is rare for such a spectacular vessel as Le Ponant to be seized. The ship has four decks and two restaurants. It was was heading from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean to Alexandria in Egypt to pick up 64 passengers for a Mediterranean cruise.

The yacht was hijacked by 10 pirates, believed to be armed with automatic weapons and rocket launchers, as it steered towards the Red Sea and the Suez Canal on Friday afternoon. The ship's owner, Compagnie Générale Maritime, said that it had been in contact with the ship and that the crew, which includes six women, was safe and well. It is believed that the pirates stormed the ship by means of a staircase, leading to the upper decks from a swimming deck at sea-level.

Although modern piracy is often associated with Asian waters, the International Maritime Bureau lists the most dangerous coasts in the world as those of Somalia and Nigeria. Since the collapse into anarchy of the east African nation after the 1991 civil war, many fishermen have armed themselves with automatic weapons and hand-held rocket launchers and taken to piracy in the Gulf of Aden."

Interesting. Let's check out some more shots of Le Ponant and then we'll wrap it up.

Nice

This guy is not a pirate
If he was a pirate, he would have had his way with her by now..

The pirates will enjoy sundowners at the pool

Let's keep our eyes on that story as it develops.

If YOU want to learn how to talk like a pirate (you do), as I have done throughout this article, CLICK HERE!

  
Seth Rotherham
Editor
2oceansvibe.com
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