Pirates, really? And not the Pittsburgh kind (although almost as scary!)

I'm going to jump ahead chronologically with this post, since it only contains one picture. The posts from the past few days have more pictures as part of the post and the internet is very slow, so it may take awhile to post those entries. Meanwhile, enjoy this little tidbit.

Every evening we receive a “newsletter” from Viking, called the Viking Daily. It gives information about the next day’s events, which bus each one is to board for his/her particular excursion, and when and where to catch the bus. There also is information about activities taking place on board the ship: talks, shows, fitness, etc. And information is included that may be deemed important for the cruisers to be aware of. So this little tidbit appeared in yesterday evening’s Viking Daily:

“As we sail south you will see some changes around the ship as we prepare for our transit through the Gulf of Aden. This region has long been known for piratical activity (translation: pirates) and although this has been declining for some years now (that makes me feel better), we will be taking some precautions to ensure your safety.”

The newsletter continued: “To prevent boarders, we will be fixing razor wire to the guardrails around deck 2…We will also be carrying armed guards for a number of days which has proven to be an extremely effective deterrent. There are other measures in place, but I trust you understand that in the interests of security, we do not divulge all measures we are taking.” Why didn’t they tell us this when we booked this trip?

Preparing the ship for potential pirate attack - not sure if this brings me comfort or discomfort.

And then this morning, they made an announcement that we were going to make a stop to pick up more security equipment. After that, they tried to reassure us by ending the announcement with this quote from Helen Keller: “Life is either a draining adventure or nothing at all.” Today I vote for “nothing at all”. 😊




Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 12, 2022 at 7:03 AM

    Oh yes that region of the world is know for pirate attacks throughout its history

    ReplyDelete

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