Dubai United Arab Emirates & Somalia Pirates
After leaving the Red Sea we sailed into the Gulf of Aden where it's known to be a haunt of the Somalia Pirates the rumour mill on board was full of stories about the ship being targeted as it was the only American Ship in the Gulf, imagine our shock when after breakfast three days out from Safaga we were given a drill named "Safe Haven" when they sounded the alarms we were to take cover inside and all window curtains were closed and the balcony's were out of bounds, some of the Windjammer windows were covered over... also the outside decks were out of bounds after dark and all the lights on the deck were turned off
later that day we had six security guys with guns on board and two gun ships escorting us, they were taking this threat very seriously indeed
the next day they brought on board a big gun that they had mounted on the stern of the ship, the captain asked us to remain calm and any firing would be for test purposes only...needless to say we didn't see any pirates and once we were in Dubai waters we were given the all clear then things went back to normality even the big gun was taken down...we left Safaga on May 9th and docked in Dubai on May 15th that night we had a great big deck party
The link is Here
http://greatawaydays.piczo.com/dubaiunitedarabemiratessomaliapirats?preview=y&sl=0&st=0&cr=4Part Two
http://greatawaydays.piczo.com/aqabasafaga?preview=y&sl=0&st=0&cr=4Part One
http://greatawaydays.piczo.com/barcelona2012?preview=y&sl=0&st=0&cr=4