British couple feared kidnapped by pirates off Somalia

A British couple are feared to have been kidnapped by pirates after a distress beacon was activated on their yacht off the coast of Somalia.


By Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:00AM GMT 27 Oct 2009
Rachel and Paul Chandler: British couple feared kidnapped by pirates off Somalia
Rachel and Paul Chandler Photo: UNIVERSAL NEWS

Paul and Rachel Chandler had spent several months in the Seychelles before setting sail in their 38ft yacht bound for Tanzania via the Amirante Islands on Thursday.

The pair, in their 60s, who have been sailing around the Indian Ocean for much of the past two years, had anticipated spending up to 14 days at sea.

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However, coastguards picked up a signal from their boat’s emergency position-indicating radio beacon on Friday.

A mysterious message on their website reads: “PLEASE RING SARAH.”

There has been no trace of their vessel, Lynn Rival, since the message, which stated that there were “six crew on board”.

Sailing forums were last night awash with speculation that the couple, who were thought to be sailing alone when they left, sent the message to suggest that their boat had been boarded by four pirates.

The Foreign Office said that it was taking the matter seriously and an “urgent” investigation is under way.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware of the report and we are urgently investigating.”

The beacon was activated at 1.33am on Friday, when their boat was 60 nautical miles out of the port of Victoria in the Seychelles.

Their last message before the alert suggested that they might be out of contact for several days.

The update posted on their blog said: “We'll be at sea for 8 to 12 days, maybe 14 as we are now getting into the period of transition between the south monsoon and north monsoon, so the trade winds will be less reliable and we may get more light winds.

“We probably won't have satellite phone coverage until we're fairly close to the African coast, so we may be out of touch for some time.”

Messages on the couple’s blog suggested that they believed the threats from pirates in the area had subsided.

They wrote: “The seas around the Seychelles are now too rough for the pirates to operate in."

However, other yachting enthusiasts expressed their alarm that the couple had decided to sail through the waters, where Somali pirates have hijacked a series of cargo ships in recent months.

One member on the Yachting and Boating World forum wrote: “I hope the people in question are well. However, I do wonder why anyone would sail through these areas. The dangers are very well known and very well reported.”

In March, British sailor Malcolm Robertson, 64, was killed and his wife held hostage after pirates boarded their yacht off Thailand.