Pirate Survivors set off for further Ocean Adventures
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Paul and Rachel Chandler, the middle aged couple whose yacht “The Lynn Rival” was boarded by Somali pirates in 2009 and who were kept in captivity for over a year, are about to hoist their sails once again.
The couple are planning to complete the circumnavigation that they had commenced before being kidnapped at gunpoint by pirates when off the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
Their decision to set out to sea again, it seems, has brought a number of doubts amongst their friends and family who went about raising half a million pounds to get the couple released from their hostages.
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As Mrs Chandler, aged 58, recently stated that their associates think they are crazy but has pledged that their intended route will keep them well away from waters where pirates are known to be present.
She said that the two of them are extremely keen to go out to sea again and that they felt that to forsake sailing would leave them feeling defeated.
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Rachel has recently told a British based magazine that family and friends may be concerned but that they do not want to feel that they have been defeated.
They see that what happened to them was quite extraordinary and the possibility of it ever happening again is too small to even imagine.
Once kidnapped, it took 388 days to free them and most of this time they were physically separated from each other.
Once released, the couple were highly critical of the British Foreign Office’s efforts to get them freed and to render any assistance to their family.
Mr and Mrs Chandler now have voiced their intention to sail around the globe on the 11 metre “Lynn Rival”. The yacht had been pillaged by the pirates after being intercepted on passage between the Seychelles islands and the Tanzanian port of Tanga on the East African Coast. Almost miraculously for the Chandlers, it was found and recovered by the Royal Navy, which had seen the couple being taken by pirates.
Mrs Chandler said that sailing offers them the freedom they love and the intended trip will be all even more significant as it will signify their ability to recover from such a drastic event.
Once the “Lynn Rival” was returned to them, it was fitted out in readiness for their round-the-world voyage commencing this summer.
This time, they intend to head to Morocco and then the Canary Islands, before crossing the Atlantic and sailing along the South American coast and then down to Cape Horn, which will get them right into the Pacific.
Tags: Ocean Adventures, Pirate Survivors, pirates, Seychelles