title: Pirates Aboard!: Forty Cases of Piracy Today and What Bluewater Cruisers Can Do About It
author:  Klaus Hympendahl 
description: <span><span><span>Think of pirates and movies and acting or ancient times comes readily to mind; but truth is, piracy is alive and well on the high seas today and even can be a threat to modern sailors. That's why </span><span style="font-style:italic;">Pirates Aboard! 40 Cases of Piracy Today and What Bluewater Cruisers Can Do About It</span><span> is a key to sailing safety. The author interviewed the victims of over 40 cases, asking them what lessons they learned and how they'd avoid or survive similar encounters: their responses offer invaluable lessons for any braving the high seas today. </span></span></span> (<i>Midwest Book Review</i>)<br /><br /><span><span><span>The romanticized image that tales of pirates on the high seas evoke becomes decidedly more somber as author Klaus Hympendahl addresses the reality of piracy in the modern world and the preventive measures that bluewater cruisers can take to ensure safe passage. A compilation of 40 individual accounts, </span><span style="font-style:italic;">Pirates Aboard</span><span> documents piracy in popular as well as less-traveled areas, including Venezuela, the Caribbean, Europe, and Yemen. Narratives and excerpts from letters give the reader a firsthand feel for the nightmarish experience of having strangers forcibly board your vessel. These chronicles are not meant to instill fear; rather, they show the causes of piracy the poverty and political unrest in many countries that lead to looting. Advice from survivors as well as general precautionary tips are offered for example, installing an alarm system, sailing in a convoy, running without lights in dangerous areas, and obtaining a ham radio license. </span><span style="font-style:italic;">Pirates Aboard</span><span> is gripping, a must-read for cruisers who set sail and seek safe anchorage in the exotic waters of the world. </span></span></span> (<i>Sail Magazine</i>)<br /><br /><span><span><span>The author reports on 40 cruising-boat incidents worldwide and, when possible, interviews victims with questions that begged answers of supreme importance to voyagers. Attack analyses offer solutions to real problems on the world's cruising grounds. This volume is well-written, forceful, and hard to put down not surprising, coming from the pen of a sailor, author, and former ad-agency executive. </span></span></span> (<i>Cruising World</i>)
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  The Offshore Pirate
  
  
    
    
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  ](The%20Offshore%20Pirate_split_001.html#filepos45331)[VI
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  
  # The Offshore Pirate
  
  
  ### F. Scott Fitzgerald
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
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  ### I
  
  
  
  
  
  This unlikely story begins on a sea that was a blue dream, as
  
  
  colorful as blue-silk stockings, and beneath a sky as blue as the
  
  
  irises of children's eyes. From the western half of the sky the sun was
  
  
  shying little golden disks at the sea—if you gazed intently enough you
  
  
  could see them skip from wave tip to wave tip until the