British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler have been on an around the world cruise aboard their ship the Lynn Rival for some time now, and they've even been blogging about their adventures on this website. But last Friday, the couple went missing, and their online tracking system failed to send any new updates, while the ship was off the coast of Somalia, an area that has become infamous for its pirate activity. The last known message from the couple was an ominous sounding blog update that simply says: "PLEASE RING SARAH".
Since that update there has been no trace of the Chandlers, and little news at all. A few days back, a Somali pirate leader named Farah Abdi released a statement saying that they had captured the pair, but there has yet to be any kind of confirmation that they are indeed in the pirates hands.
Today, the New York Times is reporting that seven pirates believed to have been involved with the adduction have been taken into custody by European Union ships operating in the area. The pirates were making a raid on a fishing vessel at the time, and were said to have the Chandler's 38-foot yacht in tow, as they were making their way back to pirate town of Xarardheere.
Capturing these pirates is a good start of course, but we still don't know where the Chandlers are or what their current condition is. Lets hope that we get confirmation of their good health soon, and that they'll also be released soon as well. One can't help but wonder though if the blog updates and real time satellite tracking played into their capture at all. Anyone know if Somali Pirates have the Internet?
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