Feeling special and very safe

At the end of last year while in Langkawi, we enjoyed a firework and techno light show each evening for two weeks put on to celebrate the opening of a massive campaign to introduce the "Visit Malaysia in 2014" promotion.

The government must have spent more than a small fortune in their efforts to bring more tourists to this magnificent country all to be dashed by firstly, the disappearance of flight MH370, followed by the downing of flight MH17 and, possibly not so well known, an attack on a prime resort in Sabah Borneo where a policeman was killed and another kidnapped as well as several incidents of wealthy businessmen taken hostage and held for ransom all by Filipino pirates.  The southern islands of the Philippines lie within a few short miles of the eastern coastline of Borneo and these have been the launching pad of such attacks.  

Now, as luck would have it, we are part of the Passage to the East Rally sailing these exact same waters and heaven forbid that anything should happen to one of us.  With this in mind, we have been given a security detail that would let the President of the United States sleep soundly at nights.  We have high speed gunboats of various shapes and sizes shadowing us, 24 hour surveillance circling us even while at anchor, helicopters passing over from time to time and some of the nicest marine, police and coast guard blokes one can imagine all ensuring nothing untoward gets near to us.  

These chaps weren't taking any chances

A dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed on the entire east coast which must make it very difficult for the fishing boats that regularly fish at nights but it has been so strictly enforced that a large number of boats have been confiscated and their crews arrested for breaking that curfew. There has even been a 'shoot to kill' command issued with zero tolerance for any suspicious vessels but little evidence that this will actually happen unless they are attacked first but it just shows how seriously the authorities are taking the situation.  
 

We have day hopped all down the coast while travelling in a fairly tight convoy with our wonderful escorts darting around us.  Suffice it to say, we feel very very safe and once we pass south of Tawau, we'll be far enough south for it to be of no threat at all.  It seems that the kidnapping incidents are not random but rather 'kidnap to order' where an insider has targeted a wealthy businessman or the like. The pirates then rush in, grab their target and dash back across the waters quickly.  If they ever do any research on the cruising community, they'll soon learn that there's no profit in grabbing one of us.

Even in the most idyllic settings, we were escorted by small gunboats

Our sincere thanks must go out to all those chaps who are looking after the fleet.  When we were told we'd have protection, we never expected anything quite like this.  We are very impressed and very grateful.

Guests with smiles and M16s

Watching over us