TYA/CS/RS-01
Port Said → Suez → Sawakin, Sudan → Djibouti → Socotra → Seychelles
Objectives
Take a 20m privately used sailing yacht from the eastern Mediterranean to the Seychelles during a period of sustained attacks on merchant shipping in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The owner needed the yacht in the Indian Ocean for a family programme, the insurer had attached written conditions to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden legs, and the yacht is small, slow and unarmed. She cannot outrun anything and she cannot hide in traffic the way a large commercial hull can.
Assessment before commitment
We started by telling the owner what the passage actually looked like: at 7 knots the exposed section from Bab el-Mandeb to the eastern edge of the Gulf of Aden is several days, not several hours, and the yacht's profile makes her an unattractive but not impossible target. We set out the alternatives, shipping her or rerouting round the Cape, with real numbers against each, and the decision to proceed was taken by the owner with that on the table, in writing.
What we put in place
Canal documentation, measurement and transit booking through our Port Said and Suez agents, with the transit slotted to give a daylight departure from Suez. A staged passage rather than a single run: Sawakin in Sudan as the mid Red Sea rest and top-up stop, Djibouti as the staging port before Bab el-Mandeb, Socotra as the standoff waypoint at the eastern end of the Gulf of Aden, then the open-water leg south to the Seychelles. Insurer conditions translated into a passage plan the master could actually work to: routeing bands, minimum standoff from the Yemeni and Somali coasts, speed profile, watch and lookout arrangement, AIS policy by segment, lighting and deck discipline at night, and citadel and muster arrangements sized to a five-person crew. Registration with UKMTO and the Maritime Security Transit Corridor, EUNAVFOR Atalanta and CMF reporting set up before departure, with the yacht's details, satellite numbers and reporting schedule lodged so she was a known contact rather than an unidentified small craft. Agents appointed and funded at Port Said, Suez, Sawakin, Djibouti and Victoria, with clearance for the Socotra approach handled in advance and a standby contact in Aden that we did not intend to use. Bunkering planned around Sawakin and Djibouti so she never entered the exposed section needing fuel, and stores and water loaded for the full leg plus a diversion margin.
During the passage
The desk was staffed for the whole transit. Position reports were taken twice daily and cross-checked against UKMTO and coalition advisories as they were published; we sent the yacht a short, abridged brief each morning covering what had happened, where, and whether it changed anything for her, rather than forwarding raw notices to a crew of five who had a yacht to sail. Two events mattered. An attack on merchant shipping was reported roughly 60 NM north of her intended track two days before she reached that section; we reworked the routeing band with the master to increase standoff and shifted her approach to Bab el-Mandeb to a night transit at reduced profile. Later, a drifting-object and small-craft-approach warning in the central Gulf of Aden required a short course adjustment and a temporary change to her reporting interval. Neither change was made for her: both were put to the master as options with the reasoning, and he chose.
Complications
Her Suez transit slot moved by a day when the canal authority reshuffled convoys, which pushed the exposed section into a less favourable moon phase, so we re-cut the plan, shortened the Sawakin stop and moved the Djibouti attendance rather than pressing her to make up time. Clearance formalities in Sudan needed local handling and were kept to a single afternoon by our Sawakin agent. A crew visa issue surfaced two days before Suez and was resolved through the Port Said agent without the crew member leaving the yacht. Separately, the insurer asked mid-passage for written confirmation that the standoff conditions were being met; we produced it from the position log the same day.
Outcome
The yacht passed north of Socotra at the standoff we had agreed, then ran south to clear into Victoria on the revised window with no security incident, no detention and no unbudgeted agency charges. Formalities were completed on presentation at every stop because the paperwork was already in the agents' hands. The owner received a written passage record: the plan, every advisory that touched her track, every decision taken and by whom, and the position log, which is the document the insurer and, later, the yacht's own risk file needed.
What actually made the difference
Not software. The transit slot, the Sudanese clearance, the crew visa and the Djibouti attendance were all fixed by people we have worked with for years picking up the phone. The naval reporting side worked because the yacht was registered properly and reporting on schedule before she was anywhere near trouble. The master stayed in command throughout; our job was to make sure every decision he made was an informed one, and that everything ashore was already arranged when he needed it.
Yacht
20m sailing yacht, private
Distance
3,400 NM
Corridor legs
5
Agents managed
6
Naval liaison
UKMTO, EUNAVFOR, CMF
Crew aboard
5, owner's own crew