The robbery took place last week on the edge of the Gulf of Cadiz off the south-west coast of Spain. Peter Fricke and his wife had set off in the morning on a Lagoon 42 "Marianne" catamaran from an anchorage near the Portuguese harbour town of Faro and had set course for the Strait of Gibraltar; the two are currently on a ferry trip from France to Croatia.
Early in the morning, the skipper had noticed a highly motorised rib driving through the anchor field. Apparently to spy on a later victim, as Fricke now suspects. When he and his wife weighed anchor shortly afterwards to continue their trip to the Mediterranean, they noticed two ribs following them after a while.
Men masked with balaclavas in highly motorised ribs
When the two had left the coastal area with the "Marianne" around midday to sail across the Gulf of Cádiz instead, one of the two ribs came up quickly from astern, Peter Fricke told the YACHT editorial team. He continues: "After a while, we realised that the men in the rib were wearing balaclavas. As they continued to head towards us at unabated speed, it was clear that they wanted to attack us."
It was lucky for the German sailors that they were motoring under engine power against the wind and a wave about two metres high at the time of the attack. "This was accompanied by corresponding ship movements, which made it difficult for the pirates to catch up with one of our sterns in order to be able to pass," says Fricke. However, he still had to push the rib off with the boat hook several times.
In the meantime, his wife had made an emergency call via VHF, which was immediately forwarded to the Spanish coastguard by a nearby tanker. They sent a coastguard helicopter. "It was there ten minutes later and immediately descended on the attackers," reports Fricke. They then fled towards the African coast.
"We can only be glad that the pirates didn't have any weapons with them, at least we didn't see any. Otherwise the story could have turned out very differently," says Fricke, looking back with relief. He is full of praise for the efforts of the Spanish coastguard, who reacted so promptly. As well as for the captains of two tankers who offered their help. "They wanted to get between us and the attackers if necessary," says Fricke. But that was no longer necessary.
Spanish coastguard takes incident extremely seriously
In Cádiz, where the German sailors gave their statement to the Spanish police, they later had the feeling that the authorities were taking the incident very seriously. In addition to smuggling gangs trying to bring migrants from Africa to the Spanish south coast, the sea area is also a hotspot for international drug smuggling. The officials probably assumed that the men who had attacked the "Marianne" belonged to this criminal milieu.
Peter Fricke later also heard from sailor friends that they had already noticed the ribs "patrolling" the anchor fields and equipped with powerful outboards in the same place between the islands off Faro and Olhão the previous year. Fricke therefore advises other sailors not to stray too far from the Portuguese and Spanish coasts in the sea area and especially not to shorten the route by sailing across the Gulf of Cádiz, as he and his wife did.
Lioba and Peter Fricke have meanwhile crossed the Strait of Gibraltar unscathed and are currently continuing their journey to Croatia.
