Sailing through the pirate sea... pursued by hordes of... Children

There are 3 areas that should be avoided when sailing around the world because of piracy. 
Venezuela, the Horn of Africa and the Sulu Sea.
Of course, no one voluntarily puts themselves in danger, but the art of weighing up should not be ignored either. 
One of the most beautiful experiences for me however, was the waters of Venezuela and its offshore islands. Wonderful sailing experiences and dreamlike landscapes that I would not have wanted to do without. 

As I said, there are also warnings about the islands of the Sulu Sea, as there have often been kidnappings of yachts and tourists by Muslim terror pirates in the past.

If the warnings of the German Foreign Office are to be believed, this sea area is an absolute NO GO!

But as mentioned, the art of weighing up is required here. For my part, I think New York or the station district of Frankfurt are at least as dangerous ... and not even worth seeing.

Together with Marc from Australia and his catamaran KALAYAAN (philippino word for Freedom) we made our way to Borneo and wanted to get to know the Sulu Sea and its people as well as possible on the way.

What we met was warm curiosity and lovable, simple people.

Especially for the children, these two big white bald heads were a sensation.

So not a minute passed in which we were not pursued by a laughing crowd of children like the Pied Piper of Hameln.

Believe me, the sensation couldn't have been bigger if we had walked through the villages naked with 3 colorful ostrich feathers in our butts and road cones from road construction on our heads.

Sailing with perfect aft wind and anchoring off islands with fishing villages or completely uninhabited islands made this trip a wonderful experience.

Kudat probably won't be so relaxed, because ODIN has to do maintenance work on land again... but more on that in the next logbook entry.