Entering an HRA

After a delightful day in Mindelo, Cape Verde, Mui and I went for dinner at the Terrace Café tonight. We were still full from lunch, so just a light salad and some dessert.

Insignia left its berth at 7:00p, while we were eating. It would have been nice to sit out for a while after dinner, but by this time the forecasted wind had picked up and the comfortable daytime temps had grown chilly. Not complaining, mind you. After the heat in Brazil, we are quite happy with the change. But we were not dressed for the cooler temps. So, we did not dally after dinner.

I was dead tired — the time changes catching up to me … as well as all the late nights. Mui went to the show — featuring Shane Hampsheir and Crystal Cimaglia in “A Tribute to James Bond.” I returned to the cabin to relax and found a letter from Captain Stjepan on the bed.

Not an itinerary change announcement this time. Rather, he was advising us that we will be entering a “High Risk Area” [HRA] where piracy activities occasionally happen. The waters in the designated area are patrolled by an International Task Force that includes US and UK navy vessels. This is per a United Nations Mandate. Insignia will be in permanent contact with the task force until we leave the HRA.

What does this mean for us? Very little. We need to keep the curtains closed at night when we have the lights on so as to assist in keeping visible light to a minimum. Of course, this means no reading on the veranda with the lights on either. There will be a safety exercise for the crew tomorrow morning, which does not require our participation.

We went through an HRA on RTW2017 when we cruised through Somalian waters. We are familiar with the procedures, which include leaving our cabins and open spaces for the safety of internal hallways in the unlikely event of an attack.

I imagine that if I go down to check out the deck 5 promenade , I will find hoses connected to the water guns on the railing. Not sure if we boarded additional armed security this time. If we did, they were not visible around the ship this evening.Read more