Royal Caribbean International is taking seriously the threat of piracy in the seas off the Horn of Africa. Today we had a "Safe Haven" drill to practice what we are to do in the event of an armed attack on our ship, the Legend of the Seas
In that unlikely event we are to move from our windowed cabin into the windowLESS passageway outside our door. I presume passengers who are in public spaces will likewise be directed to indoor spaces without windows, like the theaters.
Clearly the goal is to protect passengers and crew from RPG shrapnel and small arms fire. From that I deduce RPI's strategy: ignore demands to surrender and take evasive action at speed while broadcasting a call for assistance. Sounds good to me.
We are also operating under a modified blackout after dark. We've been instructed to keep our cabin's blackout curtains closed and the dining room lights are dimmed. I don't believe the blackout is very complete, but we are a much less bright ship, for whatever that is worth.
The captain claims to know nothing about yesterday's jet fighter encounter, except to say such are common in these waters. Given that the U.S.Navy normally keeps two carrier groups in this region, "common" makes sense. I didn't get a good enough sighting of the plane to say for sure what model it was. It was a swing-wing design.
