Yacht crew tells story of hostage ordeal with Somalia pirates

The former hostages are expected to return to France shortly and they told their stories and underwent medical and psychological check-ups after their release following a week after being held as hostages.

The former hostages told sources the story of how they turned hoses on gun-carrying pirates in an attempt to repel them before being captured and held for days off the Somali coast. As the pirates approached the yacht they started firing their rifles, according to the yacht's skipper, Patrick Marchesseau. On Friday the six pirates were arrested as they tried to escape by truck after they gone ashore and released the crew members of the yacht for a ransom. Marchesseau told sources that he somehow was able to make contact with authorities behind the pirates' back even after he was warned not to. On Sunday the pirates were on board a French navy ship and heading towards the town of Djibouti. Sources say that the 30 members of the yacht were on a French helicopter off of the Somalia coast and they were due to land on a French military base in Djibouti and from there they will travel back to France, according to the French military. As of now there is no knowledge of when the six captors will be sent to France but the French ministry said that they would like to see the captures sent to France for trial. Sources say that there are a number of legal issues but Defence Minister Herve Morin said that there does not appear to be any legal issues and France has gotten authorization from Somali officials to carry out the operation. Pirates boarded the the vessel on April 4 and the crew attempted to use fire hoses to prevent the pirates from boarding but the pirates attacked quickly and started firing their weapons right before storming onto the ship. The vessel eventually anchored off of a breakaway northern region of Somalia and negotiations started to take place with a French navy ship. At least this story has a good ending and it is even better that these heartless pirates got caught and now will face trial in France.