By Daily Mail Reporter
A British couple on a round-the-world yacht trip were feared to be heading for a Somali pirates' haven last night after a high seas hijack.
Paul and Rachel Chandler, 58 and 55, disappeared as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania aboard their 38ft yacht, the Lynn Rival.
A pirate contacted an international news agency and declared: "The British couple are in our hands now."
The pirate, who gave his name as Hassan, said his captives were in good health and that a ransom demand would follow.
But the worst fears were that the captors may decide the couple's value is in being British, and "sell" them on to other groups with international terrorist links who would see UK captives as both an important bargaining chip and of considerable propaganda value.
Another Somali pirate leader had earlier claimed that the Chandlers' yacht was attacked by two pirate skiffs.
"Thirteen pirates on two speed boats snatched this small boat very far from the Somali coast," he said.
Fears for the couple's safety increased after the anti-piracy European Union Naval Force Somali said one of its helicopter crews spotted a yacht on its way to the port of Haradheere, a notorious pirate stronghold on the Somalian coastline.
The yacht was being tracked by warships but will not be boarded. A spokesman said:
"As light was fading, it was impossible to identify the name of the yacht, but it's in the area where we"ve been looking. We are treating the sighting very seriously."
The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, embarked on their trip of a lifetime in 2006, after taking early retirement. Mr Chandler was a civil engineer and his wife was an economist.
They returned to Britain for a family wedding five weeks ago and laughed off the prospect of being kidnapped.
A neighbour said: "I asked Paul and Rachel why they were going sailing in that part of the world, considering how dangerous it is, and they just laughed it off.
"They said they were going nowhere near Somalia."
But with a large flotilla of warships on anti-piracy patrol, the ruthless Somali pirates are now being forced to go farther out into the Indian Ocean for targets, and the Britons may be victims of this new kidnap tactic.
The Chandlers, who have no children, left the Seychelles on Thursday and were heading for Tanzania, via the Amirante Islands.
A message on their extensive travel blog the day before they left said their journey might take between 8 and 14 days.
The last message on their blog was posted on Friday morning and reads simply "Please ring Sarah" ? believed to be a coded message to Mrs Chandler's sister, who lives in London.
Their yacht's distress beacon signal was picked up at 11pm on Friday when the yacht was around 60 miles west of Victoria, the Seychelles capital. An air and sea search, involving the Royal Navy frigate Cumberland, was launched but no sign was found of the vessel.
There had been reports of pirate activity in the area earlier that day, and several such reports earlier in the month.
Mrs Chandler's brother, Stephen Collett, said the couple had little money to offer as ransom.
"They are certainly not a wealthy couple," he told ITV News.
"I think everything they have got is invested in their boat."
He said the Chandlers have "very definitely got cool heads. I don't think either of them would have any problem in that situation but it's obviously not a pleasant place to be."
And he added: "If ever the worst had happened, it had happened when they were doing something they enjoyed doing.
"A lot of us go through life and never achieve anything we always dream of doing and at least they were achieving that dream."
As long as a ransom is paid, most kidnaps end peacefully, although a hostage died in April when French commandos boarded a yacht being held by Somalian pirates.
The entry on their yacht website summed up the Chandlers" carefree mood as they pondered the next leg of their dream voyage.
"Another few weeks in paradise" was how they described life on the Seychelles.
So attractive was the idyllic staging post on their sail from India to Africa that Paul and Rachel had spent seven months moored in anchorages dotted around the sun soaked island.
Their travel blog was filled with glorious photographs of time spent swimming with turtles, marvelling at giant tortoises and delighting in a diet of tropical fruit and fresh fish.
The sail across the Indian Ocean to Tanzania was the latest stretch of the couple's epic dream retirement voyage around the world.
The Chandlers, married 25 years and with no children, took early retirement and three years ago boarded their 38 foot yacht Lynn Rival and embarked on the trip of a lifetime.
They have owned the boat for 30 years and sailing dominated their every thought.
The couple's niece Leah Mickleborough, who last saw them five weeks ago when they briefly returned to the UK for her wedding, said sailing was their passion.
"This is their life really. They do sailing, they live for this."
Suzanne Watmough, who is renting the Chandler's two-bedroom flat in Tunbridge Wells, said: "They are absolutely delightful people. They were very excited about their travels and are huge sailing enthusiasts.
" Whenever they came home they went into the shed at the side of the house to collect various bits of sailing gear.
" You could tell they adored being on the water."
Mr Chandler, a former civil engineer, and his wife, an economist, have a wealth of sailing experience and made their way from Turkey in January 2006 through the Suez Canal.
They travelled past Saudi Arabia, around to Mumbai and down the west coast of India before embarking on the one thousand mile sail to the Seychelles.
The couple were fully aware of the dangers of piracy on the high seas off Somalia.
Two sailing friends, Jean-Louis and Denise, had already headed off for Tanzania.
"They had been planning to leave in May but delayed because of the Somali pirate problem," the Chandlers wrote in their blog.
"We will miss them and hope to catch up with them at the end of the year."
In a post on their blog in June, the couple wrote:" The seas around the Seychelles are now too rough for the pirates to operate in."
During their recent visit to the UK, for their niece's wedding and a visit to Paul's elderly father Alfred, 98, in Dartmouth, they didn't miss the tropical heat - but couldn't wait to return to the Lynn Rival.
"Now that the boat is our main home we look forward to coming back all the more," they wrote.
They had been back in the Seychelles a fortnight when they set off for Tanzania.
How pirate attacks are on the rise
The Indian and South Atlantic oceans are becoming increasingly dangerous places for ships travelling between Asia, Europe and the USA.
The International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) reported eight pirate attacks in the last 10 days alone.
In the latest attack, on Sunday, off the coast of Somalia, six pirates armed with machine guns opened fire on a container ship before it escaped.
The PRC reported 306 incidents in the first nine months of 2009, up from 293 in the same period the year before.
Somali pirates hijacked 32 vessels in the first nine months of 2009, with 533 crew members taken hostage. Another 85 vessels were fired upon.
Reports that Somali pirates are operating on the fringes of the Seychelles prompted the country"s coast guard to begin patrolling some of its more remote islands.
It is estimated that more than 1,200 Somalis are involved in piracy. They are often well armed, well funded and well organised.
Many gangs are known to use larger "mother ships" to reach deeper ocean waters before creeping up on ships with smaller boats and boarding them using grappling hooks and ladders.
Those who are attacked report gangs dressed in military fatigues and using satellite phones, GPS equipment, automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and grenades.
The faintly romantic image of swashbuckling rogues is very far from the truth of modern piracy.
IMB director Captain Pottengal Mukundan said: "The number of piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia is unprecedented. Pirates in the Gulf of Aden are growing increasingly brazen, attacking vessels, including tanker and large bulk carriers, with impunity. This major international seaway requires immediate increased protection and naval intervention."
"The increased frequency of piracy and heightening levels of violence are of significant concern to the shipping industry and all mariners.
"The types of attacks, the violence associated with the attacks, the number of hostages taken, and the amounts paid in ransoms for the release of the vessels have all increased considerably."
Tropical paradise is popular honeymoon destination
The Seychelles is a tropical paradise of 115 islands scattered in the Indian Ocean.
With their white sandy beaches and clear blue sea, the islands are a luxury holiday destination for thousands of Britons, particularly honeymoon couples.
The ocean's calm waters have also made it a popular with sailors since the ninth century.
The islands have a population of about 90 000, although around a third are uninhabited.
Following a campaign that began in 1964, the nation gained independence from Britain in 1976.
Initially, a coalition government headed by President James Mancham ruled the country.
He was overthrown in a coup on June 5, 1977, and was replaced by Albert Rene, his former Prime Minister. Opposition parties were legalised in 1991.
According to the Foreign Office, most visits to the area are "trouble free".
Between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009, British officials were alerted to five deaths, three hospitalisations and seven arrests.
The Seychelles islands are surrounded by coral gardens with colourful tropical fish, making snorkelling and diving a popular pursuit for tourists.
Mahe is the largest island of Seychelles and is the only one with a town, Victoria. It was named Port of Victoria in honour of the Queen after her coronation.
Increasing levels of piracy off the Somalia coast have resulted in higher levels of fish in the area.
Fishermen in Kenya are reporting larger catches of shark and shellfish because Chinese and Japanese fishing boats have been scared off by the threat.
Stocks are so bountiful some fishermen are catching up to €200 worth of fish a day, in an area where the average daily earning are less than €5. - Daily Mail