Couple held by Somali pirates for 388 days plan return to the seas

The retired British couple held for over a year by Somali pirates say they plan to return to the waves next June as part of their recovery.

Rachel Chandler, 57, who had a tooth knocked out by a captor's rifle during her ordeal, said that while their family members "joke about restraining us in some way", they generally respected their decision to resume sailing.

"When we were released I think most of them were really worried that we'd be broken people and that we'd struggle to recover," she said. "For us getting back to normal is getting back on the boat and continuing our lifestyle of travelling and sailing."

Mrs Chandler and her husband Paul, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, spent 388 days in captivity after pirates boarded their yacht near the Seychelles in October 2009. Having endured months separated from each other, during which time Mrs Chandler contemplated suicide, they were eventually released following the payment of a ransom.

Now the couple, who have written a book about their experiences, say they plan to sail to the Caribbean next year once refurbishments on their yacht are completed. Mr Chandler said the return of the 38ft Lynn Rival, salvaged by the Navy, had been a huge boon to their "remarkable" psychological recovery. "We haven't had any problem with bad dreams or anything like that. Ten minutes with a Navy psychiatrist and he said you're as sane as you've ever been."

Equally as important was the fact the couple had weathered the experience, and their return to British life, together. "It wasn't that we talk about it in great depth, but we existed in parallel with somebody who knew what it was all about," said Mr Chandler.

During their captivity, the couple had swiftly realised their captors, whom they gave nicknames like Baby Face and Fat Boy, were unlikely to deliberately kill them, as they gave them bottled water and grew concerned when they showed signs of illness. "What discipline there was was 'these guys have got to be looked after because they're your ticket to seven million dollars'."

The lowest point of the ordeal came when the couple were separated for more than three months. But Mr Chandler knew his wife had not been taken far away when he gave a guard a book to give to her on her birthday. "Twenty minutes later he came back with a bag with a different book in it. Then we knew we were close."

"After I got over that low point was when I really knew I could rely on my inner strength," he said. "The whole thing became bearable."

Mrs Chandler said she had promised family and friends, who raised the pirates' ransom, that they wouldn't be returning to the Indian Ocean.

Source: www.independent.co.uk