Yachting: Camper's Hamish Hooper blogs from onboard

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand. Photo / Supplied

As the fleet head north we slowly get closer and closer to the 'pirate exclusion zone' on the western side of the Indian Ocean.

Pirates initially make you think of smelly drunk men standing on a peg leg with parrot on their shoulder. Unfortunately the issue isn't so comical - it is a very real and present danger that everyone in this race is taking very seriously.

Piracy is a huge 'industry' - I believe in the past year there has been about a $100m paid in pirate ransoms. The unfortunate thing about piracy, especially in Somalia, is that it has been driven in a large part by desperation of the people there just to survive.

There have been some pretty massive measures taken by the Volvo race committee in sending the fleet on a slight detour then shipping the boats through what has been identified as the most high-risk part of the leg. This may seem a bit drastic, but it gives a pretty clear indication of the scale of piracy these days.

All Kiwis and sailors alike know all too well that only a matter of weeks ago marked the 10-year anniversary of our most famous and internationally respected master mariner Sir Peter Blake's tragic death at the hands of pirates at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. So its not just occurring in the area where we are now, but all around the world.

Even just today Will [Oxley] our navigator had a message reporting an attempted pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden of a tanker. I must stress this is a very long way away from where we are, so no need for concern.

Besides, if they were out in their little boats now, they would more than likely be very seasick pirates and be left behind a long way in our wake, as we are doing boat speeds of around 17-18 knots at times through a large two metre sea state.

And as Salty [Helmsman Rob Salthouse] so rightly says, "I think these boats would scare them a little bit as they wouldn't know what to do with them if they did get them, so we are a pretty low target."

The guys are not letting the piracy issue be a distraction and keeping their focus purely on the boat speed but, as [Helmsman] Adam [Minoprio] says, that doesn't mean there isn't concern: "I think the most concerned person out there is my mum at the moment. She is not the happiest, but she will be pleased to know that we aren't going right through the middle of their hunting ground."

So for us on Camper, our entire focus is to push the boat as fast as possible all the way until the finish line. We are still drag racing, and have another 48 hours of good breeze left before things get tricky again.