American Sailors Captured

Americans sailing on a yacht off the coast of Oman have been taken hostage by Somali pirates, an international maritime watchdog says.

The S/V Quest, owned by a retired couple, was hijacked 240 nautical miles (275 miles) off Oman on Friday afternoon, according to Ecoterra.

According to reports it is believed the yacht was en route from India to Oman. Jean and Scott Adam, the yacht’s owners, are understood to have been sailing around the world since 2002, according to their website.

The couple wrote on the site that they had taken on two new crew members last year.

Mapping out their sailing plans for this year, they said they planned to sail from Sri Lanka to Crete in the Mediterranean, via the Suez Canal, making stops in India, Oman and Djibouti.