Cruise: Yacht captain reveals shocking moment she faced pirates – ‘Surrounded by gunboats’

“We found these two islands off Yemen, and made our way there at five knots on one engine and when we anchored, it was at about four in the morning.”

But that wasn’t the scariest moment from Sandy’s experience.

She continued: “When we woke up there was a military zone and we were surrounded by gunboats.

“And basically, all the women had to stay below [deck] and hide because we were in a place where women were not accepted.

“As a result of that, we tried to leave their territory and once we left, the boat caught on fire and that was about 15 minutes into our trip.

“I had heard a warship [on the radio], and what had stuck out to me was a female voice and I heard this female voice on the Navy warship 68 and she stuck in my brain because I was like ‘wow, that’s really cool’.