Friends and relatives of Paul and Rachel Chandler said the pirates’ hopes of collecting a large ransom are likely to be dashed.

“They are not rich people. It is not a big luxury yacht,” Jill Marshment, Mrs Chandler’s sister, told The Times. “We just hope they’re safe. We have been told they are, and we just have to wait.”

The engineer and his wife had taken early retirement, letting out their flat, right, in Tunbridge Wells so they could embark on the voyage of a lifetime on their yacht, Lynn Rival.

Over the past few years, they had spent long periods indulging their love for sailing until, at the beginning of this year, they set off on their longest voyage yet to the Indian Ocean, charting their adventures on a blog.

On arriving at one port in the Seychelles in June, they had noted the presence of three warships, and an absence of yachts, writing: “No doubt they are here to deal with the pirates. We understand that the problem has gone away with the arrival of the SE winds. The seas around the Seychelles are now too rough for the pirates to operate in.”

Mr and Mrs Chandler, who have no children, have been married for 25 years. They have also been invited on three occasions to address the Cruising Association, giving advice to fellow members and sharing tales of their adventures at sea.

“They are very sensible people,” said Mrs Marshment, from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. “That’s why they were staying in the Seychelles for the past seven months. Perhaps they thought, ‘It’s safe now, off we go’.”

Mrs Chandler’s brother, Stephen Collett, from Suffolk, said: “They’ve 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 if they have been caught.”

Leah Mickleborough, the couple’s niece, saw them last month when they returned to England for her wedding. She said that the family feared “the worst might have happened, but you always hope that it hasn’t”.

The Chandlers appear to be typical of the increasing numbers of British sailing enthusiasts who are embracing the freedom of early retirement to sail farther and longer than before.

Stuart Bradley, the vice-president of the Cruising Association, said most of its 3,500 members were older than 50.

He said: “There has been quite a significant growth over the past ten years. Improvements in technology, such as GPS, satellite phones, and wi-fi, have demystified long-term sailing.”

He also said it would be doing the Chandlers “a great disservice” to call them naive, after criticism on some yachting forums over their decision to venture into such notorious waters without an escort. ”They are serious people who had carefully planned their voyage.”

“People have to make their own minds up,” he added. “Obviously, it would be sensible in such circumstances to sail in the company of other boats.”

Mr Chandler’s father, Alfred, 98, is being cared for by a neighbour in Dartmouth, Devon, and was too upset to comment.

Times Recommends

• Times Charity Appeal: SolarAid
• Is it Black Monday all over again for Dubai?
• Behind the scenes at the biggest deal