Ballardite Tony Comito remembers his friends Dr. Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle who lost their lives with Jean and Scott Adam at the hands of Somali pirates Feb. 22:

I first heard about it on the national news. I immediately recognized the names as two people who were very good friends of mine and members, as I am, of the Seattle Singles Yacht Club. I was the bartender at the Elks Club at the Shilshole Bay Beach Club where the club met Monday nights and I helped hosted their going away party two and a half years ago.

They were singles, but really a couple. Just a delight. It was almost as if opposites attracted. Bob was very shy. I never served him a drink in the bar. He didn't drink. Phyllis was the life of the party, and dressed up in wild costumes and danced. She was just a hoot. On Halloween she dressed as a very elaborate cat. She was always there to decorate and organized by the group.

They kind of got rid of everything and set off here and do their dream voyage around the world.

I've stayed connected with club members on Facebook. When they were first held hostage some of us felt we shouldn't talk about it online. We didn't want to give the pirates any information about the hostages. Now it's just sadness. It just doesn't seem real. Of all the people on the planet we know, that this should happen to them. They were just so sweet. They just didn't deserve it.

There are hundreds of people who live here who loved them.

They'd been blogging their trip the whole time, sending pictures, having the time of their life. I think they were going to go through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean.

After you cry about it you get really mad. I am a man of peace, but my thoughts are not peaceful about this because they killed my friends. To call them 'pirates' we think of Disneyland. They were really 'thugs'.The world has gone mad over there and in the chaos these four people might be lost in the issues.

We have rules of engagement and the pirates don't. Evidently there is nothing that the most powerful country can do about it. We spend billions on defense. These thugs just have a slingshot and a rowboat and take us down.