Luxury cruise ship outruns pirates

(CNN) - A 30,000-ton luxury cruise ship outran pirates off the coast of
Yemen this weekend, the ship's owner said Monday.

The Oceania Nautica was in an area patrolled by international anti-piracy
task forces when two small skiffs appeared to try to intercept it, Oceania
spokesman Tim Rubacky said. The ship took evasive maneuvers and accelerated to
speed, but one of the smaller craft closed to within 300 yards and fired eight
rifle shots at the cruise ship, he said.

It was the first report of a pirate attack on a passenger ship of its
size this year, said Cyrus Mody of the International Maritime Bureau, which
runs a piracy reporting center.

"There have been a couple of passenger yachts hijacked, but they were
much smaller," he said.

It is "quite common" for pirates to target ships the size of the Nautica
and even larger, he said, but they tend to be cargo ships, not passenger
vessels.

The Nautica escaped without damage or injury to its 684 passengers and
400 crew, and arrived safely on schedule in Salalah, Oman early on Monday
morning, Rubacky said.

He emphasized that the ship was not off the coast of Somalia, which has
become a base for pirates, but off the coast of Yemen. The International
Maritime Bureau has issued piracy warnings for both areas.

The Nautica was in a Maritime Safety Protection Area which is patrolled
by international anti-piracy task forces, Rubacky underlined.

But the International Maritime Bureau's Mody warned that there was only
so much navies could do even in that zone.

"The zone has been created to enable navies to patrol and concentrate on
a much smaller area than the entire Gulf," he said. "But, saying that, it is
still a large area. Vessels do not automatically get guaranteed safe passage
even if they use it."

The Nautica left Rome November 18 on a 32-day cruise to Singapore.
It was the first time one of the company's cruise ships had encountered
possible pirates, Rubacky added. He said the company did not plan to change
routes to avoid the area, which has seen increasingly audacious piracy in
recent months.

"We're not considering re-routing as the Gulf of Aden is the most viable
gateway from the Med to Asia," he said.