Cheat Sheet

More than 650 vacationers nearly had their trip spoiled this weekend when two small Somali pirate boats fired on their cruise ship. But the agile Nautica, carrying 656 passengers and 399 crew, outran the pirates, who fired on it eight times. The American-owned ship was travelling thorough the Gulf of Aden, amid a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore. According to a spokesman for Oceania Cruises, which owns the ship, it was going though a shipping lane set up to provide safe passage when the pirates attempted to steer it off course. One of the small boats got within 300 yards before firing on the Nautica, the largest cruise ship to be targeted by Somalia pirates. No one on board was hurt and the ship docked in Oman as scheduled and will continue on its journey, arriving in Sydney before New Year’s.