not passenger vessels . Map of pirate activity in the area Â '' 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
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A 30,000-ton luxury cruise ship outran pirates off the coast of Yemen this weekend , the ship 's owner said Monday . File image of the Nautica in Sydney Harbor The 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 its full speed of 23 knots or 27 mph . One of the smaller craft closed to within 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots at the cruise ship , he said , but the ship was able to pull away . 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 ,