A luxurious ocean cruise hunting pirates

June 24, 11:19 PMSan Diego Travel ExaminerSteve Perez

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It's either someone's idea of a joke, or a terrific marketing ploy in a down economy.  You be the judge.

The Web site Ananova.com, which specializes in coverage of such topics of import as "the very latest news, along with a focus on showbiz - in particular celebrity news and gossip" also has an appreciation for what it likes to call "quirkies."

This item has as many as that town in New Mexico. 

You know.

Albuquerque?

The site "reports" that luxury ocean liners in Russia are hosting so-called Somali pirate hunting cruises. Said cruises supposedly take place off the Somali coast  aboard armed private yachts.

Wealthy "punters" supposedly are paying  3,500 British pounds per day (or $5,769.93 U.S. according to Oanda.com) to troll the waters at slow speeds, hoping to attract the pirates.

The "fun" begins in the event of attack, as "vacationers" are then allowed to hang fire with onboard weapons consisting of grenade launchers, machine guns, rocket launchers...

The original report was carried in the Austria paper WirtschaftsBlatt.

Our Austrian is "not good," (No one speaks "Austrian" terribly well,  as the chief official language is German) but we have an e-mail en route to see if this really is an accurate account, or one of them there Internet hoaxes.

Update posted June 25, 2009:

An online translator can help you suss it out and decide for yourself: Here's a link to the original story, in German, read it schnel!

Reiche Russen auf Piratenjagd vor Somalia

For more info: Luxury yachts offer pirate hunting cruises