More passengers board the Seabourn Spirit |09 November 2005

The 130 tourists were scheduled to get on board the luxury liner in the Kenyan city but failed to do so when the vessel was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somali on Saturday, forcing it to divert to Seychelles.

Speaking soon after the Boeing 767-300ER touched down at Seychelles International Airport at 5.25 p.m., many of the visitors said it was only on Monday that they learned about the Saturday attack.

Most of them said the incident did not bother them but their opinions differed on whether it would be have been a welcome adventure to have been on board during the incident or not.

“I wish we were there, we missed the fun,” Sigqurd Muthwill said, calling the incident an adventure.

As did a number of other passengers, he said the prospect of passing through the Straits of Malacca offered some potential excitement, although a few said they hoped they would not pass through that route during their onward voyage to Singapore.

Eighty-three passengers from the cruise liner who would have disembarked from the Spirit in Mombasa but had to sail on to Seychelles flew to the coastal city by another Kenya Airways flight which left Seychelles yesterday morning.