That was either pretty gutsy taking on two high-end surface ships with a couple of Ak-47's and an outboard motor or they were just really high from all the dope they were smuggling.
The incident with the cruise liner last November received a fair amount of coverage here in the UK, but piracy around the Horn of Africa and parts of Asia in particular, is apparently quite underreported.
Coincidentally, around the time of the cruise liner attack, my sister was on the Royal Mail Ship St Helena and there was a reported pirate ship within 250 nautical miles of their position while cruising off the coast of Guinea IIRC. The RMS St Helena hasn't been boarded yet, but has apparently passed through areas with reported pirate activity on various occasions over the past few years.
My sister and the rest of the crew were told that if they were attacked, you simply cooperate and let them take whatever they want -- when pirates have attacked other ships in the region, they generally just take as much money and supplies as they can. I don't believe there is much physical danger, at least not for westerners and the ship is in regular communication with other ships around it and various authorities. Indeed a day or two before stopping at Tenerife to pickup more passengers, a Spanish military helicopter was called to take an ill passenger to hospital in Santiago.
The only time this activity tends to abate is when Western navies have patrols in the region and even then some pirates don't take the hint, as evidenced above.
Cheers,
BrynS
) - had they hit even a few crew members, maybe they would've caused enough chaos to make a quick getaway. Of course, it was all an act of desperation anyway - presumably, what they were really counting on is that their weapons wouldn't be noticed during the inspection.