Costa Concordia Captain Schettino is back at sea in speed boat

The vilified captain of the Costa Concordia, the ship that went down off of the coast of the Italian island of Giglio Jan. 13, has gone back to sea. Captain Francesco Schettino went back out onto the ocean with a male friend in a speed boat.

The U.K. paper The Sun reported Schettino was with the friend in a boat this weekend and the two took turns steering the 20 plus foot boat. It may have been the first time he'd been back on the sea since the Costa Concordia hit a reef, listed and partially sunk. Thirty-two died in the tragedy believed to have occurred when Schettino took the ship too close to the shore to salute a retired ship's captain. He denies he was in charge of the boat when it hit. Schettino house arrest lifted The 51-year-old Schettino awaits his trail for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship before all passengers were evacuated and, until last month, he was under house arrest in his home near Naples. However, his house arrest was lifted and he has now been given permission by a judge to go to the nearby town of Meta di Sorrento.