Carnival Splendor adrift off Mexico with 4,500 passengers and crew

[Magogman]

The Associated Press as reported on www.yahoo.com is reporting that Carnival's Carnival Splendor had a fire in the engine room and is adrift about 200 miles south of San Diego, Calif. The fire was put out without injury to passengers and crew but the ship had no air conditioning, hot water or telephone service.  Auxiliary power allowed cold running water and toilets to function by Monday night. Bottled water and cold food are available to passengers. Two Mexican seagoing tugs are to tow the ship to the port of Ensenada -- they are not expected to reach the ship until midday Tuesday then begin a very slow tow with an ETA at Ensenada of 8pm PST Wednesday.  The plan is to bus the passengers from Ensenada, Mexico to San Diego, Calif. (that is going to require one hell of a lot of buses plus problems at the border crossing.  Then the ship will be towed to Long Beach, California for repairs.  The ship is carrying 3,299 passengers and 1,167 crew members.
    The U.S. Navy's Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan has been diverted to the location of the cruise ship. About 70,000 pounds of supplies including bread, utensils, cups, milk, canned food and other items will be flown to the Reagan and then transferred to the cruise ship by helicopter.
    As an editorial comment once again the US Navy comes to the rescue of a civilian misadventure.  Another chapter in a long saga of cruise ship fires, diseases, and whatever.  It would be fun to watch this whole operation though!  Maybe one of our shipspotters is about the cruise ship!

[Henrik Soderberg]

Hi,

The ship in trouble...
http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo_search.php?query=CARNIVAL+SPLENDOR

Regards,
Henrik

[Magogman]

News reports on www.yahoo.com late Tuesday night, Nov 9, indicate a change in plans with Carnival deciding to attempt to tow the disabled vessel directly to San Diego, with a preliminary ETA of Thursday night.  As of Tuesday afternoon 50,000 pounds of food had been flown to the USS Ronald Reagan then lifted by helicopter to the cruise ship.  Passengers now have a choice of either canned crab or SPAM.  Which would you chose?  The food is necessary due to no electricity for the refrigeration units aboard ship.
     There is a photo album on www.yahoo.com showing the airlifting of supplies, both to the Reagan and to the cruise ship.
     I wonder what the situation would have been like if the Reagan had not been in the vicinity and diverted to the site.  Or if this breakdown occurred in the open ocean far from land.