Powerless cruise ship nears California harbour

The 952-foot vessel was about eight miles off the harbour mouth today morning, Coast Guard Petty Officer Rachel Polish said the Carnival Splendor. Two tugs hauled it slowly up from the Mexican coast, and four more were hooking up to help gently steer the vessel to the dock.

The rigging is expected to take about an hour and the ship will need another two hours to reach dock.Coast Guard cutters will escort the ship around the tip of the Coronado Peninsula to San Diego's downtown harbour.

"It will take a lot of effort to get a 952-foot safe and secure," said Petty Officer Rachel Polish, adding that weather conditions for the operation were favourable.
It is expected to take several hours for everyone to get off the ship.

"Every day is getting more frustrating for some people. You can tell some people are just angry," passenger Kate Kapelka told CBS television today morning.Passenger Danny Cole that people were getting fed up because toilets didn't work."They couldn't flush and there's quite a smell issue on the ship," Cole told CBS by cell phone.

Cruise Director John Heald said in comments posted in a blog on Carnival Lines website that the people aboard "have risen to the obvious challenges and difficult conditions onboard."

He said he's been making a lot of announcements from the bridge to keep everyone informed of the situation.

"Obviously it has been a challenge but let me tell you the most important facts and those are that the ship is safe, the guests are safe and that nobody was injured," he said.
Just about anything that requires electrical power was knocked out by a Monday morning fire in an engine room. There was no air conditioning, no hot food, no hot water, no casino. The swimming pool was off-limits because there was no way to pump chlorine.
Lines for cold food stretch for hours. Navy helicopters flew in Spam, Pop Tarts and canned crab meat and other goods for the passengers and crew, said passenger David Zambrano, who phoned his employer, Denver TV station 9NEWS, from the ship.
Zambrano of Denver told NBC's ``Today'' show by cell phone today that lines were long for food.

"There are still people in the dark here," Zambrano said. "I mean they're the inward cabins that have no windows. I mean, they're still in total black."