Crisis? (I Don’t Think So)

Here at the Escapee’s RV park in Summerdale AL, we are less than 10 miles from the eastern shore of Mobile Bay.  It is a pleasant place to relax after our 2 day drive from central Florida, just not nearly as warm.  We will be moving tomorrow to the location of our next service project just north of Moss Point MS, which is on the other side of Mobile Bay.  We drove to the shore this morning, and went sight seeing south to Gulf Shores.  Cool, cloudy weather kept most people from the beaches, but not from the shopping and dining.  This area is full of northern Snowbirds and probably sees its share of Spring Break students as well. 

The nearest large city is Mobile AL, at the head of the Bay.  This city, and its port terminal, was chosen as the place where Carnival is having their cruise ship “Triumph” towed for repairs.  The local TV is hyping this towing as “The Cruise Ship Crisis” where the passengers are “trapped on board”.  Personally, I think they are no more trapped now then when they left Galveston.  It’s just that they had propulsion and electrical power when then entered the Gulf of Mexico, and they don’t now.  So it’s been a longer trip for them, and less comfortable, but crisis is way too strong a word to describe their misfortune.  For more details, see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/us/carnival-cruise-line-ship-triumph-towed-into-port.html?_r=0  

Before dinner this evening we went back to the shore and got some photographs of the huge ship across the bay

We were about 10-12 miles away, so you can just imagine how big this vessel is: fourteen stories high and carrying 4200 people.