Photo: Marko Thiem, Marinetraffic.com

After attempting to sail on Wednesday and Thursday, the cruise ship Carnival Splendor finally departed San Diego under its own power on Friday, accompanied by two tugs.  As of Sunday morning, around 05:00 local time, the ship was approaching San Francisco under its own power at roughly 12 knots.   The ship will be drydocked in San Francisco to complete repairs and is expected to return to service on February 20th.    The 215′  tall ship could not be drydocked in San Diego as it could not fit under the Coronado Bridge which has a 200′ maximum vertical clearance.   The Pier 70 dry dock in San Francisco was expanded three years ago and is now the only drydock on the West Coast capable of repairing a ship the size of the Splendor.

The Splendor was crippled by a fire in one engine room on November 8th while cruising approximately 200 miles off Mexico’s Baja California coast, stranding over 4,000 passengers and crew.   It is still unclear why a fire in one of the two engine rooms should have completely disabled the ship.  Not long after the fire, two US Coast Guard  Marine Safety Alerts revealed that the ship’s fixed CO2 system had failed and that firefighting manuals and safety posters did not agree with the ship as built.

Thanks to Kenneth McIntyre for the heads up.