Nothing can go wrong....can go wrong....can go wrong...

This incident aboard the Catalunya Spirit given the potential for a catastropic explosion aboard these ships. The ship owners typically radiate to the public their complete confidence in the reliability of these ships, their crews, and their guidance systems, with regard to the safety of navigating narrow passage ways to refinery or potential refinery sites. I followed closely the recent public hearings we've had along the coast of Maine, from Eastport to Harpswell, where such company officials claimed that any such malfunction was extremely unlikely.

It is gratifying that the Coast Guard was able to reach this ship and tow it to safety, and that other emergency response vessels were ready to render asistance. But the incident was not supposed to happen, computer malfunction or whatever. No doubt someone plugged in the coffeemaker or hair dryer on the bridge and tripped the circuit breakers.

Hey, why wait for more facts? There's another nautical saga to compose!

Incidently "Catalunya Spirit" is an interesting name for this ship. There's a wine region called Catalunya in California, and there's a semiautonemous region of Spain known as Catalonia. There's even a race track or two called Catalunya.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble