Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

2013 Cruise: Triumph and Nassau, Bahamas

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Arrival in Nassau was scheduled for after 11:00 a.m., so we slept in a bit and had a nice breakfast in our cabin. We happened to turn on the television to CNN and watched an update on the Carnival Triumph, the cruise ship that was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine fire.

The Carnival Triumph

We’d been keeping an eye on the situation on the Carnival Triumph all week. On Thursday morning, it was approaching Mobile, Alabama, so it could finally dock and disembark its passengers (which it did very late that evening). Melissa and I love cruising, and it is a very safe, enjoyable, and affordable way to travel, but there have been a couple of incidents that give us pause.

You might be thinking of the Costa Concordia, which ran aground in the Mediterranean and killed a number of passengers. That was caused by an incompetent captain (who was showboating when he ran the ship aground, and then notoriously evacuated himself before evacuating his passengers and crew—a serious violation of maritime law and tradition). But I’m not too concerned about that. There does not seem to be a pattern of incompetence among cruise ship captains, so I have no reason to believe the Concordia disaster wasn’t an isolated incident.

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2013 Cruise: Ash Wednesday and the Kennedy Space Center

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On Wednesday, we woke up just as the ship was coming into Port Canaveral, Florida—just south of the Kennedy Space Center. From the decks, we could see the space center’s iconic assembly building and launch pads in the distance.

Ash Wednesday

It was Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of the penitential season of Lent and is recognized by Catholics with a day of fasting and abstinence [from meat]. Church leaders in the United States define the fast as eating only one ‘main’ meatless meal and two smaller meatless meals (which combined are no larger than the one ‘main’ meal). Individual Catholics may choose to make a more traditional fast if they wish; personally, I usually refrain from food all-together until a single, meatless dinner in the evening.

This practice is meant to be a sacrifice . . . but following it on a food-laden cruise ship is particularly difficult!

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2013 Cruise: At Sea, Popes, and Wireless Data

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When we woke up on Tuesday, the ship was somewhere off the North Carolina coast, and by noon we were passing off Cape Hatteras. The seas had become a bit choppy, though not too bad, and there was a fog and drizzly rain reducing visibility. I understand this is related to the storm system that caused some rain and freezing rain further north. Because of the conditions, we were unable to see the land . . . or much of the ocean, for that matter.

We grabbed some breakfast at the buffet, and Melissa went to the spa. I went back to the room to work on updating my blog notes and then went out taking some photos around the ship. In the evening, it was the first formal night so we dressed up and had our pictures taken.

On Wednesday, the weather was much nicer. There was some sun, the seas were calm, and the temperatures were rising. We slept in, had a light late breakfast, walked around above-deck, and got some outside photos. For much of the day we were off the coast of Georgia.

We really didn’t do much either day. Part of why we chose a cruise with several at-sea days is because we like to relax and do nothing on our vacations (at least for part of the time).

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2013 Cruise: Embarkation and Security Theater

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After attending Mass on Sunday morning and getting everything packed and ready, Melissa and I headed up to the cruise terminal at the Port of Baltimore and arrived there around 1 p.m. You may recall that we had an awful experience with the Baltimore cruise terminal a couple years ago, where we ended up having to stand in line in an uncomfortably hot building for hours. It wasn’t nearly that bad this time around.

The line for passing through security—which is manned by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)—was the trouble spot this time around. There were a mere four metal detectors for thousands of people arriving for their cruise at roughly the same time. It took us a solid hour, give or take, to make it through security. And while I was allowed to keep my shoes on, they have now started doing the idiotic ‘take your laptop out of the bag’ thing at the Port of Baltimore.

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Pope Benedict XVI to Resign

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Pope Benedict XVI announced this morning that he will resign at the end of this month, citing his age and ill health. This will be the first papal resignation since Pope Gregory XII stepped down in 1415 to resolve the western schism.

A papal conclave, in which the College of Cardinals will elect a new pope, will likely be held in March. Once elected, a pope serves until his death or resignation. Technically any Catholic man is eligible to serve as pope, but they are nearly always elected from among the bishops in the College of Cardinals. If a non-bishop were ever selected, he would first need to be ordained bishop.

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome and the successor of Saint Peter, who first served in that role. Catholics believe that he is called to serve as the head of the church on earth and, as such, has special leadership authority. The east/west schism in the 1000s occurred, in part, due to a dispute over the nature of this authority, with the eastern (now Orthodox) church believing that the Bishop of Rome is a ‘first among equals’ and the western (now Catholic) church believing his authority to be broader, particularly in church polity and matters of faith and morals.

As a Catholic, I offer my prayers for the Holy Father, and for the whole church as we navigate something that hasn’t happened in nearly six hundred years.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.