by JudyJB » Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:15 pm
Napa EXPO RV park called me back from the message I left on Friday. They said they were trying to convince county and state officials that this was an RV park, not a campground, so it should not have to close. They told the powers that be that all units here were self-contained and did not need to use restrooms because it was full hookups, etc. Might work or might not, but I am glad they were trying. We will have 48 hours notice if they close.
My scary story is that in 2002, as a reward for selling her home, I took my mother to London for three days. We traveled one way on the QE2 ocean liner and flew back. Departure was from NY Harbor, and there were divers around the hull, supposedly looking for bombs, so instead of departing at 6:00 pm, we did not get underway until 4:00 am. I stayed up until then because I wanted to see us go under the Verazanno Bridge and past the Stature of Liberty. It was an extremely fast journey because we had left 10 hours late and there was 3 hours lost because of time changes. The old ship hit 30-31 knots the entire trip, which is about 33-34 MPH, and there is no other cruise ship or ocean liner, other than military ships, that can go that fast. But a lot of creaking and shaking because she was a very old ship, and they were planning to replace her soon because of metal fatigue. And we had one really big sideways roll to the point where some water emptied from the rear deck pool--water was three feet down from edge but still dumped a lot of water.
Only a little scary, but several months later, I found a British Naval Board of Inquiry report that said that on the previous crossing, heading to NY city from Northampton, UK, that a large pipe in the engine room broke off 3' from the hull. They had to stop in the North Atlantic for several hours to try to fix it, but it said if they had not been able to do so, "More water would have come in than the pumps could handle." I think that means sinking. Anyway, those divers checking for bombs were really trying to repair a 6" in diameter hole in the ship!! Yikes. So Cunard lied to us. How many people would board a ship with a hole in it below the water line and suffering from metal fatigue??
It was a great trip on a historic old ship and going that fast was amazing. (Most cruise ships go a more leisurely 10-12 knots. QE2 top speed in 34 knots. The new Queen Mary can do about 30 knots, top speed.)