More Tug Boats to help Cruise Ship

The stricken cruise ship carrying thousands of passengers is on course to rendezvous with several more tug boats off the coast of California.

Petty officer Rachel Polish says the ship is being pulled by tugs and should reach the meeting site about eight miles off San Diego around 5:30 PST.

At that point a total of six tugs will begin towing the nearly 1,000-foot-long Carnival Splendor into port, an operation that will take approximately two hours.

Both passengers and crew were coping well with the "obvious challenges."

Two tugboats were pulling the Carnival Splendor at a pace to reach San Diego Bay sometime around dawn Thursday, almost exactly four days after the giant ship lost power with nearly 4,500 passengers and crew aboard. Coast Guard cutters will then escort the ship around the tip of the Coronado Peninsula to San Diego's downtown harbor.

The ship will be in port sometime today.