joining me now by phone is john gobel. great to talk to you.to be back at home finally? >> it's great to be back at home. i was able to reunite with my son jared, daughter allison, and very happy to be back at home. >> did your kids know while you were on the boat what you and your wife were going through at the time? >> well, it sort of started out, got back on the ship after we left cozumel, and they were having a late night party. and i decided to get a little bit more rest. turned in early, my wife stayed out with some of her co-workers. and she got back to the cabin very late. and then we were awoken to an emergency at about 5:30. they were requesting report to the engine room six. and i knew there was something going on. >> so when you heard team alpha and you saw the smoke, what was your first thought going through your mind? did you think you were in big trouble? >> yeah, i knew whenever there's a fire onboard a ship, i mean the ships are pretty much self-sufficient and we're relying on the crews to get the fire put out. >> john, do you

we have another passenger, john gobel joining us from the sixth floor and again, offloading from the floors and you have a little bit of a wait, john. how did that play into your understanding of what the situation was? >> well, when they originally called for -- i was immediately awaken, and i knew that there was a problem in the engine room. i basically understood that there was an emergency and i think that there was osomething to not scare the passengers too much. >> yes, fire on board is always scary in these situations and it could have been much worse -- >> actually -- >> go ahead, john. >> well, yeah, they actually didn't announce a fire right away. they just called for team alpha, and at that time, i told my wife i was going to get up and see what with was going on. and at that time, i went up on the 12th deck, and i observed smoke coming from the vicinity of the stack, and it appeared to be coming out of the ventilation from the engine room. >> were you concerned that you were about to go from the big boat to the small boat? >> i was. and i went back down below and talked to