On a whim, I happened to look up Mass Maritime on Google Maps tonight, and discovered that they have recently updated their imagery of this area.  You can now see the addition built on top of the 1st and 2nd company dorms, as well as the 81kW solar array on top of the addition.  The …

As I’m sure most people are now aware, the Academy trustees have voted to rename the training ship to the USTS Kennedy, in honor of Ted Kennedy’s service as a U.S. Senator for Massachusetts.  I was asked last week via Skribit that I write about cadet reactions to the name change. There hasn’t been much …

This week’s Photo of the Week comes from Flickr user OneEighteen, a Houston ship pilot.  The photo is of a tanker in the Houston ship channel, the Sanko Blossom.  I thought it was a cool picture because of the sheer massive size of the ship, and the way that’s really emphasized by the angle from …

As I’m sure regular readers know, I went to Coast Guard Basic Training this past summer, having enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.  Since coming back to MMA, I’ve had quite a few of my shipmates ask me about it, some of whom are interested in doing it themselves.  In my Internet travels, I …

This year my classmates in license majors and I started the Merchant Mariner Documentation process.  Merchant Mariner Documentation, or MMD, is the Coast Guard’s merchant marine identification and management system, keeping track of all registered merchant mariners in the United States.  It is required to have MMD in order to ship on any commercial vessel …

I received a suggestion last week (I know, I really need to post more often/faster) that I explain what chart work is.  It took me a little bit to understand that this suggestion is valuable in a couple of ways.  First off, I’m guessing that whoever suggested it is not the only reader of mine …

I received a suggestion this week that I explain the basis/history of my name, and why it has an unusual spelling. The spelling of my name is Dutch, having two A’s at the end.  When my parents were picking names, they considered naming me Christian, but decided it was too common (though I don’t even …

Holy smokes, he’s back!  Yes, after being cut off from the real world for two months, I am finally finished with boot camp and starting my sophomore year at MMA.  I’ve been back at Mass Maritime for two days now, having arrived at school yesterday morning.  Already I’ve noticed differences in daily life between being …

I’m writing this at about 0130, mere hours before I will be hitting the road to go up to Boston and start my journey through boot camp and into the Coast Guard.  I’m excited, and a little nervous, but I’m confident that I will be able to handle it. I may or may not be …

After a week of my blog being offline (you may have noticed the error page), it’s back on the Internets.  I had a disagreement with my hosting company, but it’s all settled now, and I’m good to go.  We’ll now return to our regularly scheduled programming.