This week marks the beginning of the end for fall semester.  Today is the first day of final exams, bringing mixed emotions to campus.  Certainly everyone’s excited that in a mere 5 days we’ll be leaving to go home for the holidays with school totally out of mind (for those of us not going on …

Captain Tom Bushy, master of Mass Maritime’s T.S. Kennedy, will be appearing on WGBH‘s program “Greater Boston” tonight at 7pm to discuss the piracy problems off the coast of Somalia, and to provide some insight into life aboard large commercial ships. If you miss the show, I will try to get a copy of it …

This week, the Queen Elizabeth 2 visited Southampton, England for the last time ever.  The cruise liner is making its final voyage before coming to rest in Dubai, United Arab Emirates to live out the rest of her days as a floating hotel and museum.  You may have heard in the news that she ran …

I received a suggestion this week that I talk about how my classes are going so far this year.  To be honest, classes are much tougher than they were last year.  Now that I’m starting to get into the core material for my major, the learning curve is a little steeper. Rules of the Road …

I received a suggestion a few weeks ago to talk about drug testing.  As most people involved with the Academy know, cadets are randomly drug tested to stay in compliance with Coast Guard licensing requirements.  Testing has always been conducted regularly at the Academy, but this year it’s being done with greater frequency.  Starting this …

I received a suggestion a while ago (sorry for the delay to whoever left it) to talk about what opinions are being expressed about the presidential election.  To be honest, I’ve been tiptoeing around the issue on my blog, since this is such a polarized election.  However, since today is election day and what’s done …

I took this picture this morning from my room, which is why the picture quality leaves a little to be desired.  However, I wanted to seize the opportunity to get the shot, since they’re keeping the new name covered up until the ship is christened as the USTS Kennedy.  So, enjoy this “sneak preview” picture …

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 …