I received an e-mail from Skid Schermerhorn with a map of the route for this year’s voyage: Hopefully this provides a better sense of both the areas we’ll be transiting, as well as the distance we’ll be covering in just 6 or 7 weeks.  I’m also interested to see how closely our actual path follows …

I received a Skribit suggestion that I talk about cadets bringing laptops on cruise.  Not only can cadets bring their laptops, but I would highly encourage it. In the evenings on cruise we have plenty of down time, and having a laptop provides plenty of entertainment opportunities.  Almost everyone brings DVDs as well as movies …

One of the biggest issues on cruise last year was communications.  While we’re at sea, we have very limited contact with the rest of the world.  We have an e-mail system that connects a few times a day to send and receive e-mails held in the queue, called SeaWave.  And that’s it.  No Internet, no …

Well, we’re almost halfway through finals week, and only a few weeks away from Sea Term 2009.  In keeping with last year, I’ll be blogging during the voyage about the trip, keeping friends & family of Sea Term cadets up-to-date.  This year, however, I have the benefit of knowledge and experience from last year’s Sea …

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 …

I’ve received a number of e-mails and a Skribit suggestion in response to my SPOT review asking how much it costs.  I decided I’d just make another post to address this, rather than answer all the individual requests.  Here’s how the pricing breaks down: Basic Service: $99.99/year This provides check-in (send “I’m OK” messages to …

I recently received a SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker as part of a contest run on gCaptain.  For those of you unfamiliar with the device, it’s a GPS antenna and commercial satellite transmitter integrated inside of a handheld case, with a few different functions thrown into the mix.  You can use it to track your location …

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 …

“Wait a minute Christiaan, this school year’s not even over and you’re already talking about next Sea Term? What’s up with that?” Since Sea Term is such a large undertaking, as soon as we return from one the planning begins for the next one.  One of the biggest decisions that has to be made is …

I have changed my mind on how I plan to continue the blog.  I am going to make my main blog (www.christiaanconover.com) my maritime blog, and keep this site as a historical record of Sea Term.  If you’re currently subscribed to this site’s feed and would like to follow the new blog, please visit this …