After seeing a post on Peter Stinson’s blog Tidewater Musings, I thought I’d see if there were any other people in the U.S. with my name. As it turns out, not only are there no others with my name, I apparently don’t have it either!

Last night, the mess deck staff put on a Finals Breakfast from 2300 until 0100. I guess they figured that most people would be up that late studying, so they’d give us an opportunity to take a break and grab something to eat. It was pretty good: scrambled eggs, french toast sticks, bacon, sausage, tater tots, and the usual assortment of breakfast sandwiches and omelettes. There was a very good turnout; just guessing, I’d say that over half the corps of cadets showed up.

“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 what ports of call we will make. Fortunately, the cadets get to have some input on this decision.

As I’ve mentioned on here before, along with some of my readers, I’m planning on going into the Coast Guard. In fact, I’m making that happen very soon. I’ve been speaking with a Coast Guard recruiter, and last Thursday I went and met with him. We discussed options, available Reserve positions in the area, and my goals as a Reservist. I am very serious about doing it, so I scheduled an appointment to take the ASVAB and get a medical examination for this coming Thursday.

While it’s not a photograph taken on the MMA campus or of a ship, it still has relevance to maritime activities. My family has a summer place in Maine on the Sheepscot River, which is the body of water shown above at sunset. In addition to the river being a large lobstering area, it also happens to be one of the heaviest concentrations of lighthouses in the United States - 4 or 5 of which are all within a few miles of each other!

This week is the last full week of classes for the semester, marking the beginning of the end. Starting on Wednesday next week, final exams will be given. We’ll be having closed-door study hours on the freshman decks to allow us to study without disturbances, and prepare for finals more effectively. We’re also making preparations to go home for the summer. As part of the procedure for closing out the semester, we have to fully clean the company, as well as our rooms, to an Admiral’s-like level.

One of the activities they had at Emory Rice day was the jousting platform. My room mate (on the left) spent plenty of time on it, as he seemed to be the reigning champion. In this round, he was battling our platoon leader, which made it even more entertaining!

This week’s Photo of the Week comes from a training lab I had this week. Survival suits are an integral part of a survival plan after a maritime disaster. In conditions where an unprotected person might have mere minutes to survive, they can provide many hours of survival time, and even keep somebody alive indefinitely. Because they are so effective, we have extensive training in the proper donning and operating procedures associated with survival suits.

Usually I try to avoid writing these posts because I generally regard them as filler, but I thought it might be appropriate this week. We have some unique events going on over the next couple of days that I felt would be worthy of some introduction prior to my post-event write-ups that will follow (man, it’s just hyphen city back there, isn’t it?). Tomorrow is Emory Rice day, which is our annual field day at the end of the year.

This week’s photo of the week is of our return to Buzzards Bay after Sea Term 2008. Some of the officers and 1/C cadets from the Deck department went up by the crow’s nest on the Enterprise to watch our transit through the Cape Cod Canal. I certainly hope that I get to do this my senior year!