The past three days we’ve done emergency drills every day. We have practiced fire & emergency and abandon ship drills each day, usually taking a total of about one and a half to two hours. Tomorrow we’ll be doing the official drills required by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard inspectors will be on board to ensure that we know exactly how to respond to the different emergency situations. Hopefully things go as well tomorrow as they did before the Orientation Mini Cruise, when the Coast Guard didn’t require us to do more than one of the drills since we executed the first one so perfectly.
Today we spent the day loading food onto the ship. We need to load enough food for 590 people for our entire time at sea, so needless to say it’s an immense and time-consuming task. I was told by a fellow cadet that we loaded 134 palettes of food just today. We will be continuing this task over the next couple of days.
I discovered the benefit of having watch between 0000 and 0800.
Today has been a very busy day. The morning started at around 7:00 when people started arriving in Harrington Hall to put their bags down and check in. We had a meeting in Admirals’ Hall until about 10:00 reiterating the basic dos and don’ts of the ship. We then broke off into our divisions, and headed over to the ship with our bags. We unpacked throughout the course of the day between other activities, such as lunch, muster, and the evacuation drill we did this afternoon.
This morning Captain Bushy notified us that we have changed the port we will be visiting in Costa Rica. We will now be at the port of Golfito, and will be at a dock instead of anchored off shore. This should make it much easier for us to go ashore and return to the ship. The schedule will remain the same, it will simply be a different location.
This coming week officially starts final exams here at Mass Maritime. However, many teachers have decided to either give their final exam early, to alleviate the stress of having all finals in one week, or to give the last test of the semester. As a result, the past two weeks have found me busy studying for tests and finishing projects. All this has resulted in a lack of updates to my blog, due to a lack of time both to find new topics to write about, and to actually write about them.
MMA got its first snow of the season on Thursday, resulting in afternoon classes being cancelled. I took some pictures of the snow-covered campus, which I’ve posted below.
The Regimental Staff, as snowmen
Today is the one month mark from departing Buzzards Bay for Sea Term 2008. In fact, as you may or may not have noticed, I’ve added a countdown on the right side of the page until we are scheduled to cast off from the pier, and head out to sea. It’s incredible to think that in a mere 30 days, we’ll be standing on the decks of the T.S. Enterprise, leaving for a once in a lifetime journey through the Caribbean and the Pacific!
This morning at 0400 we were woken up Orientation-style for the Viking Bath, a rite of passage for freshmen. Everyone gets into PT gear, and after doing about 30 minutes of intense warm-up in the passageways, we all run down to Cadet Beach and jump into Buttermilk Bay! This is considered a “Recognition” for being able to go on Sea Term, so now we’ve earned our spot on the ship.
Today the freshmen had a meeting with Capt. Rozak, Capt. Bushy and the other staff and cadet officers involved with Sea Term. They addressed the key times we need to know, making sure we bring important documents like a passport and school ID, and the basic rules and regulations. The medical staff talked about how to handle medication and injuries at sea. We also got to talk about some of the details of the sweet trips and excursions we’ll be able to take while in port, such as white water rafting in Costa Rica and canopy tours of the rain forest.
In January and February I will be shipping out on the T.S. Enterprise, Mass Maritime’s training ship, for Sea Term. Sea Term is Mass Maritime’s hands-on training period, where cadets gain practical experience in working and living on board a commercial ship. Depending on your major, you will do between one and three Sea Terms. For example, a Marine Transportation (deck license) major will do three Sea Terms, but an Emergency Management major will do only one.
