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.
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.
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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!
However, there’s still a lot left to do before we can wave goodbye to our families. Academically, we are all getting ready for final exams next week, which for some may be the deciding factor as to whether or not they go on cruise. Vessel Familiarization has provided its share of challenges this week, with the Survival Exam in the classroom portion, and the knot tying and splicing qualifications in the lab portion. Last week we took the written part of the Vessel Fam lab examination, testing us on both our knowledge of the lifeboat commands, as well as basic knot tying and shipboard terminology. This week, you can find many cadets practicing knots and splicing during study hours, and helping shipmates who don’t know their knots that well.
Regimentally, we have to get ready to move out of the dorms and on to the ship for two months. The companies have to be cleaned to an Admirals’ inspection standard, and our rooms have to be completely empty by the time we leave next Friday. We’ve been encouraged to start taking things home so that we have less to worry about next week, which also benefits us now since it’s less to worry about for inspections!
The next week and a half are going to be incredibly busy - and somewhat stressful - for cadets. I am fortunate enough to only have a couple of exams next week, but I know that some of my shipmates are not so lucky. Good luck to all my shipmates next week - Hopefully we’ll all be on cruise in a month!
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.
Right now it’s about 0615, and the adrenaline has worn off. I’m a little chilly at this point, but really not too bad overall. The water wasn’t nearly as cold as I expected (only 41 degrees). Best of all: we got inspections off as a result of doing it! I’m not sure if there were any pictures taken, but if there were I’ll be sure to post/link to them here. GO BUCS!!!
One of the things that I have been working on over the past couple of days is setting up posting via email. What this means is that I can send an email to a pre-specified email address that I’ve created, and the software this site uses will automatically turn that email into a post on the site. Since we will not have full Internet access at sea, but will have access to email, this is the only way I will be able to post updates. Now that this is working, I can post updates while in port and at sea!
