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 aground on her way into Southampton, but sustained no damage.  She departed Southampton with fireworks and ceremony, a proper farewell for a ship of such notoriety.  The picture I chose for this week’s Photo Of The Week is of the QE2 as she heads out of Southampton, back out to sea on her way to Dubai.

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 of Massachusetts Maritime Academy’s training ship with its new nametag.

If you’re a little confused as to why there’s a new name on the bow, take a look at this post.

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 which the shot was taken.

I haven’t gotten any new photos this year around campus.  If you have any photos you’d like to submit for Photo of the Week, please e-mail me.  Thanks!

You probably thought I’d forgotten about the Photo of the Week this week, didn’t you?  Not to worry, I had simply been outside enjoying the day and was waiting to post it when I thought other people would be back inside too.  I know it’s a Friday evening in June, but there may be a few people reading it tonight, you never know.

Anyway, this week’s picture is actually one I took last fall after being at the Academy for only a few weeks.  It’s probably one of my top three favorite photos that I’ve taken of the Enterprise so far.  I really like the way the sun hits the ship, making everything light up & glow.

I’ll try to continue this segment for the next few weeks until I go to boot camp, but since school will be out next Tuesday it’ll have to all be old material like this one.

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 all within a few miles of each other!

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.

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!

If you have a photograph that you’d like to submit for Photo of the Week, please contact me with either a link to the photo online, or let me know that you’d like to e-mail me one.  Thanks!

The Photo of the Week for this week was taken in Falmouth last Sunday.

Nobska Light in the Fog

Lighthouses are a significant part of the maritime industry, as well as the Coast Guard. Since this one is so close to MMA, it seemed like a logical one to pick.

Sidenote: you can find all the Photo of the Week entries as a set on Flickr.

This week’s Photo of the Week is a picture that I actually took *gasp* this week! It’s a photograph of an 87′ Coast Guard Cutter passing the Mass Maritime campus as it heads east through the Cape Cod Canal.

Since I’m planning on going into the Coast Guard, I get pretty excited when I see Coast Guard vessels and aircraft around campus, and this was no exception.