“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.  A few weeks ago, there was an open meeting for all cadets going on Sea Term 2009 to vote on the choices the Sea Term planners had narrowed down.  The decisions then had to be finalized, and we now know which ports we will be stopping in:

1. Nassau, Bahamas
2. Tampa, FL
3. St. Thomas, USVI

Due to the price of fuel, we can’t go as far afield as was possible in previous years, which is why we’re not too far into the Caribbean, let alone South America or Europe.

Today was the Welcome Aboard event at the Academy. This is a day specifically for high school seniors who have been accepted into next year’s freshman class. It allows them to get a more in-depth sense of some of the things MMA has to offer, such as firefighting, cold water survival, small boat handling, and basic engineering. I was one of the cadets running the Semester at Sea seminar, where future cadets got to see pictures and videos from previous Sea Terms, get information about life as a freshman on the Enterprise, and have a question and answer session.

There were four sessions today, so my group got to talk to about 120 students about our experiences on cruise. We had two juniors and four freshmen (including me) so we were able to offer a wide array of information. We showed a video that one of the juniors had put together after his freshman cruise, the year they went to Europe. Then we showed a slideshow of some pictures 2/C Wilson took this year. While we were showing pictures, we each discussed a specific aspect of Sea Term. We talked about division rotations, the Enterprise itself, deck & engine watches, classes, and port time. We also fielded a lot of questions from the future cadets about life on Sea Term, from watch to life in the holds and time off.

I think today went well overall. If you were there and have any additional questions or comments, or weren’t but still have something to share, please post a comment.

All cadets are required to stand watch, license and non-license majors alike. We stand watch in three places on campus - one in the dorms, and two on the Enterprise.

In the dorms, we have watch at the Cadet Information Center (CIC), where we keep track of visitors entering and exiting the dorms, answer the phone during off-business hours, and do rounds throughout the dorms to make sure everything is in proper order. Freshmen are responsible for the rounds, and act as messengers to take information anywhere it needs to be delivered in the dorms or on campus.

On board the ship, there are deck and engine watch posts. Deck watch for freshmen consists of watching the gangway for people boarding and disembarking the ship, signing people in and out, and doing Detex rounds to check for proper order throughout the ship by punching a clock with keys at certain stations. Engine watch is resonsible for ensuring that all equipment in the engine room is performing (or secured) as it should be. Since the engine room is almost entirely secured while at the pier, there aren’t many systems to keep track of, which is nice.

Watch is stood 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on the ship, and all hours before and after the academic day at CIC. These watch positions only apply in this manner while at school. During Sea Term, shoreside watch (CIC) is obviously eliminated, and the number of personnel on watch on the ship is increased significantly. However, we use watchstanding while at school to learn proper watchstanding procedures for when we ship out.

All watches are 4 hours long, except holiday watch which is 8 hours long. Watch periods are 0000-0400, 0400-0800, 0800-1200, 1200-1600, 1600-2000, and 2000-0000. One of the benefits of having an overnight watch is that as a freshman you can sleep during study hours, so you can go to bed before 2200. During Sea Term, overnight watch is even better because you’re not required to be at morning formation the next day, so you can sleep all morning!

This blog has been reborn, for a completely different purpose. I’ve decided to use this blog to talk about life as a cadet at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and other maritime-related information. This decision came on the heels of returning from MMA’s Sea Term 2008, during which I kept a blog about the trip which got an incredibly positive response.

If you’re used to this blog being about tech info and are wondering what happened to it, good news: it still exists, it just has a new address. You can get to that blog by going to tech.christiaanconover.com.

I am excited to get this blog started, and see how it turns out. Go Bucs!