I’ve received a number of e-mails and a Skribit suggestion in response to my SPOT review asking how much it costs.  I decided I’d just make another post to address this, rather than answer all the individual requests.  Here’s how the pricing breaks down:

Basic Service: $99.99/year
This provides check-in (send “I’m OK” messages to people you pre-select along with your location), help requests (non emergency) and 911 requests.  You get unlimited usage of these services for this fee.  In order to use SPOT at all, you have to at least purchase Basic Service.

Tracking: $49.99/year
This is an additional feature on top of Basic Service.  This allows you to keep a “breadcrumb trail” as I discussed in my review.  In Tracking mode, the device will send a position update to the SPOT system every 10 minutes, which you can go back later and look at in your account control panel.  This also provides public Shared pages, which allow you to share your tracking with other people on publicly viewable pages.  Each page has a 500 views-per-day limit as of this writing, but don’t worry: you can create multiple public pages, and even password protect a page if you want.  I make use of this by having a general public page at spot.cconover.com, but I also have a password-protected page for my family so that they’ll always have a page they can see, without having to worry about exceeding the view count.

Search & Rescue: $7.95/year up front, $150/year each subsequent year
The pricing on this one may seem a little confusing.  Basically, you have the option to purchase this service when you first activate your SPOT.  If you do this, then you’ll only pay $7.95 for this for the first year.  Every year after that, it will be $150 per year.  So what does this buy you?  SPOT has partnered with GEOS, who provide private search & rescue services worldwide.  For this yearly fee, you’ll receive up to $100,000 of search & rescue services when you hit that 911 button.  This will cover not only the cost of the private SAR services from GEOS, but fees incurred from any public/official SAR agency for which you may be responsible.  It’s also nice if you spend a lot of time in places where public SAR agencies may be poor or non-existant.  I would think that this wouldn’t be as important for mariners who transit the waters of developed nations where public SAR services are very good, such as the Coast Guard.  However, in areas that don’t have such organizations, this may prove to be vital.

SPOT has a page on their web site that covers pricing if you want to see it there.

What services would/do you use if you got/have a SPOT?

I received a suggestion this week that I talk about how my classes are going so far this year.  To be honest, classes are much tougher than they were last year.  Now that I’m starting to get into the core material for my major, the learning curve is a little steeper.

Rules of the Road is probably my most difficult class, as is the case for many other sophomore Deckies.  This is the class where we learn the regulations for ship movement and traffic, as well as how to identify other vessels.  It is a lot of memorization, and there are many exceptions and differences depending on geographic location to learn.  As if the class itself didn’t provide enough of a challenge, passing it is a requirement for being able to go on 3rd class Sea Term.  As such, it’s a major part of 3rd class deckie study time each week.

Calculus is giving me some difficulty as well.  I have always struggled with math, and calculus is no exception.  I’m pushing through it, but it is definitely a challenge.  A number of my classmates are struggling with it as well.

Fortunately, the semester is close to being over.  We only have another 4 and a half weeks of class time left, including exams.  Once the semester ends, all focus shifts to Sea Term 2009, which I’m very much looking forward to!

I received a suggestion a few weeks ago to talk about drug testing.  As most people involved with the Academy know, cadets are randomly drug tested to stay in compliance with Coast Guard licensing requirements.  Testing has always been conducted regularly at the Academy, but this year it’s being done with greater frequency.  Starting this year, testing is being conducted twice a month, instead of just once a month as it used to be.  This is being done for a couple of reasons.  First off, the number of cadets in the regiment has been increasing over the past few years, so they need to test more often to fit more people in.  Second, it keeps people “on their toes” about drugs here at the academy, and hopefully deters people who may otherwise have gambled with their chances of getting tested when it was just once a month.  The tests are not scheduled, and are spaced unevenly and scheduled at different times and dates each test to make it even more of a deterrent from using drugs.

Not all cadets are tested an equal number of times.  Last year I was chosen to be tested for the first testing of the year.  I didn’t get tested again until the beginning of this year.  I have friends, however, who were tested multiple times last year, and some people have been tested more than once already this year.  It’s luck of the draw, so some people get to experience it more than others.  It’s not a big deal, but it’s annoying to be woken at 0530 to go get tested.  Really, drug testing is a very minor aspect of life at the academy.

I received a suggestion a while ago (sorry for the delay to whoever left it) to talk about what opinions are being expressed about the presidential election.  To be honest, I’ve been tiptoeing around the issue on my blog, since this is such a polarized election.  However, since today is election day and what’s done is done at the time that I’m writing this, I figured it might be a good time to discuss it.

Opinions seem to be quite strong in the regiment, or at least among the people I spend the most time with.  Most people appear to be McCain supporters, but people on both sides are not being ambiguous about their politics.  It’s definitely made for some very interesting and high-powered arguments and discussions among cadets.  I’m really glad to see it, since it means that people are taking a strong interest in their political system and in how the government works.

I’m writing this just after 7pm on Election Day, so the first numbers are being reported.  No matter which way the election goes, the atmosphere on campus tomorrow is going to be charged.

As I’m sure most people are now aware, the Academy trustees have voted to rename the training ship to the USTS Kennedy, in honor of Ted Kennedy’s service as a U.S. Senator for Massachusetts.  I was asked last week via Skribit that I write about cadet reactions to the name change.

There hasn’t been much discussion among cadets about the name change, to be honest.  We heard a little bit about it at the beginning of the year, and were asked to express our opinions via e-mail about a possible name change.  A few weeks later we were informed that the change was going to take place.  Since the announcement, there have been some passing comments made, but nobody’s discussing it too much since the decision’s already been made.

As far as the comments that are being made: certainly there are jokes and such being made about naming a ship after a man who had an accident involving the water, and other jokes related to that.  However, there have also been positive comments about the fact that it may help bring the school some more publicity.

I haven’t really tried to get involved in such discussions since I really don’t know much about Ted Kennedy.  However, I do know that he’s been a public servant for many, many years and that, despite personal opinions of his mistakes or policies, his time in office is a reflection of patriotism in itself, so I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t honor that.  Just my 2 cents.

What do you think of the name change?  Please post your thoughts in the comments area below.

This year my classmates in license majors and I started the Merchant Mariner Documentation process.  Merchant Mariner Documentation, or MMD, is the Coast Guard’s merchant marine identification and management system, keeping track of all registered merchant mariners in the United States.  It is required to have MMD in order to ship on any commercial vessel in the U.S., so we start the process about 15 months prior to shipping commercially.

We started the process by filling out the initial application, which included the usual pedigree information, as well as questions about personal history (legal issues, etc.) so that the Coast Guard has a record of full disclosure.  Each applicant undergoes a background check, so they want to make sure you’re honest and forthcoming about any issues they may discover in the process.

We’re waiting on the next step right now (I’m not sure when or what that is), but once we reach that I’ll make another post about it.

I received a suggestion last week (I know, I really need to post more often/faster) that I explain what chart work is.  It took me a little bit to understand that this suggestion is valuable in a couple of ways.  First off, I’m guessing that whoever suggested it is not the only reader of mine that doesn’t know what that term refers to, so it would behoove me to explain it.  Second, it reminded me that I’m not writing this blog for an audience of maritime cadets, or licensed mariners, but for people who are either connected to Mass Maritime, or the maritime industry, without necessarily knowing any specifics about it.  So, thank you to whoever posted that suggestion.

Anyway, what is chart work?  Well, if you ask any freshman or sophomore deck cadet here at MMA, they’ll probably tell you it’s a frustrating pain in the @$!#.  Chart work is short-hand for the homework assignments we receive in Coastal Navigation that involve plotting courses and other navigational evolutions on a chart.  A chart, for those who may not know, is sort of like a map, but for the water.  It shows the depth of a body of water at various points in the water, the shipping channels for that area, buoys, lights, and landmarks along the shore.

A typical chart work assignment can take anywhere from 1-3 hours (if you work steadily).  It can end up taking much longer if you work in groups, as is often the case, because invariably conversation moves very far away from chart work, and stays there for a while.  So, an assignment that is time-consuming on its own can become even more time-consuming, though it’s completely the fault of the people doing the chart work (I’ll be the first to admit that I have that problem).

Once you get the hang of whatever concept the assignment is teaching, chart work can be fun.  I’d equate it to that feeling that some people - other than me - who enjoy math, get from solving a challenging problem.  It’s time-consuming, but it’s satisfying once you understand it and finish it.

I received a suggestion this week that I explain the basis/history of my name, and why it has an unusual spelling.

The spelling of my name is Dutch, having two A’s at the end.  When my parents were picking names, they considered naming me Christian, but decided it was too common (though I don’t even meet too many people with that spelling).  My dad was reading a book one day which mentioned a Dutchman with the name Christiaan, and my parents decided it was unusual enough.

I used to be frustrated by my name sometimes, since it is very uncommon, but I’ve come to realize that it’s a gift to have such a unique name.  When I bought the web domain for this blog, for example, I was sure that there were no other Christiaan Conovers who may have already bought it.

My name is so uncommon, in fact, that according to an online check I did a few months ago, I don’t even exist.

That’s the story of my name, and I’m stickin’ to it!

Holy smokes, he’s back!  Yes, after being cut off from the real world for two months, I am finally finished with boot camp and starting my sophomore year at MMA.  I’ve been back at Mass Maritime for two days now, having arrived at school yesterday morning.  Already I’ve noticed differences in daily life between being a fourth class and being a third class.

First off, the most obvious differences:  We no longer have cleaning stations and study hours.  I no longer have to check the cleaning bill to see if I have to be up at 0545 to sweep the decks or scrub toilets, and do it again that night.  I don’t have to keep my door open for two hours each night pretending to get work done while people file in and out of my room, keeping me from being able to focus.  As third class cadets, we pretty much keep to ourselves, and are left alone most of the time, which I like.

We also have fewer inspections, and the ones we do have are at more convenient times.  We only have three inspections a week (instead of six as freshmen), and they’re all on weekday mornings (instead of having one on Sunday night).  As a result, I get to sleep in a little later on mornings that I don’t have inspection.

Unfortunately, my academic work load has increased somewhat.  Mainly, I’ve noticed that I have a lot more reading to do than I did last year.  While I don’t particularly mind reading itself, I have a nasty habit of falling asleep when I am reading from a book for more than about 15 pages, so I’ll have to find a way to overcome that.

I’ve been enjoying watching this year’s fourth class cadets around campus, watching them do the things that we had to do - running any time they’re outside, squaring corners when they’re in the dorms, etc.  I’ve also been greeted as “sir” by at least a dozen fourth class in the past two days, even though I’m only a third class, so I’ve had to remind them that “blue-taggers” (my class has blue name tags) are not sir or ma’am, we’re not much different from them in fact.  I actually find it pretty funny.

This year we get liberty on Wednesdays, starting after our last class of the day until we have to sign in between 2300 and 0000.  While I’m really looking forward to having time to get off campus in the middle of the week, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with the time, and foresee it providing a good opportunity to waste money.  Still, it’s an opportunity to take a break mid-week, so I’ll take it.

Not much else seems to be going on around here that’s worth reporting on, although tomorrow morning we have a meeting to vote on our ports of call for Sea Term 2009, so once I find out the final decision on those I’ll post it.

I know this post is really, really long overdue, but I got a Skribit request that I write it, so I thought it was about time I got around to doing it.  I’ve mentioned Emory Rice day before, where I described the planned itinerary for the day and gave a brief description of what the day is.

First off, the marching competition.  First Company was, naturally, the first company to march.  I’d like to say that we did well, but I’d be lying.  We pretty much fell on our faces.  It didn’t help that there was a ship going through the canal while we were marching that happened to blow its whistle right as the company commander would give marching commands, but there are no asterisks in these competitions, so we weren’t given any leeway in scoring because of it.  We messed up a couple of times, but my personal favorite was when we were given the command “to the rear march” (everyone pivots 180 degrees at once, resulting in the entire platoon marching back the way they came) right at the ship blew its whistle, at which point the back half of the company turned and the front half kept marching because they hadn’t heard the command.  The entire thing was pretty classic.  We came in last for that part of the day.

During the day classes continued as usual, with one exception: dress-down tickets had been sold for the day, so the majority of cadets were in civilian clothes.  We usually have two or three dress-down days each semester, with the proceeds from the tickets going to a local charity.  I’m not sure where the money went for Emory Rice day, but I believe it was a charity.

That afternoon after classes we had a field day.  The school had rented a number of field activities, such as a rock climbing wall, a jousting table, a dunk tank, and a number of other things.  Various clubs and groups at school had their own activities as well.  The ROTC program set up an obstacle course on Cadet Beach, which I didn’t do but heard that it was pretty good (First Company won this event!).  In the mess deck, we had a cookout which was a nice change from the usual routine.  Unfortunately, it rained that afternoon or the cookout would have been outdoors.  That night they showed a movie in the gym, giving the cadets the choice of what movie to watch.  We chose Boondock Saints.

Emory Rice day was a lot of fun, and a great way to mark the end of the year.  I’m looking forward to it again next year, but hopefully it won’t rain again!