I received a Skribit suggestion that I talk about cadets bringing laptops on cruise. Not only can cadets bring their laptops, but I would highly encourage it.
In the evenings on cruise we have plenty of down time, and having a laptop provides plenty of entertainment opportunities. Almost everyone brings DVDs as well as movies stored on their computers directly, so having a computer on board allows you to watch all the movies available (Note: Chartwells also rents movies to cadets very cheaply and they have a large selection).
One of the biggest issues on cruise last year was communications. While we’re at sea, we have very limited contact with the rest of the world. We have an e-mail system that connects a few times a day to send and receive e-mails held in the queue, called SeaWave. And that’s it. No Internet, no phone. Just a delayed e-mail system.
It may sound like a problem, but in reality it’s all we really need.
Well, we’re almost halfway through finals week, and only a few weeks away from Sea Term 2009. In keeping with last year, I’ll be blogging during the voyage about the trip, keeping friends & family of Sea Term cadets up-to-date. This year, however, I have the benefit of knowledge and experience from last year’s Sea Term to share with people prior to departure. So, I’ll be starting my Sea Term coverage this week and posting throughout the holiday break with tips, information and updates about Sea Term that could be useful.
This week marks the beginning of the end for fall semester. Today is the first day of final exams, bringing mixed emotions to campus. Certainly everyone’s excited that in a mere 5 days we’ll be leaving to go home for the holidays with school totally out of mind (for those of us not going on Sea Term that’s even easier). Morning formation is the shortened formation every morning this week to allow for more studying time.
I’ve received a number of e-mails 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.
I recently received a SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker as part of a contest run on gCaptain. For those of you unfamiliar with the device, it’s a GPS antenna and commercial satellite transmitter integrated inside of a handheld case, with a few different functions thrown into the mix. You can use it to track your location throughout the world, send assistance requests, as well as distress and emergency calls. For more detailed information, check out the SPOT web site, and perhaps watch the video they have featured on their home page.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
