One of the other nice aspects of Aruba is that the ship terminals are right downtown. As soon as we walk out the gates (about a 2 minute walk from the ship) we’re right in the heart of Oranjestad. We don’t have to spend money on taxis to get to things to do, and if we decide to go to other parts of the island, the bus system here is reliable and cheap. For me, the fact that Aruba in general is more expensive than Panama and Costa Rica has been offset by the lack of transportation expense. I think that most people have found this to be the case, which was nice since some people are running low on money.

As much as we’ve had a blast on Sea Term, everyone is looking forward to getting home. Today marks the one week point from our arrival back in Buzzards Bay, so people are more excited than ever. There have been tons of discussions about seeing family & friends (particularly girlfriends!), using our own showers, and getting a good night’s sleep in a bed with more space than a coffin, and that doesn’t move! However, we still have a week, and tomorrow it’s back to business as usual which for me means maintenance.

I’m currently standing on the boat deck soaking up the warm air as we’ll only have a few more days of it. It’s going to be a little tough to go back to cold weather after being spoiled with over a month of warmth! Liberty expired at 2200 tonight for 4/C, and expires at 0000 tonight for 1/C. I’ve been watching the sporadic stream of cadets returning to the ship, tired after a good last day in port.

That’s all I have for today. A special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Buckley and Hindemith - it was great to meet you, I had an awesome time with you guys! Hopefully I’ll see you back in Buzzards Bay. To my mom - can’t wait to see you in a week, and thanks for the Valentine’s message, that was an awesome surprise!

Aruba has so far appeared to be the best port so far in terms of beaches and activities.  It’s definitely more expensive than Panama and Costa Rica, but I think it’s well worth it.  I’ve been here before, so I’m enjoying getting to do and see some of the things I did a few years ago.

I’ll be posting pictures from this port over the next two days, so that you can see them before we get home.  I am going back out tomorrow so I’ll be sure to snap tons of footage (photos and videos) to provide tomorrow evening.  Also, if anybody reading this is a ham radio operator, I have my HT with me and am tuned to the repeater operated by P43W available through EchoLink, so feel free to jump on and hail me (my callsign is KB3MMY).  That’s all for now, I’ll have much more to report tomorrow, I’m sure!

Last night was a lot of fun. The majority of Mass Maritime cadets on liberty ended up at the Maritime Bar, so we had another night of partying together. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alert is in port with us right now, so the crew was at the bar with us. I hung out with them for a lot of the night, which was a blast!

Tomorrow we’ll be under way again, steaming towards the Equator to go through the infamous shellbacking ceremony. There’s been a lot of buzz on the ship about it now that we’re mere days away!

That’s all I have for now. I’m going to go hang out with my shipmates for the last few hours we have in this port.

On a side note: I took the video below the day we left Buzzards Bay. I think it’s a cool way to show parts of the ship to people that would otherwise not be able to see them. I’ve also provided a few pictures of Golfito and the Enterprise.

Our initial impressions of Golfito were not great, but I think it’s grown on us as a group. There are water taxis which will take you to various beautiful beaches around the area. Yesterday I took one of those with a group of other freshman to a beach about 45 minutes away, which was a blast! The beach was awesome, with some of the finest sand I’ve ever felt in my life. There were fantastic views of the bay and the Pacific, and the mountains around us. After returning from the beach, we went to a restaurant nicknamed the Maritime Bar due to its decor. It’s decorated all over with liferings, photos and other memorabilia from various Coast Guard, Navy, and Maritime ships. Of course, Mass Martitime was obligated to leave their mark here as well!

I am not signed up for any of the shore excursions here, but I’ll try to get some information about them to post here. Perhaps I’ll get a guest post from somebody who did one of the excursions.

Unfortunately, making phone calls in Costa Rica is not nearly as cheap as it was in Panama. The phone cards they sell at the pier are $8 for 20 minutes of talk time. I have a Skype account with SkypeOut minutes, so I was able to call home for only $0.02 a minute using my computer with the Maritime Bar’s free Wifi. The telecom company in Aruba is pretty good, so making phone calls there should be cheaper. They also have Wifi hotspots throughout the island that you can purchase access to for a nominal fee. I don’t know about cell phone service and cost, but I’ve heard that it should be available for Verizon as well as AT&T.

Since tomorrow is the Super Bowl, the plan is to set up a projector on the helo deck so we can all watch it together as a big group. I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures and post some once we get to Aruba. Right now, though, I’m going go to enjoy the party with the rest of Mass Maritime!

I’ve provided a video showing the Maritime Bar below:

The computer lab is pretty full as I’m writing this. Everyone is getting in their last dose of Facebook, AIM, and personal e-mail for the next six weeks (unless, of course, they find an Internet café in port when we arrive). I find it a little funny that one cadet is using his computer time to play online games. There are last minute sign-ups for SeaWave, and advice flying in all directions on ways to save money using it.

First Division takes the watch tonight, which marks the start of at-sea watches. I have watch 0400-0800 and 1600-2000 in the engine room, so luckily I’ll be able to be on deck when we shove off.

Tomorrow I’ll be writing the day’s post from somewhere off the coast on the way to Norfolk. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to post any pictures of our departure due to the cost of sending pictures through SeaWave, but I’ll be sure to write a detailed description of it, and perhaps add some comments from fellow cadets. Just a little over 12 hours to go!

The weather here is pretty poor today; it rained for most of the boat drills.  Right now it’s incredibly windy and the rain is still coming down in fits.  Luckily, the forecast for tomorrow is good, calling for sun with some breeze.  We’ll be manning the rails tomorrow morning when we depart, so it’s especially nice that we won’t be soaked!

I will try to post some more pictures later on tonight while we still have Internet on board the ship.  Right now, I have to head to our last meeting on campus until we come back from Sea Term!

The fourth class cadets have also spent the past two days in lectures in Admirals’ Hall. Most of them have been overviews about the different majors available at Mass Maritime, and a couple of them have been specifically related to Sea Term. We’ve received information about Marine Safety & Environmental Protection, Emergency Management, and International Maritime Business. We also received a lecture about engine room safety during cruise, which included a slide show of gruesome, but fascinating, shipboard injuries (none of them have occurred at Mass Maritime) to drive home the point of why proper safety procedures are so crucial. This morning we had a briefing with Capt. Rozak and Cdr. Kelleher about proper security procedures in port, and a briefing from the medical staff about proper hygiene and how to go about receiving medical care on board. Freshmen have not had maintenance for the past two days due to these meetings and drills, which has actually been a nice break in the middle of the week.

Q & A
As I have noted on my Contact page, I am happy to answer any questions you may have, or cover any topics you might like to know more about. I received a question from a parent that said the following:

What time can parents of cadets visit ship on the 12th before departure?

On Saturday, there will be an opportunity for parents to tour the ship. Tours can be done between 0800 and 1000 on Saturday morning. Visitors must be escorted by their cadet, and certain spaces are off-limits to visitors. These spaces are the bridge, the engine room, and the berthing areas. At 1000, all cadets must be on board the ship and all visitors must be back on shore. We will depart at 1150 Saturday morning.

If you have a question or suggestion, feel free to send it to me using the Contact page. I will be continuing to post updates to the blog throughout Sea Term, at least every other day.

We’re less than 48 hours from departure. It’s really starting to feel real!

I discovered the benefit of having watch between 0000 and 0800.  If you have watch during that time, you get to go back to bed after morning muster at 0745 and have no responsibilities until the afternoon muster at 1300.  I got to get another solid four hours of sleep this morning, which felt awesome.

There isn’t much very interesting happening on board this week, but I can already tell that this is going to be really cool.

Unpacking was a true test of our ability to work together.  In a space large enough for two people to somewhat comfortably work, there were six people unpacking their bags and stowing their clothes and other items under their rack, making their rack, all while having to avoid stepping on each other’s things - or get stepped on by somebody above you making a top rack.

The Internet is still connected to the ship, so free e-mail is still available.  I’ll be posting pictures during the course of the week as long as we still have Internet onboard.  I’ve included a few pictures of my hold below:

Tomorrow we will do more drills, and will be loading the ship.  Right now, however, I’m going to go to sleep for the first night of many that I’ll be spending in my new matchbox rack.

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!

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!!!

As of today we have about 5 weeks left until we ship out, so there’s a lot to do in that time.  Beyond finishing up our first semester and taking final exams, we have to clean the dorms to an Admirals’ inspection-like standard, move the first of our gear onto the ship, get all remaining supplies we need, pack up and report in on January 6th.  It’s a lot to do, but I’m sure it will all be worth it!

This year, we will be traveling to the Caribbean and the South Pacific.  We will be going through the Panama Canal, and stopping for a few days in Balboa, Panama.  From there we will cross the Equator in the Pacific Ocean and perform the shellbacking ceremony.  We will then travel to Costa Rica, where we will spend a few days in port.  We will leave from there to go to Aruba, going back through the Panama Canal on our way there.  After Aruba, we will make the journey back to Buzzards Bay, MA at which point Sea Term will be over.

I plan to use this blog as both a record of the experiences I’ll have while on Sea Term, as well as a way to share my experiences with readers, and keep them updated on our progress.  I’ll post information prior to departure in January, and plan to post updates at least every other day during Sea Term.  Please check back regularly for new information, or subscribe to my RSS feed.