Friday 15 February 2002

At 1200, EST the Training Ship Empire State was made fast to pier #22 Port Everglades passenger terminal, taking various services from the shore. The weather was excellent; skies were partly cloudy, winds from the west at 10 knots, air temperature was 74 degrees Fahrenheit, barometric pressure was 1022 millibars, sea injection temperature was 76 degrees Fahrenheit.

CAPTAIN'S LOG

"America has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind. Thank God! I-I also-am an American!"

Daniel Webster, upon the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843.

It is indeed wonderful to be back in the (continental) USA!

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

Hopefully all the recalcitrants who were working, sleeping or camera shy and missed out on the photo valentines posted on the web site yesterday (courtesy of 1/c Ladden and Arnold) or who forgot to send cards from Mexico or Puerto Rico will be calling home today to say: "Happy Valentine's day!" They may give you a story that, because of the time change in the Caribbean and the phase of the moon with its pending occultation of Saturn, they really aren't late and TODAY is Valentine's Day down south... go with 'em... they've been busy and their heart is in the right place.

After a peaceful, uneventful transit of the old Bahama channel yesterday, we made preparations for the last port call of Sea Term 2002. Tests on all gear, from the throttles in the engine room to the gyros on the bridge to a loud test of the ship's whistle, were completed successfully... Well almost everything went well. The dreaded last port Captain's Inspection of all berthing spaces did not go as planned. Unfortunately, the fourth class hold and the third class hold failed inspection last night. Because I get very busy before port, I was not able to reinspect the holds until AFTER liberty call today. While I am convinced that the holds will be spotless when I go done there this morning, there is a lesson here about doing a job right the FIRST time. Some of life's lessons are cheaply learned, some cost a few hours of precious liberty. If when your cadet calls home this weekend, he or she sounds a little exasperated with me, say you've been telling them to keep their room clean since they were little! Why don't they listen?

Speaking of calling home, we have posted the arrival work and watch schedule for Buzzards Bay and the subsequent transit to New York Maritime Academy to return the TSES. All cadets know their duty assignments and have been instructed to communicate that info to their families from here in Florida. Unloading the ship, cleaning it thoroughly and returning it to SUNY while keeping watches, security and engineering equipment running is a complex operation. To allow everyone some time off prior to the start of the Spring Semester, we have set up many different work/watch options and cadets picked what they preferred. Of course there must be some controls established; we can't have EVERYBODY go home as soon as we tie up at the Academy on Sunday the 24th, SOMEBODY still has to be aboard to keep the ship afloat. For the most part, however, everyone gets their first or second choice on duty assignment for the arrival/offload/transit week. For more details on the schedule, click on the FAQ line in the blue bar to the left of the Captain's Log.

We have many different things scheduled for this port. Today we are hosting a "Job Fair" for seniors. Capt Al Wilson, MMA's placement director, has contacted 20 maritime companies in the southeastern US and invited them aboard to meet and greet our graduating senior cadets. Our First Class, tanned and fit in their dress blues, resumes in hand, will get a jump on the competition and also get introduced to many potential employers that may not be traveling up to B-Bay to recruit this year.

We are also running an International Maritime Business symposium today to introduce our new 3/c IMB cadets to people in the world of importing/exporting and cargo operations. Unfortunately, we have had a variety of personnel difficulties this trip as we have attempted to conduct this first ever course for the sophomore IMB cadets onboard. The two lead instructors for that course had to depart ship suddenly due to injuries (both are fine now, though) and we were forced to make substitutions with onboard people. Even I was pressed into giving lectures on business subjects such as the paperwork process associated with ships entering and departing foreign and domestic ports. In retrospect, I think we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and the course turned out well. One measure of that will be how many of the fourth class cadets choose IMB this week when they make their final selection of major. When I peeked at the tallies yesterday, over 30 had decided to go into the business of shipping instead of the shipping business. That is slightly above our expectations.

Well, we are also hosting a reception onboard tonight for local officials and alums. I have to go get dressed up in my Tropical White uniform. I like welcoming all of them to the ship and enjoy hearing from past cadets I may have taught. I don't even mind getting dressed up. I am just tired of all the "Do you have any chocolate ice cream?" jokes. I will comment later on our activities, but let me close with some photos of ops in the engine room, and on deck to help bring color to my discussions of arrival preparations. See you tomorrow, from right here at the dock.