Chipping Paint: A little about in-port sea time

In an earlier post, I think I promised (or at least thought about to myself) that I would try to provide some background and/or history - at least the way I understand it - as I share stories and photos of this adventure. Today's lesson will be on sea time. In order to be eligible to write a US Coast Guard Exam for a captain's license, one must have experience on the water, which can be know as sea days, sea time, etc. For example, to take the exam for a "six pack"(referred to as a six pack because that is the maximum number of passengers you can take for hire on an un-inspected vessel with this type of license which is why it is formally known as "operator of un-inspected vessel") one must have 360 days of sea time. The USCG defines a "day" as at least 4 hours underway (aka sailing - like, as in, not tied up to a dock). To sit for a limited tonnage license, such as a 100 or 200 ton master, one must have 720 sea days. If I had chosen to not attend a maritime academy and instead work my way up through the ranks, the license that I am in school for would require 1080 days of sea time on an unlimited tonnage vessel sailing on the oceans. Keep in mind that most commercial sailing schedules only work 6 months of the year, so that would be 6 years of working in addition to additional schooling to sit for the license exam if one were to "hawsepipe" (aka work your way up).  Someone who begins a sailing career as an unlicensed seaman and works their way up to the ranks of a licensed officer is known as a hawse piper. A ship's hawsepipe is the pipe passing through the bow section of the ship that the anchor chain passes through. "Hawsepiper" refers to climbing up the hawsepipe, a nautical metaphor for climbing up the ship's rank structure.

Chipping away at some paint
for our in-port sea day.

All of that to say, thanks to the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, funding was provided to state maritime academies and regulations were established that allow for a combination of education and sea time to take the place of those 1080 days that would be required for a Third Mate Unlimited license. Because I am attending one of the Academies, the Coast Guard requires a total of 360 sea days, which can be broken down into 276 days underway on a vessel, 30 days on a simulator, and 54 in-port sea days. Today, we are just going to focus on the in-port sea days, which are days spent working in, on, or around a boat that is not underway. As a former graduate of the academy stated today, this is the "pay to paint" part of the program. In other words, we are paying tuition for the distinct pleasure of painting  the boat. However, this "painting," or whatever it ends up being, is good experience for ship handling, maintenance, etc.

In one of our classes, Watchstanding I, we are learning all about small boat handling. In order for that class to take place, we must have a small boat to handle. This semester, that void is filled by the Anchor Bay, a 41' tug boat who served her former career as a US Coast Guard utility tug. This week's in-port sea days are sponsored by the ole Anchor Bay while me and 5 of my first year cadet friends chip away at all of her old paint. And, while it has not been confirmed by an instructor yet, my instincts tell me that when you take paint away from a metal surface, you also must replace the paint. So, I have a feeling that next week's in-port sea day might involve painting all of the bare metal that was stripped this week by our hands and a few hammers...

Making progress chipping away paint from the deck of the Anchor Bay. It is quite the loud process and I still keep finding paint chips in my hair.

A couple class mates in our beautiful uniform coveralls taking a break from chipping away...

Reporting aboard the T/S State of Michigan

Sunday, August 12 had finally arrived and that meant that it was time to for this new journey to officially commence. We were to report aboard the Training Ship (T/S) State of Michigan for the "ringing of the Admiral's bell," the welcome ceremony, and the start of our two week pre-fall semester living aboard the ship. The State of Michigan is the Academy's training vessel which is used for training cruises and as a shoreside laboratory. The ship began her career in 1985 as the USNS Persistent, a sonar surveillance ship used by the Navy to collect underwater acoustical information using a towed sonar system. The State of Michigan is 224 feet in length, has a beam of 43 feet, and houses 60 cadets plus crew for the summer training cruises. We don't actually do any sailing during the first two weeks, but instead just learn more about life on the ship and also take two classes - Intro to Marine Engineering and Survival at Sea.

My two roommates for the pre-fall
semester on the State of Michigan

Our spacious accommodations on the boat

I have a video that I made with some of our pre-fall activities highlighted on it, but I am having trouble uploading it right now, so more to come later on the rest of the pre-fall semester...

50 States Complete!

After a few months of preparation, I finally was able to give notice at my job and make some final plans for the move from Denver to Traverse City, Michigan. The final day of work came and went and with only two days to pack the car (I should plan some extra time as a buffer next time...), Friday, August 3 had arrived and it was time to depart Denver with one really full car! 

Roof box on the Jetta fully loaded for the trip to Michigan

My little sister, Emily, flew out to Denver to join me for the road trip, so I picked her up on Friday evening from DIA and made it all the way through Colorado and Nebraska to our stop for the night in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Little did I know when I was making travel plans two weeks earlier that the largest bike rally in the country (Sturgis) was taking place less than 30 miles away, so lodging options were limited. I ended up finding a tipi (aka teepee or tepee) bed and breakfast to house us for the evening, so when we finally arrived about 2am, our cozy little tipi was waiting our arrival!

TiPi Bed and Breakfast in South Dakota

Emily and I inside our TiPi!

Day two began with a quick trip to Mount Rushmore, but since we had both been there before, we decided to skip the $14 parking fee and just take a picture with the camera as we drove by. By mid-afternoon we had made it to North Dakota and I quickly stopped on the side of the road to grab a photo with the "Welcome to North Dakota" sign, as it was my last state to visit and now I have been to all 50 of the glorious states in this Country!

State #50 of 50! 

We stayed with one of my former co-workers (thanks Linda Khols!) and enjoyed a little down time after a long day of driving.

We had intentionally planned a short day of driving so that we could enjoy our drive as we wanted and we only had about four hours of driving on day three. It just so happens that some of our cousins were moving to Fargo the same day we were there, so we enjoyed a quick lunch on our way through town and made the rest of our trip to Minneapolis (actually Wisconsin) to stay with some friends that Emily and I met at Camp Goodtimes (thanks Rocksie!) We wish we could have stayed longer with both of our wonderful hosts. 

The fourth and final day of our drive began early and after a quick stop in Green Bay for some cheese, we made our way to Manitowoc, WI to board the ferry over to Michigan. The S/S Badger is not just any ferry, but it is actually a national registered historic place and is the only remaining coal fired steamship in commercial operation in the country! In just four hours, we were across Lake Michigan and only 1.5 hours away from the new home of Traverse City!

Sailing on the S/S Badger - the only coal fired steamship
in commercial operation in the US from Manitowok, WI to
Ludington, MI

Welcome to Michigan!!!

The New Adventure Begins

So, I am brand new to this whole blog thing and not sure how successful it will be, but I have had a number of folks ask me to keep them updated on this new life journey and I think this might be the best way to make that happen. I also have some catching up to do and some questions to answer, so this first post could be a little long...

Let's start from the top: What am I doing and why am I doing it?
To answer this question as simple as possible, I will start by stating the facts. I am attending the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City, Michigan where I am studying to become an officer in the US Merchant Marine. The only difficultly with explaining what I am doing in such a short sentence is that the industry that I am working towards is one that is known very little about by most people that I have encountered, so we can talk more about what specifically that means later. The second part of that question is "why am I doing it?" I have had many people ask "is this something that you have always wanted to do?" and I have a difficult time answering that question. To keep things simple and to garner more immediate support without having to explain the details behind the thought process that brought me here, my easy answer to that question is just a simple "yes!" However, the more detailed answer would start off with a "no." I did not grow up with a desire to drive a big boat for living or even know that it was possible. I have always enjoyed the water and recently developed a true passion for sailing it, but I am not sure if that translates to a lifelong dream of sailing commercially on the open ocean. However, I have always wanted to do something on my own - a job that isn't behind a desk or making sales calls every day - something that I can be passionate about and truly enjoy. That is not to say that I did not enjoy the wonderful job that I just left, because I am most definitely thankful for the time I had to spend with the American Cancer Society, but at the end of the day, it was and would always be a job. So ultimately, this is what I have always wanted to do - adventure, travel, independence, etc - it just happens that I just recently discovered this is how I would do it.

What school am I attending?
I was sitting in my office at the end of November last year and started looking into what it would take for me to earn a captain's license and work on the water for a living. After some research, I came across the websites for the Maritime Academies and it was right about then that I knew this is the direction that I wanted to go. Once I researched all of the schools, I decided to attend the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, one of six state maritime academies in the country. When I complete this program in 4 years, I will be licensed by the Coast Guard as an officer in the US Merchant Marine fleet as a Third Mate, Unlimited Tonnage - Oceans and Great Lakes. In other words, I will be licensed as the fourth highest ranking officer on a commercial vessel of unlimited size (cruise ship, container ship, tanker, etc) and able to sail on virtually any body of water in the world. After completing an additional 6 years of sea time, I will be able to earn my master's license, which is the actual "captain" on a vessel.

The State Maritime Academies are mostly located in coastal areas (Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and California), but I chose this school on the Great Lakes because it offers an opportunity for better licensing credentials. The academies receive funding from the US DOT Maritime Administration (MARAD) and are regulated by part 46 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Here is some more information from the MARAD website about the training of merchant mariners here in the US: 
"The Maritime Administration vigorously supports maritime training and education programs. Our intent is to improve the quality of work of the U.S. maritime industry through improved services to the people who serve at sea and those who work ashore in diverse professions such as ship building, steamship company operations, and port operations. Recent events in the world have required the Maritime Administration to address an array of security and training issues to provide a safer and more efficient operation of the merchant marine of the United States. To ensure a consistent supply of capable and well trained merchant mariners, the Maritime Administration provides limited funding to the Six State Maritime Academies. The education of merchant marine officers is an essential Maritime Administration responsibility to meet national security needs and to maintain the defense readiness. The maritime academies meet that need by educating young men and women for service in the American Merchant Marine, in the U.S. Armed Forces, and the Nation's intermodal transportation system. The Maritime Administration also provides training vessels to all six State maritime academies for use in at-sea training and as shoreside laboratories. The vessels are part of the Maritime Administration's assistance to the academies to train highly qualified licensed officers."