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...