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...