Wednesdays are Suhweet!
Hey everyone,
Gotta make this one pretty quick (yeah right, you can't stop me once I get goin'), but I just got back about an hour ago from one of the coolest things I've done here yet. But I'll keep you in suspense and tell you how nice Wednesdays are: I have three classes in the morning, Maritime Professional Studies, English and Calc. Then I go to lunch. Then I have until 8 at night to do whatever I need/want to do. Although today I mostly sat on my but and did "desk work", a break will be necessary midweek for when these classes start to pick up.
At 4:00 (1600), I got in my boiler suit (cover-alls) and headed down to the waterfront for Power Squadron. I mentioned earlier about Growler, the ice breaking tug, going out to do some BBQing. I figured we'd just motor out into the sound for a little while, do some hot dogs and call it a day. This wasn't the case at all. I showed up at about 4:15 and got on the boat. A couple of the upperclassmen on the crew were there, so we just BSed up top for a while and waited for a few more guys to get there before we started her up. We went down to the engine room, very spacious, (it was my first time down there, I've only worked on Storm). It's got a huge 8 cylinder CAT that puts out about 400 hp and a zillion lb-ft of torque. Started the generator first which was about as big as the engine the school bus had that I used to ride. Then we started the main...man that thing knocks A LOT for about the first 20 minutes. How do they last that long sounding like that? I thought I would learn about all that when I got here, but I guess I'll have to wait till second tri. Anyways, I found out when I got to the boat that we were taking a Lieutenant from admissions and about 15 recruits and other VIP's out to the Statue of Liberty and back. What an awesome trip. Not only did we get SODA, we got to go to the freakin' Statue! I never knew how complex the waterways were around the city, but it was quite an awesome journey, its a shame I can't put all the pictures I took up on webshots. We went up the East River, saw all kinds of neat high speed ferries, cut up some of their wakes and got to see a freak wave drench the Lieutenant in his uniform. He didn't mind and laughed it off. I would have to say he's my favorite commissioned officer up here, he was the first to greet me when I reported and he treated me like family right off the bat. We made our way up the river, about 50 yards away from the sea wall at times, waving to people as our fierce looking tug boat with shark teeth strutted up the channel. We fired up the grill and had everything ready to eat in time for getting to the statue. Snapped a couple pics and headed back. I got to drive the tug down the river for quite a ways which was sweet. It drives like a caddy. So, us plebes indulged ourselves some more in the fact that we were on our first "team movement" and away from school. We got back in at about ten till 9, so we docked and tied up in the dark. Walking back, I couldn't help but laugh to myself and think that this year is supposed to be the most hellacious, but yet we're doing stuff like this every week...I can't wait to see what's to come! Until next time [I write a novel]...
Spencer
Gotta make this one pretty quick (yeah right, you can't stop me once I get goin'), but I just got back about an hour ago from one of the coolest things I've done here yet. But I'll keep you in suspense and tell you how nice Wednesdays are: I have three classes in the morning, Maritime Professional Studies, English and Calc. Then I go to lunch. Then I have until 8 at night to do whatever I need/want to do. Although today I mostly sat on my but and did "desk work", a break will be necessary midweek for when these classes start to pick up.
At 4:00 (1600), I got in my boiler suit (cover-alls) and headed down to the waterfront for Power Squadron. I mentioned earlier about Growler, the ice breaking tug, going out to do some BBQing. I figured we'd just motor out into the sound for a little while, do some hot dogs and call it a day. This wasn't the case at all. I showed up at about 4:15 and got on the boat. A couple of the upperclassmen on the crew were there, so we just BSed up top for a while and waited for a few more guys to get there before we started her up. We went down to the engine room, very spacious, (it was my first time down there, I've only worked on Storm). It's got a huge 8 cylinder CAT that puts out about 400 hp and a zillion lb-ft of torque. Started the generator first which was about as big as the engine the school bus had that I used to ride. Then we started the main...man that thing knocks A LOT for about the first 20 minutes. How do they last that long sounding like that? I thought I would learn about all that when I got here, but I guess I'll have to wait till second tri. Anyways, I found out when I got to the boat that we were taking a Lieutenant from admissions and about 15 recruits and other VIP's out to the Statue of Liberty and back. What an awesome trip. Not only did we get SODA, we got to go to the freakin' Statue! I never knew how complex the waterways were around the city, but it was quite an awesome journey, its a shame I can't put all the pictures I took up on webshots. We went up the East River, saw all kinds of neat high speed ferries, cut up some of their wakes and got to see a freak wave drench the Lieutenant in his uniform. He didn't mind and laughed it off. I would have to say he's my favorite commissioned officer up here, he was the first to greet me when I reported and he treated me like family right off the bat. We made our way up the river, about 50 yards away from the sea wall at times, waving to people as our fierce looking tug boat with shark teeth strutted up the channel. We fired up the grill and had everything ready to eat in time for getting to the statue. Snapped a couple pics and headed back. I got to drive the tug down the river for quite a ways which was sweet. It drives like a caddy. So, us plebes indulged ourselves some more in the fact that we were on our first "team movement" and away from school. We got back in at about ten till 9, so we docked and tied up in the dark. Walking back, I couldn't help but laugh to myself and think that this year is supposed to be the most hellacious, but yet we're doing stuff like this every week...I can't wait to see what's to come! Until next time [I write a novel]...
Spencer