<p>LFWB...So my son's training as a deckie is the reason his handwriting went from 'chicken scratch' to absolutely legible? Great! I've been wondering, as I saw it improve noticeably during his time at KP. And I will echo your advice... Tell your Sea Duty kids to do their projects! Finish them, do them completely. If anyone got out of KP without completing them, I'd love to know how. I must admit, that was another area in which I saw my son mature...disciplining himself to complete a task without being nagged. Yes, I would say, "How is your sea project coming along?" and he would say, "It's coming." Some kids finished theirs on the ship, others took them home and did all the 'reports' before heading back to the 'halls of learning.' An INCOMPLETE can delay your diploma. Thankfully, we did not have to go through that experience! It's all part of the 'molding' process. </p>
<p>I just heard about this site this summer. I wish that I had heard about it last year when I was so in the dark about plebe year. But I am glad to read about a lot of the questions that I have had about sea year being talked about here.</p>
<p>My son is on the A split and will be going on in October. Whenever I ask him questions about what is going to happen and about things that I think are important like money, transportation and other things like that he and his father look at me and say that he has it under control and not to worry. How can I not worry some? I'm a mom.</p>
<p>A QMED is a Qualified Member of the Engine Department. In the engine room the licensed officers (descending order) are Chief, First, Second, Third. Then you have you unlicensed personnel (from the bottom up), Wiper (cleans stuff), OMU (oiler/maintenance utility) they help out get readings etc, QMED 4th Class...to 1st Class. The first class QMED usually has a refrigeration and Electrician certification. The first class QMED should almost be a licensed engineer (they have a lot of time down there...kinda like the Bosun of the engine dept.) Though sometimes they're dumb and lazy...sailors...oh well. Some ships have electricians who are sort of inbetween the engineers and the unlicensed guys...maybe like a warrant officer in the military. On some ships they eat with the licensed crew...have an officer room, and not on others. </p>
<p>The Cadet works for the engineers and reports to the First. The Chief is overall incharge and on some ships doesn't come downstairs too much as he/she has a lot of paperwork to do. The First usually runs the show down there, the second is in charge of fueling and a long list of machinery, the third handles the lube oil and a lot of other machinery. </p>
<p>Our son is on the Maersk Carolina and should be pulling into the Suez Canal Port today. Got a call from him this past Sunday while in Italy and had received the first email just days prior. Confirming what many of you have said, the email is through the ship's server and any email that he sends or receives has to go through the Third Engineer's email address. Text only and carefully worded since others will have access to the mail. The ship's satellite sends and receives every six hours and he can check email on the Third Engineer's computer on a daily basis. The phone call that we received was at 1am his time and they had just come back from doing some siteseeing. The officers were sending he and his sea partner again out the next day to buy them some items as they needed to stay aboard and get some work done. I was thinking that maybe that was a test to see if they could find the items. I'll have to remember to ask him if they were successful shoppers. As I may have noted elsewhere on this site - he absolutely is loving his experiences so far. Being in the engine, he likes the work better when they are in port - more hands on and engine related. While at sea, it's more busy work but he's still okay with that. And knock me down - he actually is having fun doing his sea project. This coming from a kid that always waited until the last minute to finish school projects. Although plebe year certainly saw some changes in his personality and maturity, I think sea year will really bring about the most change. Two of the engine officers are KP grads so I'm guessing that may be one of the reasons as to the positive experience he's having. It's very reassuing to know that he's happy with the decision that he's made!!</p>
<p>I had no KP grads on my ship. In fact, while they didn't hate my sea partner and I for being KPers they did say they did not like USMMA grads because of the arrogant/prick/know it all nature that they have run into. I believe it knowing some people here. That being said, my sea partner and I showed we weren't like that, that we didn't know anything, and wanted to learn, we got along great with the crew. I didn't mind sailing with them at all, almost all of the engineers were hawsepipers (come up through the ranks) while only one guy was an 05 grad of mass and he did one helluva job. The mates/captain were from SUNY and Mass.</p>
<p>Supermansmom , when the kids go out to sea, they have to complete their school work on their own out there. Sometimes with the help of the crew, sometimes not. The projects are in sections. They take alot of books & materials. About 50 lbs. worth. Son has to keep a daily journal, do navigation II, Cargo Ops, Ship Structure, about 4 others I can't recall, & a humanities project. Then a two week Internship to top of the thing. The kids work the ship so finding time to kick out this project is a must because its do or die. This is the short explanation. I hope others will expand on the topic.</p>
<p>I'll do my best. I'm here for the next two weeks in shipyard so basically I just am sitting here in China during sea year on the best ship I could have imagined.</p>
<p>Just got an email from our son, his ship passed the Equator two days ago and he is grown from a "pollywog" to a "Shellback". This is a time honored tradition when a sailor or seaman crosses the equator for the first time. He said that they were delayed for a few days due to poor weather. He is bound to South Africa with US food aid. Great adventures await.</p>
<p>No not in Shanghai yet. Will be there in a couple of weeks. We are just up in Dalian on the RJ Pfieffer and will work our way down China when we get out of here around the 18th.</p>
<p>but I don't know what some of the abbreviations stand for:</p>
<p>such as "SOA" and "wind from"</p>
<p>here are my guesses:
SOA "speed over ...." not sure what it is over???</p>
<p>And wind from "insert number".... a degree from North, such as 120, would be East SE, or 30 degrees below East, assuming 0 in North, 90 is East, 180 is South, 270 is West.</p>