After probably the longest period that I will have on land for a long time I am off to sea in 3 days time!

I am due to join P&O Arcadia on the 5th July in Southampton.   Hopefully the shock won’t induce sea sickness!

I am very excited, hopefully the majority of this trip will be doing the cool bridge work, instead of getting dirty!

Since new year I have been completing the final units of study, maritime law, manoeuvring, Emergency Response Organisations, Maritime Engineering.

Additionally I have learnt morse (or attemped) for my signals exam which you must pass in order to gain a OOW certificate of competency.

 Now there is only two months left of college – and this blog will then start to get more interesting!!!

 Don’t miss the P&O Ventura sailing up the Solent this Sunday 6/04/2008! See http://www.pocruises.com/pocruising/ventura-arrival.aspx for info!

I would like to wish visitors to this web blog a Happy New Yr !

What a yr 2007 has been – I hope 2008 can be matched!!!

Any new yrs resolutions ? I have some , learn a language fluently , plus my Rule of the Road.

If you become a deck officer, these are vital ! However unless you are good at remembering they can be tricky !!

Sorry it has been so long since the last post. I have now been on land for some time, and the second half of my college studies include Passage Planning, Meteorology , Stability,  Cargo Operations! Its quite cool being on land, the benefits of a lie in, with a cup of tea and a fry up on Sunday, not to mention fast internet! However studying at Warsash allures you ! Watching the container vessels and cruise ship passing down the Solent – makes me want to be at sea again!!!!

On the 30th November, I was formally intiated into the Honourable Company for Master Mariners in London, there HQ being the HQS Wellington, a old Sloop class vessel moored on the Thames! Membership as a apprentice or junior associate is free when in a cadetship! Its well worth considering joining, see the link to the right of this page!

December the 10th 2007, I was very lucky to be one of the deck cadets asked to assist with the Queen Victoria naming ceremony!! Click on view all images too see the pics!!!

 What a special day! I was tasked with all sorts of jobs, from meeting Lord Sterling and carrying his luggage to his stateroom, to showing Carole Vorderman to her seat ! The ship has a beautiful interior with some interesting designs. There is a lot of Cunard history incorporated into the design. I wonder if she will become the next QE2 despite some of the controverseys surrounding her!

Here a some pics of the bridge of Sapphire Princess! You can see how big the span is! We used an intercom to talk to the central consol from the wings! The other pic shows you the telegraphs.

Damm, this is my final week! Time has gone so fast on this beautiful ship!

After completing the lighting project, I was taken on to do two more projects.

One involved writing the evacuation plan for the Marine Evacuation System (MES). On the cruise ship most of the crew are evacuated by the MES- this is a fast system. What the MES is effectively four large rafts which deploy and inflate automatically over the ships side, two shafts are also deployed vertically which allow the crew to safely drop down. Quite a hard project, but after drawing diagrams, observing drills and questioning many people I got it written up, and now it has been sent to the office for approval into the ships emergency plan.

Second Project – All the galleys onboard have vents. As part of the ships fire fighting strategy these are cleaned on a monthly basis, by opening them up and degreasing! Not a nice job! However some additional vents were found and not covered by the initial plans, my job was to update these!

 After completing these plans I have been on day work, observing more mooring rope inspections, varnishing taff rails, polishing boats, chipping and painting!

Of  fun I was asked to pretend to die! There was a mystery murder group who needed an person to fake being poisioned ! I had to put on a fake mustash and cap, go to the bar at the night club, have a few drinks , then walk over to the middle at a set time . I then started coughing and sneezing covering myself in blood – with some fake stuff in my pocket,after staggering around  I eventually collapsed and died.

The things you get asked to do! Though I did get $50 for this!! Tonight is the last welcome aboard party, I have several reports to finish so I think this week is going to go fast!

After doing the 4 -8  watch for a couple of days , the captain took the me off watch to complete a lighting project! Myself and the new cadet had to find out how all the external lighting was controlled, and put proposals for any lights that we thought could be switched off to save power. Quite interesting – we found some areas that where not controlled by the bridge but most were!

Just prior to transiting the Seymour narrows, I saw a group of Dolphins ! I made an announcement, without realising the captain was on the bridge. He walked over to check if anyone was looking on the bridge wing – and there was hundreds of people ! Said to me ‘You’ve just made 300 people happy – doesn’t that make you feel good’!! I did feel really cool!

Had great fun in College Fjord, the captain put us out in the Fast Rescue craft. He told the passengers that we were going to collect some ice! I was then put on a radio link, so I was speaking to the Captain and the passengers introducing the crew etc! Quite scarey when I saw everybody watching – told them to wave and they all did! After that the ship proceeded closer to the main glacier, as she began to turn we went out the other way and the 2^nd Officer got changed into a bear suit!  The captain radioed through asking our progress -  I them told him a bear had climbed onboard and was now asleep , what should we do Captain (this was broadcast over the pax decks) He told us to return to the ship were he would have medics to tranquilise this bear, but to put nets over it ! As we got closer – you could hear some screams from passengers thinking that it was real!!  On the signal, I then started to prod the bear (2/0)  with a stick! Who then started to pretend to attack me and the photog! After going round both sides of the ship we then gave the game away and drove round waving at everyone !  It was great – the pax loved it ! I was so pleased that I was allowed to be the spokesperson !

Arrived in Ketchikan this morning, Last night on watch was quite interesting. Saw a drifting speed boat, with two of the twin outboards in the water. Called up the coastguard to report, and a investigation was started. The main concern was that due to its construction, you could not pick it out on the radar. The Canadian coast guard, found the vessel and noticed that it was a tender for another vessel. This  vessel was not in port, but when a pan pan was put out, they reported in safe! I was also very pleased as I did an azimuth of the sun and got the answer right! This allows you to measure the gyro error, by observing the angle of the sun, and then making calculations you get the true bearing ! It was good to do something in Practice! I am hoping for a clear night so I can do a celestial fix!