FTV 1/31/11

Sophomore cadets studying Marine Transportation are required to create a voyage plan as their project for Sea Term. A voyage plan is a lot more complicated than it sounds. In order to sail internationally, a voyage plan is required by the IMO. If you are sailing from a U.S. port to another U.S. port, a voyage plan is not required but it is still commonly used to ensure a safe trip. Sophomores have to pick one leg of our current Sea Term voyage and plan it out using nautical charts, informational publications, and the knowledge that they have acquired since freshman year.

Cadets are split up into groups of four or five in which they will pick a leg of the voyage to focus on. For example, if a group was to plan the voyage from Barbados to San Juan, they would need to look up both ports in the necessary publications. Some publications you would need to complete a voyage plan would be; tides and current tables, chart catalogs and Notice to Mariners. Two additional publications needed for a voyage are Sailing Directions and Coast Pilot.

These essentially do the same thing; you would use Sailing Directions for Barbados and Coast Pilot for Puerto Rico. In these two publications, mariners can find all of the port information needed such as; tides, currents, entrance buoys, pilot information, depths of water, channel information, regulations and any other important information a mariner would need to have in order to tie up in any port. There is a great deal that needs to be taken into account in order to complete this project and a massive amount of work and effort goes into it.

Last night's Mayhem in Mayaguez brought on epic battles as cadets competed against one another to be the best in their category. Winning the division battle was 4/C Tom Dindy from division three. Our Marine Transportation and Marine Engineering adjutants faced off as well. Bringing in the win was 1/c Jared Horey on the Marine Engineering side. Next up was the Cadet Chief Mate vs. the Cadet Chief Engineer.

This time, the Marine Transportation major was on the winning side as 1/C Rory O'Donnell rose up as champion against the Cadet Chief Engineer, 1/C Andrew Willard. Our main event featured the two biggest cadets on the ship, 3/C Steve Moore and 1/C Ronald Varrichione. Blow after blow each man stood strong, but in the end 1/C Varrichione was the last man standing. It was a fun filled night for everyone.

Questions:

• What does IMO stand for?
• What is the difference between Sailing Directions and Coast Pilot? (Hint: Sailing Directions would be used for Barbados and Mexico and Coast Pilot would be used for Puerto Rico and Buzzards Bay.)
• When making a voyage plan to enter a harbor, what type of scale should be used? (Hint: reference the blog for 1/29)