Saturday, January 8th

Good afternoon everyone,

Today the deck and engine cadets have been preparing for the start of our trip tomorrow by taking care of mantinance and making sure our vessel is in ship shape. The atmosphere on board can be described as a controlled eagerness to set sail as the last semesters hard work is finally bearing its fruits. This morning the 4/c cadets finished thier along side meetings, and are spending the afternoon doing a rigorus cleaning of the Kennedy by sweeping the decks and polishing the rails. This mornig we awoke to a slight dusting of snow on the ship, one more reason to look forward to warmer climates. On Thursday and Friday evening liberty was granted to all aboard the Kennedy. Division one and two on Thursday, division three and four on Friday. This liberty is given to the cadets to stretch thier legs, perhaps have a last meal at home, and to get any items that they relized they need after spending a few nights sleeping on board.

1/c Nicholas Lauria and 3/c Joshua Lamm
FTV Coordinators

Captain's Blog 1/6/11

It has been a few days since I last posted – and there are about a million reasons why – well, actually about 697. On Monday we registered the remaining 520 cadets, and brought our full crew together. We now number 697 people – all needing paperwork signed, check on passports, issue billet cards, and feed them three times per day. To do this, we unloaded seven tractor-trailer trucks on Tuesday and Wednesday, then hoisted the provisions aboard and lowered them down into the lower decks for storage.  This effort is the focus the first few days, but today we enter into our most important aspect of the alongside period for the sea term – safety management!

                The ship’s safety management system begins with all cadets and crew being trained and involved in safety related equipment and procedures. All our cadets and licensed crew are trained in the elements of basic safety as a matter of curriculum or documentation. But the unlicensed crews are not, so we must get them involved.  After that, everyone is briefed in the goals of the safety management for the sea term, and how we will bring them into compliance over the next five days. Today’s time will be divided as we provide class specific briefings on programs, but also conducting fire and security drills, as well as abandon ship drills.

                Today will be a long one – where we will drill into the late afternoon, testing everyone’s understanding of what to do in an emergency, and then how to fulfill the proper firefighting requirements, security actions, and finally the steps to effectively abandon ship.

Ports of Call!

The cadets and crew are looking forward to tying up in three tropical ports. These will include Vera Cruz, Mexico; Bridgetown, Barbados; and San Juan, Puerto Rico respectfully. Each port will include many historical and beautiful sites to see, people to meet, and fun times to be had.

Vera Cruz, Mexico is a port city in the central part of Mexico. It is the oldest and largest port in Mexico. The port includes excellent beaches with calm water ideal for tourists to enjoy scuba diving, snorkeling, and other aquatic sports. One of the sites to see in Vera Cruz will be Fort San Juan de Ulua. The fort was used in 1582 to protect the port from pirates. During the 19th the fort was converted to a military prison.

Bridgetown is the largest city and the capital of the island of Barbados. The English first landed their in 1628. Barbados soon became the most important possession of the British in the New World due to its easterly position in the Caribbean. A very historical site to visit will be the National Heroes Square. There is a statue in the square that was built in 1813 to commemorate Admiral Lord Nelson and the British Royal Navy's victory in the Battle of Trafalgar.

San Juan is the capital city of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is one of the United States territories in the Caribbean. Founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, it was originally named "Ciudad de Puerto Rico" which translates as Rich Port City. There are sixteen colleges on the island of Puerto Rico ranging from Universities to Technical Schools.

You may send mail to any of the cadets in every port. Remember that mail must be sent at least ten days prior to the intended arrival of the ship in the port. Also no packages will be accepted by the ship. Addresses for the ports may be found under the Letter from the Admiral link under mailing instructions.

Yesterdays answers can be found under this link: ANSWERS!!

Today's Questions:

1) What is the latitude and longitude of Vera Cruz, Mexico.

2) How many nautical miles away from the equator is Vera Cruz, based off of the latitude from question 1? (Hints: 1 nautical mile = 1 minute of latitude, and 60 minutes of latitude = 1 degree of latitude)

3) When was the Battle of Trafalgar and who was involved?

4) What is the difference between the time zones in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Vera Cruz, Mexico?

-1/c Nicholas Lauria and 3/c Joshua Lamm

FTV Coordinators

Nicholas.lauria@maritime.edu

joshua.lamm@maritime.edu

Inside the Ship!

Just about anyone can drive up to the T.S. Kennedy and look at the exterior. It is the cadets and staff that are going on sea term this year that have the pleasure of calling the ship home and experiencing the life at sea. Inside the ship, there is an assortment of different spaces available: a mess deck, cadet laundry, berthing for all of the cadets, library, gym, sick bay, classrooms, ship's store, barbershop and a galley. Many cadets like to hang out in the common areas of the ship such as; the seatorium, fantail, forward boat deck, and helo deck.

The ship is a network of decks and space. Quite often, one will find a freshman wandering around looking for the right destination or for someone who can point them in the right direction. The schematics are hard to get used to at first, but within a few short days everyone knows them like the back of their hand.

Check out the Deck Plans in the link column on the right or by CLICKING HERE!!

Todays Questions: Use the Deck Plans to answer todays questions.

1) Name the 8 decks of the T.S. Kennedy?

2) What is the length overall of the T.S. Kennedy in meters? (Hint: 1 meter= 3.281 feet)

3) What deck can you find the Quarterdeck on?

4) How many lifeboats does the T.S. Kennedy have?

5) How many people in total can the lifeboats on the T.S. Kennedy hold?

6) When and where was the T.S. Kennedy originally built?

7) If the T.S. Kennedy travels at maximum speed for 2 days, how many nautical miles has the ship gone? (Hint: Distance= Speed x Time)

8) Research Question: If there are no power lines at sea, how would the T.S. Kennedy make its electricity?

Answers will be posted in tomorrows FTV blog!!

We were pleased to host the second and last group from Hanson Middle School today. The cadets who were around these students the past two days were very impressed with their knowledge and maturity during the tours.

Until Tomorrow,

1/Nicholas Lauria and 3/c Joshua Lamm

FTV Coordinators

Nicholas.lauria@maritime.edu

Joshua.lamm@maritime.edu

Students Come to Learn About FTV

Today we had Hanson Middle School visit MMA to learn about FTV. Their your started off with a presentation by Admiral Richard Gurnon on navigation and the purpose of FTV. After meeting Adm. Gurnon they went off in groups to various parts of the campus to learn about what was going on and the preparations for sea term. Some of their stops included the bridge simulator, ship tour, emergency management simulator, and in the seamanship lab the students learned a few knots. Not only did the middle school students from Hanson, MA have a great time at MMA but we really enjoyed meeting all of them. It is great to get to know the students that will be reading our blog. We hope to keep in touch with them as we head out to sea and any others that are following our voyage.

-1/c Nicholas Lauria and 3/c Joshua Lamm

FTV Coordinators

nicholas.lauria@maritime.edu
joshua.lamm@maritime.edu

Welcome to Follow the Voyage

Welcome to Follow the Voyage 2011. Unfortunately due to medical reasons our previous FTV Coordinator will not be able to go on this years cruise. I am 3/c Joshua Lamm and joining me will be my shipmate 1/c Nicholas Lauria. Nicholas and I will be this years Follow the Voyage Coordinators.

I am a sophomore Marine Transportation student originally from North Andover, MA. Recently I was the Assistant to the Director of Orientation and managed the blog online for Orientaton 2011. During the past semester I was a cadet blogger in which I blogged about daily life as a cadet at MMA. Check it out here! I chose MMA for the regiment and of course the sea.

1/c Nicholas Lauria from Peabody, MA is Marine Safety and Environmental Protection student. He decided to come to MMA after hearing his dad's stories as a yacht captain. Originally he was interested in Marine Transportation, but always had a passion for the science studies. After his freshmen sea term he left behind his dreams of becoming a ship captain and decided to pursue a more science based safety and environmental major. As a FTV coordinator he looks forward to keeping the MMA community in touch with their loved ones as they embark on this training journey.

Our goal for FTV is to teach Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to school groups that will be following our blog. These STEM topics will be brought upon in a fun way to help students learn about our travels at sea as well each of the exotic ports we stop at. To incorporate STEM in a exciting way we will be posting daily photos, questions, and lessons. The FTV blog will also include cadets contributing about the daily life aboard the T.S Kennedy.

Don't forget that our ship will be making port in Vera Cruz, Mexico; Bridgetown, Barbados; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Nicholas and I will blog from port and make sure that all of those who are following our voyage will feel like they are right there with us.

Until Next Time,

1/c Nicholas Lauria and 3/c Joshua Lamm

FTV Coordinators

nicholas.lauria@maritime.edu

joshua.lamm@maritime.edu

Ahoy!

The T/V Kennedy will soon be underway. I thought it might be great to take a look at a map for the voyage. Enjoy! Much more to follow.

Fair Winds and Following Seas,

Rhonda

Captain's Blog 1/2/11

Today is the first full workday for the 80 cadet officers that reported yesterday. By now they have stowed all their gear, have been given work assignments, and are turning to. These early arrival cadets have to cope with some challenges – since we are just now building steam pressure after yesterday’s light off, they had to walk over to the dorms to get a hot shower – and their meals have been very limited to cold sandwiches. But today they had a hot breakfast, and I am told the hot water should start running by noon.

We have nearly a full staff of crew and officers working – about 15 engineers, 12 mates and Comcad duty officers, and nearly forty crewmembers. Every department is making sure that we are all ready to receive the full cadet complement which will arrive starting at 0800 tomorrow.