Day 4: At Sea

Hello Again,

I write this a day later because I feel asleep at 1845! Today, was a little more interesting. Our group of eight followed the Cheif Mate into a ballast tank and we were fixing a leaky/stuck valve. I had fun, alot of standing around but fun to be down in the tanks of the ship! Not much new today, food was good and as I said I fell asleep really early on accident and ended up sleeping clear through to the morning...all in all getting about 13 hours of sleep what with another time change backwards and all. Still cloudy and rainy, the seas have let up quite a bit and just waiting for the good ole sun.

Love,

V/R,

CDT Jonathan Anderson
Squad Leader, Division 6 MT
Corps of Cadets
California Maritime Academy

Day 3: At Sea

Ahoy!

Well we must be getting near the 45th parallel as the rains have caught up with us! It has been pouring all day, combined with 20knots of wind, low visibility and 10-12foot following seas, it has been a ROUGH day! We set our clocks back an hour at 2400 last night as we crossed into the +7 time zone, so I got somewhere around 10 hours of sleep last night :) .

Today we spent the morning setting up a scaffolding on the forward house for painting...let me tell you, setting up scaffold in the pouring rain with a 20 knot wind is NOT fun! After a delightful lunch we had formation inside and then continued with putting a newly sewn cover on the boat, we ended early and had a clean sweep down of the ship at 1600. Dinner was Cinco de Mayo themed and was delicious! Following dinner I finally got to the gym and attempted to run on the treadmill only to realize that heavy seas are no fun when you are trying to run. Laundry in the dryer as I type and then it's off to bed...a relatively easy day with some good laughs...finally! Enjoying cruise so far, more day work tomorrow!

Love,

V/R,

CDT Jonathan Anderson
Squad Leader, Division 6 MT
Corps of Cadets
California Maritime Academy

Day 2: At Sea

Hello All,

Day 2: At Sea

Another very long day! Awoke at 0530 to report at the galley at 0600 for CC duty (compartment cleaner) Basically I was in the "scullery" (dishwasher station) for all three meals! It was a real pain and I do not want to do it again. We seperate our trash on board and we threw all the cardboard and paper/food waste overboard, which was a really weird feeling just dumping all this into the sea but apparently it goes away. Aside from just cleaning all day I slept for 90 mins in the afternoon and relaxed on deck a bit. The wind has died down and the temp is up, still expereincing about 15-20 foot swells,so lots of kids are sick still. I am doing fine however and am sleeping like a baby. It's back to daywork tomorrow, and hopefully some time for the gym!

V/R,

CDT Jonathan Anderson
Squad Leader, Division 6 MT
Corps of Cadets
California Maritime Academy

1st Day At Sea!

Hello All,

Well I just finished my first day at sea! We are currently about 60 miles offshore and running north-west towards the 45th parallel to make a circle track to Korea. It is VERY windy 40-60 knot gusts with upwards of 90 knots expected tonight as we sail through a gail force storm. A lot of kids are getting seasick, luckily I have been able to not get sick and am starting to get used to the rolling. The water is really blue, bluer than I have ever would of expected. I am excited for the stars tonight as it should be very dark. Yesterday we spent the day on SF Bay and trained, I was fortunate enough to go on a brand new HUGE tugboat to the pier to tie up the ship! (I might want to be a mate on a tug) We sailed under the Golden Gate about 0900 this morning and am relieved to be out and headed to the far east, you can still see the faint shadow of mountains from here but that should slowly disappear. I am on Day work this whole week and am doing various jobs around the ship, today I spent most of the time cleaning out the Chief Mates office and securing items to the deck, oh and scrubbing toilets. So far the food is decent, and I have found time to be in the gym in the evenings. Tomorrow Andrew and I are on CC duty which involves washing dishes and cleaning the galley/mess deck for all three meals. The first few days have been pretty exhausting and now that we are in routines it should get more enjoyable. Pictures are hard top upload and probably will have to wait until home to share, sorry. Well I am off to the gym, just done with dinner. Love You All and have a good night!

V/R,

CDT Jonathan Anderson
Squad Leader, Division 6 MT
Corps of Cadets
California Maritime Academy

Pre-Cruise Post!

Hello All,

Well our cruise this summer aboard the Training Ship Golden Bear will be going to: Busan, South Korea; Kobe, Japan; Guam; Saipan; Wake Island; and end in Hawaii.

We set sail on May 2nd and changeout in Hawaii on June 29th.

You can follow my voyage here on my blog, I will try and update often at least once a week. Pictures might be hard to come by because we don't have enough bandwidth on the ships satellite. (only 200k per message.)

If you would like to contact me I can be reached at : janderson@csum.edu which I will check everyday.

Also, you can use the school's Follow-The-Voyage website found at http://www.cma-virtualftv.org/ to see pictures and news from aboard the ship, also follow us live using google earth.

Well wish me luck and stay in touch!

Jonathan Anderson

Post-Thanksgiving and Finals Week!

Hello All,

It has been a while since an update, sorry, not much new going on.

Recently I have been working on J-22 sailboats, we have been replacing the trimming hardware and re-fiberglassing the cabin tops as well as painting down below. A lot of work for not a lot of money, the boats went to race this weekend and I hopefully don't have to work on them for a long time.

I haven't been doing any racing recently, due to the lack of races (and its freaking cold) I have been focsuing on weight loss, the LT in charge of the Coast Guard porgram told me I had to lose 50 lbs (be below 200) by the end of the school year. It is a challenge but one that I should be able to do, currently weighing in at 234.6 I am well on my way.

It was nice to go home over the break and see family and friends, I was able to sleep in my most comfortable bed and spend time with demon dog...haha. I did get sick when I was in WA and it has carried over to CA, its almost gone thankfully, with just a sniffle or two here and there.

We move into finals "week" (more like finals month) starting on Monday, currently I feel pretty good about most of the classes, a lot of studying will be done this next few weeks!! Some classes end neext week so that should free up plenty of time to study.

We move out of this retched ship on the 22nd and move on to real buildings beginning of the year. I am so excited and ready for a new room and roommate.

Wish me luck (skill) over the next few weeks and I look forward to writing a post at the end of the semester highlighting all I have done/expirenced this year.

Respectfully,

Jon Anderson

Exercise, Coast Guard, and TESTS!

Ahoy!

Well the weeks definitely go by fast here don't they? You wouldn't know...unless you came to visit (hint hint.)

I have been going to the gym and lifting and running nearly daily, trying to eat light healthy meals, and its paying off. I ran the 1.5 mile in 14:20, so a little over the 12:51 requirement, but another month and I should be good. Everything is looking up for the Coast Guard, as long as I keep my grades in line applying in June should be seamless.

Lots of tests coming up in my classes, I have already taken a few and they are getting harder. The classes that I originally had said you be easy A's may take some more studying than I thought.

This weekend is Day on the Bay and Homecoming weekend, so we are taking the ship out to San Fran on Sunday and watching the Blue Angels and looking at all the other ships out there, there will be a band and good food on board as well as alumni.

On Saturday I get to take interested alum or parents out on the J22 sailboats, it should be fun.

You can still send me things: 1 morrow cove #15 Vallejo ca 94590. It's always nice to get something in the mail!

Well until next time!

Jon