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Two Finger posted:How long do you have left? 2 months until I can make the pilgrimage to Toledo to write.
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Oct 18, 2013 15:16
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 05:37 |
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Dominic R. posted:
They're bullshitting you. First thing to remember about CMA admin is that they are consistent bullshitters and will straight up lie to your face. Having all your GE done will make your life easier, but the quickest you can get out of there is 3 years, and that's if everything goes right. Mess up in a prereq class and you can get set back a whole year. The 3 year thing is because of the training cruises, which are all prereqs for the next year of classes and have plenty of prereqs themselves. Most people who end up going an extra year at CMA either fail a prereq or fail cruise itself, though you really have to be a fuckup to do that. People still manage it though. You've got a freshman and a senior cruise on the training ship, and then a commercial cruise on an actual merchant vessel in-between. They're usually 2-3 months each. Still, for all that once you get out you can make a huge pile of boat money and pay off any debt you have within a few voyages. An engineer who graduated with me and joined the same union got on a freighter for 6 months... when he got off he payed off all his loans in one go and bought a Ducati sportbike. Then he shipped again a month later to start saving money. I have friends who have already been able to finance homes at 23 a year after they graduated. The money really makes up for all the bullshit we've got to put up with. I'm just a deck alumni though, so if you want more info about the engineering side I can put you in touch with an engineering alum or a cadet I know who's still trying to graduate. Polikarpov fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Oct 24, 2013 |
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Oct 24, 2013 08:10
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You're talking about training cruises plural, does CMA do more than one summer on the training ship?
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Oct 24, 2013 08:26
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If you're in a license major (Marine Transportation and Marine Engineering Technology) you do a freshman training cruise, commercial cruise and senior training cruise. Three summers, 6 months sea-time minimum. The non-licensed engineering majors (Mechanical Engineering and Facilities Engineering) do a single training cruise. And then there are the Global Studies and Maritime Affairs majors and the Maritime Business majors, who were so useless on their single cruise that they were exiled to doing awesome "cultural" trips of Europe and poo poo like that. Bastards. The administration continues to do genius things like admit too many license-track cadets and try to cut back to one cruise a year to save on gas money. From what I've heard the quality of training is slipping because there just aren't enough opportunities to get real experience. Though you make up for a lot of that on commercial cruise, its like a breath of fresh air before you go back to the Carquinez Mental Asylum for another couple years of bullshit.
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Oct 24, 2013 09:35
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Ok, that makes sense, we do about 2 months training ship after first year, then a 2 month and a 3 month commercial cruise. Engineering majors get steam and diesel cruises so that we have our steam experience, deck gets Lakes and oceans to make sure they both get an oceans license and Lakes pilotage (the training ship cruise is mostly Lakes pilotage stuff too).
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Oct 24, 2013 10:10
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As a stupid European its such a mind gently caress that they operate big ships on the Great Lakes. But then I realised the relaitve size of the Lakes
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Oct 24, 2013 11:43
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Trench_Rat posted:As a stupid European its such a mind gently caress that they operate big ships on the Great Lakes. But then I realised the relaitve size of the Lakes Yeah they're not that big when you're driving a 220m x 23m ship through them at 8.08m draft  It's the rivers and canals that are touchy, I'll try to find pictures later today. Long story short, the Welland canal locks you have about a foot and a half on each side of the boat, and in the Rock Cut you have what... 3 inches of UKC? Middle of the lake is awesome though, you can lose sight of the shore for a few watches on Superior. Even when it's not foggy.
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Oct 24, 2013 12:05
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Trench_Rat posted:As a stupid European its such a mind gently caress that they operate big ships on the Great Lakes. But then I realised the relaitve size of the Lakes Its fun sometimes to remind people of how dang big 'murrica is. I mean, its further from Los Angeles to New York than it is from Madrid to Moscow by a few hundred miles. I'd like to transit the lakes sometime, but not work there. Seems too high stress with all those tight-rear end canals. Also the climate would probably freeze my Californian rear end solid.
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Oct 24, 2013 21:16
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You could always go spend some time east of PSC. You won't sweat under 110F. It's been 80F here and I almost turned the heat on.
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Oct 25, 2013 01:19
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Azipod posted:They're bullshitting you. First thing to remember about CMA admin is that they are consistent bullshitters and will straight up lie to your face. Thanks, I will send you a PM in a bit At the point I just got to figure out if I am mentally ready to do the Carquinez Mental Asylum for 3-4 years or start making money earlier, and what lifestyle I am looking for. The nearest I can start taking classes for the CMA would be in the fall of next year. *EDIT: Ah gently caress the PM'ing wont work. Any other way I can contact you?* hehehewwwwwww fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 21:24
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Dominic R. posted:Thanks, I will send you a PM in a bit If you think you are going to do it for an extended period of time go to school. Edison Chouest Cpt and C/E taken hostage off Nigeria. Somalia has settled down for the most part and the bored security team people all wanted work on the west coast of Africa cause its really started to heat up. Hope no one is over there now.
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Oct 25, 2013 22:31
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is there a special liscense to sail on the Lakes? edit: other than STCW I assume that only Canadian and US flagged vessels sail on the Lakes
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Oct 26, 2013 15:03
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Nah, you get plenty of foreign vessels in and out of the lakes through the seaway. Someone onboard needs to have a pilotage license for the area. Canadian and American mates and masters usually all or almost all have them, otherwise you just get pilots. Mid lake piloting best piloting. It's not that tight, really. My first trip up the lakes I was on a foreign boat, with a foreign crew, and yes it did feel stressfull because everybody was stressed. On a lake boat... Heh. I've had more than one captain read the papers while they were piloting; between the old man and the wheelsman they have a few thousand cumulative trips, it's second nature to everyone, including the mate who's keeping an eye on the radar while he does logs and traffic. You end up being up and down the same drat places once or twice a week, it gets to the point where you notice when people paint their houses and whatnot. You get a pretty good appreciation for bank effect, passing interaction and squat pretty fast. FrozenVent fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 16:28
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FrozenVent posted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO1_IkUHmmY edit: oh god https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-PiKZ3Ikig
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Oct 27, 2013 10:37
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For the record, that was the bridge hitting the ship, not the other way around.
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Oct 27, 2013 13:38
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Is there a way to get over sea sickness? Have you ever had any coworkers that would get seasick every voyage?
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Oct 28, 2013 09:13
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VeggieSmuggler posted:Is there a way to get over sea sickness? Have you ever had any coworkers that would get seasick every voyage? Eventually you learn to live with it, or get over it. There's a specific type of motion that will get me sick every time (Pitching at low speed, or any combination of pitching and jerky surging) but I know how to tell in advance; I get clammy, I get a specific kind of headache, I pop a gravol and I'm fine. Some guys get seasick more than others, but I've never seen someone get seasick every single trip. God that'd suck.
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Oct 28, 2013 14:32
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quote:I am pleased to announce that Crowley will sponsor another scholarship with AMO. This scholarship will be similar to the one announced by AMO this past September. The individual selected will receive a stipend of $150/ month for his/ her 3rd year and $200/ month for his/ her 4th year. The person who is selected for the Crowley scholarship must commit to sailing onboard a Crowley tank ship for at least three years after graduation. This brings the total number of AMO sponsored scholarships to four: two deck (with pilotage); one engine; and the Crowley scholarship. We will pass the details as we receive them.
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Nov 1, 2013 21:45
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Ugh, a three years commitment. Good if you like stability and you're convinced you're not signing up with a bunch of jerks I guess.
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Nov 1, 2013 21:50
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VeggieSmuggler posted:Is there a way to get over sea sickness? Have you ever had any coworkers that would get seasick every voyage? I get seasick. OSG in the Gulf of Alaska during winter was the worst but even the permanent 1st and 2nd were using every trick they had to not get seasick so I didn't feel bad at all. Just try and throw up in the bilges if you need to, it makes the clean up easier. I also was sick on the Wisconsin but I think that was food poisoning. Some ships just have a terrible roll especially when the waves hit them just right that gets to me. Generally not on the bigger ships though. You just have to tough it out and get through it just like the rest of the trip. Last I checked, Crowley is pretty low paying, probably why they are trying to snag cadets before they get anywhere. That said, MEBA has a Crowley box boat in the Baltic running military cargo around. The pay is not great but you are in port all the time and they were still on watch since they hadn't gotten cleared for UMS. That was from last spring though and it is supposed to go away since we are pretty much pulled out of the gulf. Edit: I get the same thing as FrozenVent basically. I stay away from ships that really get me seasick, generally small tankers. lightpole fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Nov 2, 2013 |
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Nov 2, 2013 01:50
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lightpole posted:I get seasick. OSG in the Gulf of Alaska during winter was the worst but even the permanent 1st and 2nd were using every trick they had to not get seasick so I didn't feel bad at all. Just try and throw up in the bilges if you need to, it makes the clean up easier. I also was sick on the Wisconsin but I think that was food poisoning. Some ships just have a terrible roll especially when the waves hit them just right that gets to me. Generally not on the bigger ships though. You just have to tough it out and get through it just like the rest of the trip. Ran into a bitch of a storm in the North Sea once. Like I plotted our position on the surface analysis radio fax (  ) and we were in the O in STORM. With a full load of steel coils, so she was stiff as gently caress.I was sick, not working, for three days (Cadet life yo). The 2nd mate'd drag me out to try and eat food once in a while, but since the bosun wasn't a good cook... Oh yeah, the cook was sick. So was the steward. So were... Well, at some point, the boat was being run by the second mate, the chief and third engineers, the bosun, two ABs and the Captain's wife. Thank loving God that wasn't the trip where the cargo lashing let go.
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Nov 2, 2013 02:54
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FrozenVent posted:, the boat was being run by the third engineer 
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Nov 2, 2013 05:19
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Yeah, the chief and 1st on the Wisconsin were talking about Nor'easters they hit like that. It did not sound like fun. I don't really eat much anyways when I'm seasick so if the cook is sick it isn't a big deal to me. If I'm seasick I will show and work usually the whole day and just tough it out and throw up in the bilge but Im not moving as fast and nearly as able. I can still get anything major done though. Its not like anyone else is more able in those situations so you just have to suck it up and take care of it. I've never actually laid up in bed when I've been on a ship, it just doesn't feel right. I will say that being sea sick is about the worst thing and I will do just about anything to avoid it including not going out to sea if necessary.
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Nov 2, 2013 07:14
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I've always worked my watches when I was seasick as a mate or deckhand, including a few times where I just walked around the bridge with a bucket (puking off the bridge wing is Ill advised) That time I was jus a cadet so the mate sent me to bed and to be honest I've never been so seasick before or since. It wasn't just queasy, it was my entire body freaking the gently caress out. I was seriously considering killing myself. As for the rest of the guys, I don't know what happened as I wasn't exactly lucid for those three days. Seriously the sickest I've ever been; I had a hard time keeping water down. In my defense, that was the worst weather anyone on board had ever seen, and the captain kind of hinted afterward that he wasn't sure we'd make it. We're talking green water over the hatches and cabin portholes on the poop deck leaking, 70+ knots of wind; never seen anything like it since.
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Nov 2, 2013 07:27
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I hate leaving land.
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Nov 2, 2013 09:37
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lightpole posted:I hate leaving land. Land life forever.
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Nov 2, 2013 12:16
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I don't live near a maritime academy and have zero experience. To get hired as an os or wiper are there any classes besides the safety ones that would make me a more "competitive" candidate? There's a school in San Diego I can do the safety classes at, but when looking through their other classes, I don't know what would be most useful considering their costs.
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Nov 3, 2013 22:10
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OS / Wipers are union hires, so unless it's vastly different from Canada all they take into account is whether or not you meet the mandatory minimums to work onboard. Here that would be STCW and medical certificate, not sure what the terms are in the states. There's not really any competitiveness after that, it's who got there first and seniority. For officers and engineers here, having a bigger ticket will make you more competitive if two people happen to be interested in the same job at once and there's no seniority issues, but I've never had that happen.
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Nov 3, 2013 22:39
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dkj posted:I don't live near a maritime academy and have zero experience. What he said. What are you looking for and why? If you want to actually make money or go to sea for any length of time the academy option is almost always the correct way to go even if you have to sit on a Vallejo street corner and turn tricks in between classes at CMA to pay for it. You would just be doing e same thing on a ship anyways for less money.
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Nov 3, 2013 23:09
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Like pretty much every cadet ever I am terrible at electricity (it is also the worst-taught subject at our school by miles and miles, they need a new instructor here for those classes, BADLY). Anyway I was reading the industrial electricity thread and was wondering, how much of the fancy electrical PPE and safety practices have you guys seen in the wild? What about the higher voltage equipment? Two of the ships I was on had nothing much more complicated than the usual 450 3-phase motors and controllers (except for the rectifiers for the DC main propulsion motors on the training ship which I think took off a 600V bus that was immediately stepped down to 450 before being used for anything else), but the container ship had a 6.6kV cold iron system in its own room that was kind of intimidating to those of us who didn't work with it or know much about it.
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Nov 3, 2013 23:10
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When wipers turn tricks, do they have to cut the chief in? Or is it the 2nd doing all the pimping?
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Nov 3, 2013 23:11
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shovelbum posted:Like pretty much every cadet ever I am terrible at electricity (it is also the worst-taught subject at our school by miles and miles, they need a new instructor here for those classes, BADLY). Anyway I was reading the industrial electricity thread and was wondering, how much of the fancy electrical PPE and safety practices have you guys seen in the wild? What about the higher voltage equipment? Just go to an MFU hall and take an electricians or reefers job and you will figure it all out. Thrusters are usually the biggest thing on most ships. You will usually only run into the big stuff on a diesel electric plant otherwise. The environment shipboard is a lot different from shoreside anyways mostly due to (lack of) OSHA. Just be sure you know how to use a multimeter and how to read and troubleshoot a control circuit and its diagram.
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Nov 4, 2013 04:54
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FrozenVent posted:When wipers turn tricks, do they have to cut the chief in? Or is it the 2nd doing all the pimping? Sleep with the chief or 1st for extra OT.
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Nov 4, 2013 04:55
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lightpole posted:Just be sure you know how to use a multimeter and how to read and troubleshoot a control circuit and its diagram. Alright, that's cool. I really wish we had an instructor who didn't spend 2/3 of the class time on DC motors and generators.
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Nov 4, 2013 05:33
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Yeah did they tell you no one uses them anymore before they started?
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Nov 4, 2013 05:37
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Studying, in depth, the workings, failures and use of obsolete technology is a crucial foundation of maritime learning; you should be ashamed of yourself for doubting the relevance of the curriculum. Go ask your classmates at the GREAT LAKES maritime academy how they feel about astronomy, I dare you. Or about LORAN. I bet they're still studying LORAN-C. I know I had to, back in like 2005. LORAN and Decca. I'm pretty sure I could start up and calibrate a Decca receiver, even eight years after taking the drat class. The class that I took in 2005. Wikipedia posted:The Decca Navigator System provided by the general lighthouse authorities ceased to operate at midnight on 31 March 2000. WE SPENT MORE TIME ON THAT drat THING THAN ON GPS. Wikipedia posted:Due to the success of the Global Positioning System the use of Omega declined during the 1990s, to a point where the cost of operating Omega could no longer be justified. Omega was shut down permanently 30 September 1997. Several of the towers were then soon demolished. Yeah that we kind of skimmed over. Wikipedia, LORAN-C posted:On 1 August 2010 the U.S. transmission of the Russian American signal was terminated,[2] and on 3 August 2010 all Canadian signals were shut down by the USCG and the CCG.[2][3] I actually did take a LORAN-C position one, just so I could say that I had taken a LORAN-C position once. But God, did we ever study the ever loving poo poo out of that system. Out of a sixty goddamn hour electronic navigation system class, we spent about four hours on GPS, two or three on ECDIS and maybe four on autopilots. The rest? RDF, DECCA and LORAN-C. gently caress that loving poo poo.
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Nov 4, 2013 05:49
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Welp, guess I'm going to Diego Garcia for 4 months now. Anyone been out there before? I've heard there's not much to do beyond drinking and snorkeling.
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Nov 4, 2013 06:27
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Life could be worse.
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Nov 4, 2013 06:36
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lightpole posted:Yeah did they tell you no one uses them anymore before they started? Yeah and that they'd largely been removed from the license exam, but that he already had the powerpoints and tests made.
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Nov 4, 2013 06:41
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 05:37 |
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shovelbum posted:Yeah and that they'd largely been removed from the license exam, but that he already had the powerpoints and tests made. Things in the maritime world change in this order: 1. The actual world 2. Technology 3. International conventions 4. Company procedures 5. National regulations 6. License exams 7. Geology 8. College tests Had a teacher once pull an exam so old one of the question was poo poo that wasn't even on the curriculum anymore (Positioning from three horizontal sextant angle,  ), that caused a shitstorm of epic proportion.Azipod posted:Welp, guess I'm going to Diego Garcia for 4 months now. Anyone been out there before? I've heard there's not much to do beyond drinking and snorkeling. Counterpoint: Dry lake boat from November to February. Or dry Canadian coast boat from November to February, that's got the added benefit of being colder and stormier. Also you get to go ashore maybe three hours once or twice a month.
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Nov 4, 2013 06:46
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