At least one third of what cadets do on board the Bear is day work, the nature of which can range from mopping to heavy maintenance.  Cadets on day work are conspicuous.  This morning, while I was enjoying a quiet cup of coffee, a band of them invaded the Ericsson classroom and promptly began ripping apart the ceiling.  According to chief electrician Mick Bowlin, these engineering cadets were installing a networking cable at the AV station in front of the room; Ericsson is the last remaining classroom on the ship with no Ethernet connection.  It sounded interesting enough to stick around and watch.

 [Mick Bowlin runs through the game plan]

The challenge was threading fifty feet of cable through a ceiling space overrun with vent ducts, piping, and lighting, while removing as few overhead panels as possible.  By using a sectioned stick that resembled a long tent pole, the task was made much easier  “The fish rod is twelve feet but you can extend it three more with your hand,” Bowlin told the cadets.  They pulled it off in just three panels with what first year cadet Gabby Duri described, using a 15-30% measure of sarcasm, as a “sense of accomplishment.” 

[3rd class cadet Gabrielle Duri spools ethernet cable]

Outside, Bill Lee was stuck on a ladder, power-grinding saltwater corrosion off of similar panels, just inside the main deck.  He was being careful not to cut through them.  “It’s a very dirty job,” he said, “and I don’t have the right tool.”  Lee was hoping for a tiger wheel instead of the wire wheel in front of him.   

Bill Lee grinds the ceiling]

At least he had electricity to help him.  On the aft crane, cadets Kim Navradszky, Ashley Binder, and Garrett Beshire were trapped removing paint from the cabin with only sandpaper at their disposal.  Then what? I asked.  “Then we paint it,” said Navradszky.  “It will probably take all day.”  I got out while I could. 

[Cadets Kim Navradszky, Ashley Binder, and Garrett Beshire are overjoyed to be scraping paint]

The big event of day was a fire fighting drill after lunch.  With plenty of loud bells, important sounding radio transmissions, and heavy duty tools, it was much more exciting than Sunday’s disappointing man overboard drill.  I would even call it impressive.  We pretended to have a fire in the aft laundry room of the first upper deck.  Cadets teamed up in their yellow jackets, hard hats, and SCBAs, and combat was coordinated from the bridge via radio.   

[Alex Fairchild suits up some firefighters]

A team of four cadets, armed with a fire hose, crawled into the laundry room to fight the pretend blaze while interchanging teams of two carried out search and rescue efforts on the rest of the deck.  There was one victim who was saved well enough to stop pretending a little too early.  “It appears as though the victim the firefighters extricated miraculously got up and disappeared,” Dave Coleman, the on site commander, hollered.  But overall the cadets did a good job.  Within ten minutes, the blaze had been contained.  “The fire in the oh-one laundry is out.  Request permission to back out,” radioed watch officer Steve Browne.  The squads retreated and new teams were brought in to stow the hoses and gear.  “It went pretty well,” Browne told me.  “The firefighters did a good job even though communication with the bridge was a little difficult.”   

[Entering the first deck from the port side]

[Search and rescue]

[Firefighters check a cabin for victims]

[Retreating after the drill]

When I arrived at the bridge for a comment, I was surprised to learn that I was amongst the casualties.  My muster station had marked me as “unaccounted for” and, even though I would have expected everyone to be joyful that I was alive, the officers did not seem too happy about it--one of the most important aspects of every drill and its corresponding emergency is accounting for every member of the crew.  While Follow the Voyage will continue to risk life and limb for our fans worldwide, we will be careful to get checked off at future muster.

[Justin Taschek looks like a born firefighter]

Oh, and last night at around 23:00, we crossed the International Date Line (180º longitude).  Welcome to the Eastern hemisphere.       

[The GPS, a few minutes after crossing into eastern waters]

[First class cadet James Shea says hi to his mom]

-JSF