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Captain's Log
DATE July 2, 2007
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CAPTAIN’S LOG
I welcome our Follow-The-Voyage
readership to Cruise 2, 2007.
It was a very hectic changeover in
Honolulu this year. The ship arrived into Honolulu on the
afternoon of Tuesday June 26th, thus ending
Cruise 1. As you might imagine, the crew was tired and
anxious to get home to California.
A number of Cruise 2 senior officers
and staff met the ship on arrival ahead of the crew arriving
the next day by chartered aircraft. This was to begin the
complex process of changing out the entire crew and
preparing the vessel to begin her next 12,000 mile voyage. A
tremendous amount of information and equipment status
discussions are required to take place in a very short
period of time.
The CMA’s staff and students arrived
to the ship about 1330 on Wednesday June 27th.
Over 150 people arrived at the pier in buses with a full
load of baggage for the move-on process. A complicating
factor this year was the arrival of the Texas Maritime
Academy contingent arriving 24 hours later than the CMA
charter. They did not get to the ship until the following
afternoon. So, we were not able to begin organizing and
putting out information on watch bills and training plans
until they arrived. Another complicating factor was the fact
that most of the Texas students had never been aboard the
GOLDEN BEAR before. They needed to learn the ship in a hurry
and orient themselves to the new ship and routine.
The crew composition this year is
quite diverse. There are 117 Texas cadets and 113 CMA
cadets. In this combined cadet company there is one cadet
from Maine Maritime Academy, four from Massachusetts
Maritime, two cadets from Mexico and five cadets from
Panama. We also have two Chilean Naval Officers observing as
new Ensigns.
The Texas program brought three of
their instructors with them, two of which are deck officers
who were with us last year and so know the CMA training
plan. Buddy Fredrickson, a very experienced Texas
engineering instructor, has also joined us this year and
will bring his many years of Chief Engineer experience to
the training onboard.
As we do every year when we change out
in Hawaii, we held an onboard reception Friday evening for
local alumni, local maritime community and friends of the
Academy. Because of our regional Maritime Academy status,
CMA is the official maritime Academy for Hawaii who has a
very active maritime industry (as you would expect for an
island state). We also had our admissions staff present in
Hawaii inviting prospective students and their parents
aboard the ship. This year’s reception was well attended and
we had the honor of hosting Rear Admiral Brice-O’hara,
Commander 14th Coast Guard District, who is very
supportive of the Academy and our Coast Guard reserve
officer program. With the assistance of our VP for
Advancement, Tom Dunworth, the local maritime community
presented a $100,000 check to the family of Captain Dave
Lyman, a Hawaii State pilot for many years. Captain Lyman
was killed last year while disembarking a vessel he had just
piloted from the port. Dave was a CMA alumni and a staunch
supporter of the school for many years. We had discussed the
goings on of the Academy a number of times together. The
check was given as a scholarship endowment to CMA in his
name. It was wonderful for the local community to respond so
generously to his memory.
With a full crew and fresh provisions
loaded, we got underway Saturday afternoon at 1600. Just
before departing, we had front row seats to the arrival of
the first of the new Hawaii fast ferries being inaugurated
into inter-island service. The vessel was on her maiden
delivery voyage from the U.S. gulf coast. Her arrival into
the harbor right before we were scheduled to depart was
attended by several Coast Guard vessels, a Coast Guard
helicopter and the local fire boat with all three of her
fire monitors at full pressure producing high geysers and
enveloping her in a high cascade of water jets and spray.
Once the new ferry had docked and her pilot transferred to
us, Captain Enos assisted the GOLDEN BEAR away from the dock
with the kind assistance of a Hawaiian Tug and Barge Company
tug and we headed seaward out the short channel to the sea
buoy. After dropping the pilot off, we turned eastward at
the sea buoy (I know, you thought we were going to the
Philippines which is the other way) and we transited along
Waikiki beach toward Diamond Head before heading SE towards
Lanai Is., where we would conduct underway training for the
next two days.
I’ll write again soon to share that
unique experience with you.
Captain Leyda
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