Friday brought on another awesome lab in the Electronic Navigation Lab. This lab was very similar to the lab that we had over a month ago. Except this time it was all up to us. We had to figure out our own courses and make course changes. Adding to the difficulty of the lab, was that it was at night. The simulation started at 1700 and got dark immediately. To make things more difficult our instructor turned out the lights so the room was dark except for our instruments, screen, and a small light over our chart table. We also had to make
sure we were maneuvering according to the rules of the road. Our ship was a 250 meter tanker. Our location was Block Island Sound which is off the eastern end of Long Island, New York. We took fixes every twelve minutes. Most of our fixes came off Montauk Light as well as a radar range from the shore. As we moved north, we got the chance to see a lot more action. Numerous vessels were in our area. Two in particular were Navy ships displaying the lights for a vessel restricted in its ability to maneuver. We also had a car carrier astern of us and a another tanker off our port bow. Another interesting part was the buoys that we encountering. All of them were marked on our chart, because the exercise was done at night we needed to confirm the buoys by looking at their light characteristics. I know that a buoys showing morse code alpha is a safe water buoy. As well as a green light flashing 2+1 is a bifurcation buoys. Using this knowledge, we knew which buoys were which.
Fortunately there were no collisions or groundings. We did quite well and had a great time applying our knowledge on more than just paper.
Coming up soon:
-Winter Ball tickets go on sale.
-Veterans Day (no classes)
-Friday
Until Next time,
-3/c Joshua Lamm
Cadet Blogger
joshua.lamm@maritime.edu
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