Did anyone happen to see the moon this weekend? Well if you did, you probably noticed that it looked a little bit bigger than usual. This is because the moon was closer to the Earth this weekend than it has been in a number of years. This is known as Perigee. Perigee is the closest point of approach in the moons orbit around the Earth. In addition to the moon being closer, it was also a full moon. The combination of the moon being closer and the full aspect allowed for it to look a lot bigger in the night sky. As we know, the tides are influenced by the moon. During a full moon, the the high tides are higher than normal and the low tides are lower than normal. These are called Spring Tides. Due to the moon being closer than it has been in a number of years, the Spring Tides were exaggerated more than usual. As I looked out the window this afternoon from my room in Fifth Company, I could see that the low tide was extremely low. The sand bar out in the bay was fully exposed and there was very little water between the shore and the sand bar.
Over the weekend the Buccaneer Track and Field team had their first meet at Northeastern University. This meet wasn't scored as it was the first meet of the season. Everyone performed well considering the colder temperatures. Coming up next weekend the team will travel to Bridgewater State University to compete.
Another week begins, filled with classes, practice, and of course tests and quizzes. On a lighter note, the weather should be getting warmer as the first signs of spring showed today.
Until Next Time,
-3/c Joshua Lamm
joshua.lamm@maritime.edu
Everything is flowing well now as we come towards the end of the second week. Classes are in full swing. This semester I am taking classes in Radar, Literature and Film, Celestial Navigation, Basic Seamanship, and Global Marine Distress Safety Systems (GMDSS). Most of these classes are certainly not the average college courses that the run of the mill college student takes. Here at MMA we are fully engulfed in our majors by sophomore year. As reflected in my class schedule, four out of the five classes are major classes. Some of these courses come with labs as well. Actually all of my major classes this semester have labs. Thursday for me is what I like to call "Lab Day". This involves Basic Seamanship lab, Radar lab, and GMDSS lab. These labs are two hours each and run back to back starting at 0800. While this is a very busy day, I like to think of it as one of the best days. This is because I get to do so many neat things such as rowing, use the Radar simulator, and practice Morse Code. When I was a kid I knew what Morse Code was, but I never imagined I would ever need to learn it or use it. Now one of my major courses requires me to be able to understand four words per minute of Morse Code. Learning the code has been interesting as the letters of the alphabet become different "dit's and dah's".
