Day two of cruise! Yesterday was the official start day of cruise and due to Captains inspection findings, the cadets have been unable to move onto the ship, but fret not everyone on the ship will continue working and getting it ready and making sure it is as safe so we can all head out to sea as soon as possible. Today was the beginning of work preparing the ship for departure. This morning started bright and early at 0700 on the quad for the very first formation of cruise. We heard a very heartfelt message from the new captain, Darrin Muenzberg, alumni graduate from 1996, about how underneath all the khaki and the dark blue we are all humans, and we all have the same goals which is to get the ship up and running.

After formation, everyone moseyed over to the marketplace which is where we will all be eating until the galley is prepared to serve food aboard. Afterward, while everyone was getting checked onto the ship for the beginning of day work at 0800, I had the opportunity to chat with Erin Bailey who will be the 4D executive officer on cruise. I asked her why she wanted to take this position and she told me that she is most interested in getting to know more people. Her duties throughout the cruise will be assisting the 4D commanding officer, Jake Schollenberg with the watch bill, taking muster, and assisting first year cadets with all their questions. She is a wonderful person, and I am sure she will do a phenomenal job during cruise and follow leadership opportunities after cruise.

After I chatted with Erin, the cadets all got their assignments for the day. The engine cadets spent most of the day preparing the machine shop for work which included organizing so everything is secure for sea making it much easier to find and swabbing the flats and decks. The tasks for the deck cadets included loading all the supplies and provisions on the ship including actual truckloads of food. Safety is of the utmost importance when it comes to operating the cranes which is why all the cadets wear hard hats and stay clear of the loads being moved onto the ship. The ship also had the port side lifeboats installed. One of the major components of getting the ship certified to leave the dock is to get all the lifeboats installed and ready to go. These brand-new lifeboats fit the SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) requirements because they are fully enclosed so they can handle any type of weather and they can self-correct if toppled in the water. Each one can fit up to seventy people! I am hoping we can get the starboard lifeboats installed over the next day or two! The ship must have enough lifeboat capacity to be able to handle 125% of the entire ships capacity, so not only are there lifeboats being installed but there are also two 100 person life rafts with inflatable boarding slides on the ship.

Finally, to finish off the day, there was a formation back on the quad at 1630. All the cadets were super warm, so they took the time before formation began to relax in the grass. They were given general information about what would happen the next day, the most important of which was to meet at the quad the next morning at 0700. Everyone was then released to get dinner and the food was fantastic!