Ahoy!

The time has come and gone once again for our annual Sinbad Games - a competition that takes place each Summer Sea Term on TS Golden Bear, and is reminiscent of the Olympics. For those who are new here, it is a uniform-free day for the cadets, though many elect to wear variations of their divisional shirts or uniforms, or even wacky/DIY costume attire depending on the theme. This year it was chilly during the games, so most of us layered up. Safety is of utmost importance, all events are carefully planned and vetted, and participation is not required, but encouraged.

If you followed the voyage last year, you may remember that we held the Sinbad Games on the same day as our Golden Shellback crossing. We try to line up these events with navigational milestones, and for this year we chose to hold the games on the same day we crossed the International Date Line (rain or shine!). Because we crossed the date line, we repeated July 20th this year, and therefore had two Saturdays (we call them July 20A and July 20B - the Sinbad Games technically took place on July 20A). 

The day kicked off with formation at noon, allowing many cadets to sleep in and have a morning off from work. 

King Neptune appeared and welcomed us home from our voyage within the Domain of the Golden Dragon. A scavenger hunt for King Neptune commenced shortly after formation, which kicked off the Sinbad Games. All events were worth points that were calculated at the end to determine the winning division. The coveted prize? The winning division will leave the ship first once we return to Vallejo. 

Division 1E hyped and ready to compete in the annual Sinbad Games~

Division 2E ready to bring the heat!

Division 3E showed up and showed out!

Division 4E - all smiles despite the rough weather~

Division 4D - decked out in muscle T's and ready to rock. 

Division 3D - sending love to all the moms out there!

First game of the day - Boilersuit Hydro Test. Divisions select their cadets smallest in stature and dress them in the largest boiler suit they can find. They then seal the suit with duck tape and fill the suit with as much water as possible. Teammates then flip their comrade over and empty the collected water into a large bucket. The division with the most water in the bucket at the end of the two minutes wins. 

Plumber's Nightmare (pictured below): cadets must successfully plug all of the holes in the Plumber's Nightmare contraption, which consists of a barrage of leaky pipes, within a specific time frame. The division that can stop the leaks with the highest PSI wins. 

The next event was the triathlon (which was reduced to a biathlon) - cadets must run on the treadmill and row on the erg machine - whoever can complete one mile on the treadmill the fastest and row 5,000 meters the fastest wins. 

The next event was Bucket Brigade - the seas were pretty rocky, so we had to alter this game a bit from previous years. Cadets gathered sea water in buckets full of holes, and passed the buckets from person to person down the chain to then dump in a trash can. The division that filled the trash can the fastest won.

Pictured here is the Hawser Toss: cadets must toss mooring lines (hawsers) around bollards. It started raining as the competition went on, which made the hawsers heavier and the task more challenging. 

One of the final games of the day - the Knot Tying competition - requires both speed and skill. Cadets must quickly and accurately tie a variety of knots. It looks easy, but there is a lot of pressure on those who are selected to represent their divisions. 

Despite the weather, we had a great turnout and the games were played with grit, integrity, and adaptability. Congrats to Division 2D on their epic win, and kudos to all who participated. The cadets proved themselves to be great teammates with great sportsmanship, whether they won or lost. We finished off the games with a barbecue dinner and some well deserved rest. 

Fair winds and following seas!

~Faye Joelson, Assistant Purser & Jessica Fowler, Purser

Check back often and follow the voyage with our blog series that gives the latest news from Summer Sea Term! TSGB will travel to Honolulu, HI, Busan, South Korea, Yokohama, Japan, and Los Angeles, CA prior to returning to Vallejo on August 5th.

Stay tuned for updates to the Follow the Voyage blog.