There's not much to tell about last week. We arrived on Sunday, unpacked and went to the bar ( though not necessarily in that order). In the mornings we have a delightful thing called muster, which involves standing outside in our uniform at 8:30 every weekday morning for the first four weeks, hurrah...
The rest of last week was filled with lots of introductory lectures and being told to not do this, but make sure you do that, remember this and don't forget to bring that. Lots of common sense things and a fun chat from our local friendly PCSO about the many things that cadets in the past have gotten up to, that didn't exactly further their careers.
The week was getting pretty tedious by the end, but thankfully on Friday it was time for something completely different: How Not To Be Seen - Paintballing Edition. The entire phase all went into the forest for a day, and proceeded to shoot anything and everything that moved, occasionally including each other. The day was really good fun, involving lots of different game types like capture the flag, bridge assault, and fort assault which ended in a nice big bang after you flicked some switches in the right order inside a bunker. Smoke and frag grenades certainly add an extra dimension of fun, just make sure you don't fall on your frag grenades like I did, resulting in your pockets being filled with lots of brown pellets!
At the weekend the watersports centre really excelled themselves with taster sessions for: keelboating, kayaking, dinghy sailing and jet skiing. Naturally I just had to give them a go. Jet skiing was definitely a highlight, and I will definitely be looking at doing a PWC (Personal Water Craft) course soon; probably shortly after pay day :)
Thankfully proper lectures started today (although muster is still unfortunately in existence). Today we had Ship Stability, followed by Celestial Navigation, Lunch, and Tides. It was nice to finally get my teeth into some maths again after a 4 year hiatus, even if it was basically just formula transposition.
See if you can manage this.
A ship's displacement is equal to its underwater volume x water density
displacement = underwater volume x water density
If a box shaped barge has a length of 50m, a beam (width) of 8m, and a draft (depth underwater) of 2m, what is its displacement in salt water? Salt water density is 1025kg/m3 or 1.025t/m3
A ship's displacement is 615t. Its length is 40m and it's beam is 6m, calculate its draft in salt water.
Answers will be posted next time :)
Monday 16 September 2013
Friday 6 September 2013
Not long now
Hello people. I'm finally about to start at Warsash Maritime Academy on Monday. It's been a strange 12 months or so what with deciding upon a new and completely different career. It felt so strange to have not even finished my degree before having an alternative career lined up. Motivating myself to practise for my Final Recital suddenly became very difficult, and it all seemed so irrelevant. Anyway, that's all done and I'm glad I did work hard for it, otherwise I would have been extremely disappointed in myself.
I also played in my first and last professional orchestra concert a couple of weeks ago with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. It was a truly fantastic experience, and a great way to leave the music industry on a high note (or low in the case of the double bass...). Now that that's behind me I can really focus on my future ahead and I just can't wait to get started.
I'm in the process of packing at the moment. It's tricky because I just moved out of London to go back home for a week, and so I have to unpack everything and wash it, then pack it all up again to move down to Warsash without forgetting anything. I now have to decide really just how much I need as I can't get a lift and have to take the train. Somehow I don't think I'll be needing the hammock, but questions like how much watersports kit to bring down are a bit trickier. Will I need the drysuit or just a couple of layers? It's all in piles on the spare bed, but I have a feeling none of it will get packed until Saturday night just before I go to bed and spend the whole night staring at the ceiling, not sleeping.
I'm puppy-sitting for my sister today, which means that I can't really do much or go out, but I also can't go upstairs and leave him on his own. So I can't really do much that's actually useful, hence the blog post :p I've already had three play fights today and his 'mummy' isn't due back for another 4 hours. I'm not sure how I'll keep him occupied. I hope he likes watching Family Guy because I think that's what I'll do for a bit.
Adios
I also played in my first and last professional orchestra concert a couple of weeks ago with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. It was a truly fantastic experience, and a great way to leave the music industry on a high note (or low in the case of the double bass...). Now that that's behind me I can really focus on my future ahead and I just can't wait to get started.
I'm in the process of packing at the moment. It's tricky because I just moved out of London to go back home for a week, and so I have to unpack everything and wash it, then pack it all up again to move down to Warsash without forgetting anything. I now have to decide really just how much I need as I can't get a lift and have to take the train. Somehow I don't think I'll be needing the hammock, but questions like how much watersports kit to bring down are a bit trickier. Will I need the drysuit or just a couple of layers? It's all in piles on the spare bed, but I have a feeling none of it will get packed until Saturday night just before I go to bed and spend the whole night staring at the ceiling, not sleeping.
I'm puppy-sitting for my sister today, which means that I can't really do much or go out, but I also can't go upstairs and leave him on his own. So I can't really do much that's actually useful, hence the blog post :p I've already had three play fights today and his 'mummy' isn't due back for another 4 hours. I'm not sure how I'll keep him occupied. I hope he likes watching Family Guy because I think that's what I'll do for a bit.
Adios
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