Today was day 4 (and also Friday!) and we began the day with a lecture from the Coast Guard regarding drug and alcohol, plus many stories of idiots who break the rules and lose their Mariner Credentials. I gave a short PowerPoint presentation on the company that I'll be working for and sat through a few others before lunch. After lunch, we went into one of the simulators and played around. We won't ever get the opportunity to "play around" in there again and they take it very seriously, but today was just about getting a feel for what it can do and how it works.
All three simulators are linked together, so you can essentially have three boats in a scene, operated by different people and maneuvering around together while the control room creates scenarios for you. They were flying helicopters at us, submarines, other boats and making extreme storm conditions to give us a feel for the capabilities of the sim. For those that get a little queasy staring at moving screens, it's not for you. They also have radios and radar up and running with real time scenario contacts piped in so you can talk back and forth to the other ships. I think that the simulator is going to be one of my favorite aspects of the school.
Enter weekend... It's Friday night and I'm kind of at a loss for what to do for the next 2 days. I can't really go tinker on the house or clean up the garage. I emailed my classmates and it looks like I'm going to meet one of them down at Pikes Place Market to walk around tomorrow and check things out. I'm sure over time I'll get more of a routine and schedule together, after all, I've only been here for 5 days.
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