They moved the end of the tunnel

Well, I passed 5 out of 6 of the assessed runs. I did not quite pass my Navigator runs, so I had to go in front of a board and justify why I should be allowed to continue with the extra week (Pause week). This was approved. We did 2 more developmental runs last Wednesday and Friday. Today is our first assessed run. The good thing is that I only have to do the Navigator position and not any of the others. We were supposed to start at 8:00 this morning. We were all there getting set up and were mentally ready, when our CTO (Course Training Officer) came in and told us that we would not be starting until 4:00pm today and the same time for tomorrow. I have to pass 2 out of three again. If I do not get both passes today and tomorrow, then I get a third shot at it on Wednesday; but I am not planning on that happening.

Only 4 more sleeps for me and I will be with my family again (Friday night does not count for me as I will be flying all night long). YAY!!! It has been a very long stretch since October, but it is now coming to a close.

Down to the final stretch...

Developmental in the NABS (Navigation and Bridge Simulator) has been challenging. Today is our last day and then Thursday, Friday and Monday are assessed. We need to pass 2 out of three runs for each of the three positions (Officer of the Watch, 2nd Officer of the Watch, and Navigator). Some runs go better than others. Yesterday, we were "pre-assessed" and I would have passed all three runs. Today we have a big parade early in the afternoon, followed by a late night in the NABS. My days have been pretty much exactly the same for the past 3 weeks. Plan our passage (which can take up to 6-8 hours), execute the passage (or be one of the other positions for other team mates runs), go to sleep, wake up and do the same thing again. The end is now in site.

17 more days until I am back with my family. I can't wait!

Sea Phase is now done with

I am back on land and getting prepared for the next couple of weeks of conducting runs in the simulator. Two weeks of developmental and one week of assessed. This is where you pass or fail MARS III. There are three positions; Navigator, Officer of the Watch (OOW) and 2nd Officer of the Watch. You have to pass two out of three in each position. If you don't quite make it, there is a week after the assessed called Pause Week, where you get another crack at it. Hopefully, I won't have to do anything during this week.

The sea phase was interesting. Very, very little sleep and a lot of work each day planning your passage for the next day. The time it took to plan a passage slowly reduced as we became quicker at it. In the beginning, we would spend around 10 hours planning a 1 hour passage.

The first weekend that we were away, we were in Ladysmith and the second was in Vancouver. It was interesting going under the Lion's Gate Bridge and seeing Stanley Park and the Sea-Wall from the water side.

The countdown is now on....26 days until I am with my family again. I can't wait!!

The Academic phase is over!!!

Today was our final exam for the academic phase of MARS III. I won't have my mark for a couple of days, but feel confident that I did well on it. It feels a little surreal that we are finished this part already, although not a day too soon at the same time. It has been full out every day since it began. The rewards to the efforts have been worth it so far as I am third highest in the class of 21 for marks so far. We leave for our sea phase next Thursday. We will spend the first weekend in Ladysmith and the second in Vancouver; returning here on Wednesday, June 9. From there, we continue doing runs in the simulator for two weeks and on the third, we are assessed on our runs in three positions (Officer of the Watch, Second Officer of the Watch and Navigation Officer). I am looking forward to the sea phase; putting together all the things that I have learnt over the past 7 weeks.

We now have a PMQ!!! Now to get the movers sorted out and we will be ready to go! I can't wait to have my family out here with me. I miss them so.

What a day to feel proud to be in the Navy

Yesterday was the 100 year birthday of the Canadian Navy. Here on the west coast, 2750 members of the Canadian Navy paraded downtown Victoria to celebrate. This was combined with the Freedom of the City Parade which the Navy marches in every year since 1985. The number of citizens who turned out to support us was amazing. They applauded us and cheered us and yelled thanks to us. It really did make me feel proud to be part of the Navy.

Studying continues to go well. Two more days before my Tides/Astro/Time Zones exam. I am feeling very confident in this exam; but have no plans to let up on the studying. There is still a couple of us that get together every night and work together. So far, no one from our study group has failed an exam and we plan to keep it that way.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Half way through the academic phase

Week 4 of MARS III is now completed. The academic portion of the course is 8 weeks long. We wrote our second exam on Thursday on the subject "Rules of the Road" or sometimes called "Collision Regs". It is the rules that you must follow while on the sea or inland waterways. There was a huge amount of verbatim that had to be memorized and the pass mark on the test was 80%. I finished with a 91%. Really, just glad that I passed and don't have to worry about a re-write. Four of our guys (there are 21 of us) did fail it and will have to re-write. If they fail the re-write, the have to go in front of a Training Review Board to see if they can get re-coursed or if they are deemed unsuitable for MARS and have to find some other military occupation. I sure hope they all pass.

Our next big test is on Tides and Astronomic Theory. So far, I am not having any issues understanding it. The math is simple, but there are a lot of steps required to get to the answer; so I will be spending lots of time practicing this one so that I have it down cold by the time we write the exam (which is this Friday). After that we have Passage Planning which is now done on a computer program. The first couple of passages (based on historical data) will take us about 7 hours to complete, and once we get used to it, some may get it down to as low as 4 hours to plan one passage. We will be doing a lot of these on our sea phase, which starts May 27 for 2 weeks.

We have a parade this Tuesday to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Canadian Navy. The entire Pacific fleet will be marching downtown Victoria. It is a huge celebration day and there are a lot of events planned both by the city and at the various messes on base. The Chief of Maritime Staff has even directed the Navy to "splice the mainbrace". This is a long standing tradition spanning since the beginning of the Navy in which an issue of rum is given to every sailor. This is something that can only be directed by a very select few (usually the Governor General) and most of the sailors now serving can not remember the last time this was actually done.

The intensity of studying has been extreme, but I am not feeling overwhelmed by it. I think that it is because I have simply set my mind to putting in 110% to it and so far the rewards have been well worth it.

Have a great and sunny day.

Shaking off the cobwebs

Sorry for being absent for so long. With MARS III starting, there has been practically no time whatsoever to update my blog. I am taking a short study break right now, so here is the update with a couple of pics.

The trip to Alaska was amazing. I can say for sure that I do not get sea sick. On the Monday that we left, we hit some rough water and a huge amount of the ships crew were sick, including the Captain. Guys who have been sailing for years and have not been sick in years were throwing up. I was simply laughing at it and loving it like some giant roller coaster ride. Alaska was simply wet and windy. The rain fell horizontally all weekend, but we still managed to get out a little bit (had to try the local beers). I was one of 8 our of 34 selected to have a special dinner with the Captain on the second Monday. It was a privilege and very enjoyable time.

Easter weekend, I flew home for a very short visit. We did not tell the kids that I was coming, so when I came in the door and they saw me, the looks on their faces was priceless; then they both started to cry. It was very touching.

MARS III is off to a good start. I have already written the first exam in Relative Velocity and scored 89.2% (yay for me). Our next exam in this Thursday on Rules of the Road (sometimes called Collision Regulations). This one will be the toughest as it involves a lot of memorization as you must be able to write many of the rules verbatim. Thank heavens there are a couple of guys who I meet with every night on the 6th floor common room to study together. It has been a huge help. Below are also some pictures of the paper carnage from studying for the Rel Vel exam. I had put in roughly 40 extra hours of study time for that exam and will easily match that for the Rules exam. Effort equals success. I simply ask myself "how badly do you want this and what are you willing to do to get it?" and the answer is easy "anything and everything necessary". I don't mind, even though my brain hurts a lot every day, the reward at the end will be more than worth the effort. How many people can say that they drive a warship for a living? Personally, I think that it sounds pretty cool.

Anyway, here are some pics of the Alaska trip and our early study sessions.

I will do my best to not let the cobwebs land on this blog again.