The whole family is in Victoria!!!

Yay!!!! We are finished unpacking the boxes. Now to filter through the contents and place them along with setting up the rooms. I will write more when time becomes available. My next course starts Sept 13.

MARS III is now finished!

I passed my run yesterday and am now finished MARS III!!!!!!!! That was definitely something that I would not want to repeat.

1 down, 1 to go

Passed yesterday's run just fine. If I pass today's run, I will be done! Yay!! I will let you all know how it went.

Only 3 more sleeps for me and I will be heading back to be with my family. Double Yay!!

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.