Familliar Sights and Strange Sounds

Well currently we are back in US waters off the coast of good ol' Catalina, and well, home. Sure, we're only 2 hours away form the Port of Long Beach, but we wont be heading home until Monday morning. The USTS Golden Bear will be making up its lost liberty day. So I am heading home a day early. This is gonna be great, however sitting here drifting off of coast of home is making the hours drag on. When we get back on the 29th, unfortunately the show isnt all over at that point in time. WE have to get back at midnight and then do the official change over the next morning, and that will be the end of cruise.

Today a very interesting thing happened at quarters. We heard what seemed like two repetitive explosions and the whole helo deck shook and it felt as if something smacked into the back of my neck. Now the rumor going around the ship are that either it was a sonic boom from a plane from the nearby Naval Air Base at Miramar or artillery shells from San Clamenete Island. Some people were even talking about Naval war games, but the ship can sometimes be like a big water cooler.

All strange sounds aside, I'll be home in a few days.

See ya around and,

Stay Frosty,

Steven Robert Schiesser

More Photos!!!

This cruise must make life such a beach...
Few knew of Superman's sidekick "Sailor Boy", because he had to always arrive by 500 ft boat, which needless to say made his appearances limited.

This is what they call a building or as they say in Mexico "edificio". Some may go as far as to call it a "iglesia, casa de dios" but lets not get to crazy.

Another caption-less photo from our roaming adventurer. I am gonna go out on a limb and say this is a beach in Mexico.

I call this drink the "Dirty Sea Seamen" add one part sailor boy, two halves of underdeveloped mustacio, shake (don't stir) and allow to settle for two months on the Golden Bear. Umbrella is not optional. (No terms were meant to be taken in explicit manner, eww)

I am gonna lean towards the "mustache" and less the "age" part for why the high schools were "weirded out" at the local clubs in Puerto Vallarta....

Captions provide by: John (I hope you have enjoyed my attempts at witty comments)
Photos: By Stevie & friends

It's the end of the world, as I know it and I feel fine?

Some thing that is very interesting about living a lifestyle that is so very focused and different from that of what you have had before and one that is drastically different from the rest of the world, you aren't really sure how you exactly you are going to adjust to the way you used to live. Even when it has only been a short time of living like this, you still begin to wonder how living like this will have changed you, or if it even will; you wonder if you will snap back into normal life, or if even 2 short (well not that short) months on the sea have left a lasting impression. I think I really started to think about this when we were riding on the bus in Ecuador. For the last 2 months I have gotten used to going from one country to another, spending a little time sailing the ocean, but in a few days, everything will be back to normal and this life that I have been living will be all gone away. As I get closer to returning from this little journey of mine, I have begun not only counting the days, but other things like classes, meals and watches. I am very excited to return back to Newport and see everyone but I will definitely miss the traveling, but I have plenty of time to continue that, so I really. When I look back at the places I have been, I feel truly blessed. With Mexico sinking below the horizon my current country count is at a nice 11 countries.

But how about some change of pace, so we picked up our new Commandant of Cadets (in Mexico (haha that sounds really funny) and he is a retired Marine Corps Colonel. He seems pretty legit, he is wearing his desert digital camouflage with the blacked out birds (the insignia for Colonel), but instead of the name tape over the right pocket saying U.S. MARINES it says CAL MARITIME. He addressed us at quarters today and when he walked up and the Captain gave him the megaphone, I totally guessed he would not use it and just talk and have everyone be able to hear him, which is exactly what he did. He said he would be learning from us more in the next year than we would be learning from him and that he looks forward to working with us, which is basically the end of the Casual Maritime Academy.

We also got word passed on to us that due to our rapid exit stage left from Puerto Vallarta, we possibly could be getting into Long Beach a day earlier than planned. Now this is a possibility, and it is still being discussed with "the highest authorities" But I will keep y'all update as to the sit. rep.* of that.

Feel free to still email me even though I only have 3 classes, 1 essay, 1 final, 164 pages of Clive Cussler's Navigator, 1 security watch, 16.5 meals (I don't count continental breakfast as real meals) 12 hours in the gym and exactly 6 days 10 minutes (2050zulu) until I am off the USTS Golden Bear.

Stay frosty,

Something Really Snappy

* That is Situation Report for those of you who haven't seen Generation Kill.

Sun Sand and... Storms?

Well we are just heading out of the last port of the trip and now we are steaming the last 7 days home. Currently we are ripping through the water at a speed of 18 knots, a day earlier, for reasons I will get to soon enough.

But first the tale of a Man, a city and a Walmart.

Day 1:
After completing a slingshot maneuver with our anchor in order to get into our berth at the cruise ship terminal, we arrived in probably the most American Port of the trip (you know besides San Fransisco and Long Beach. Through some very foggy pair Oakleys, the beautiful American embassy of Walmart could be seen across the road. The first day was spent walking around the boardwalk or "malecon" of southern PV. We went from restaurant to beach bar enjoying the beach and staying out of the rain. The majority of my time spent in PV was spent relaxing, as in 2 weeks once Ive been home, my life will be shifting back into high gear at Career Orientation Training for Midshipmen (CORTRAMID) in San Diego. After we roamed around south PV finishing up some final souvenir shopping and such, we walked the 2.5 miles (or 4.02KM) to the Ship... in the rain... why ever would we do this you ask. The phrases "its not that far" and "we've got times I believe are the main culprits to said brainless idea. Anyway after a thoroughly wetting experience we hung around the ship for a while, then called it a night.

Day 2:
Well Day 2 was our class day, so me and the other Globostars from my major got onto the bus expecting another day full of churches and museums, which is a nice change of pace from what students usually want to do. We get off the bus on the malecon, a little confused and our teachers tell us we are free to do whatever we want until 1900. We had a "cultural day" so after checking out some churches on our own, we walked down as far as the PV coast line would take us, being hustled every 3 minutes by different street... er beach vendors? Anywho, once we got to the end of the beach we grabbed some sand and layed down under one of the countless umbrellas along the shore. After spending a good deal time, we headed back to check in with our teachers and then were released for the rest of the night. After that we grabbed some food on a upper story establishment which had a great view of the beach... and then it started to rain.... After waiting out the storm, we headed to a fine place called Senor Frogs. Now Senor Frogs is a club designed for young people, especially young Americans, so the place was packed with freshly graduated high school kids. It was quite amusing (and depressing)to see the CMA kids try to mingle with those former high schoolers, and see those high school kids get weirded out by these older mustached gentlemen who are just so eager to talk to them (you would be too after being on a boat for 2 months) Well, after rotating through several different similar establishments we headed home, this time in a cab. It was a good day and we all were making big plans for the next day, something we had even held ourselves back for, inorder to go all out the last day.

Day 3:
This day was by far the best day that has happ...
TODAY'S ACTIVITIES HAVE BEEN CANCELED TO DUE AN EARLY DEPARTURE MADE IN ORDER TO AVOID TROPICAL STORM ANDRES:

"Tropical Storm Andres brushes Mexico; 1 killed

By NATALIA PARRA, Associated Press Writer Natalia Parra, Associated Press Writer

ACAPULCO, Mexico – Tropical Storm Andres flooded homes and knocked down trees along Mexico's Pacific coast, killing at least one person as it headed toward a likely hurricane-force scrape with land on Tuesday.

Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the strip of coast from just south of Manzanillo to near Puerto Vallarta. To the south, the storm dumped heavy rains on Acapulco, where flooding forced about 200 people to evacuate their homes on Monday.

A fisherman drowned when choppy currents overturned his boat in a lagoon Monday in Tecpan de Galeana, between Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, a state police report said. The sun peeked through cloudy skies in Acapulco on Tuesday, but the government closed all schools..."

Its annoying as ever, but these be the ways of the sea.

Stay Frosty,

Sometimes Rain Sucks

(Runnin from a Hurricane... sounds like a good song name... some should write a song like that... I would listen to it.)

"Sometimes I wonder if the people back at home will ever truly understand what's happened here..."

These words inscribed in an over head of a bunk truly speak to just some of the odd things that go on while on board the good ol' TSGB. Now I'm not really sure how to explain it, because in order to explain it I would have to understand why it happens. But there is this strange phenomenon of habits people pick up while on cruise. Cadets start smoking a lot more cigarettes and dipping tobacco, some of who before cruise had never done anything like this. And its actually kind of sad to see people getting addicted to some of these things and then realize they don't have a way of getting anymore of said substance since we are on a bloody ship. It's both sad and amusing to watch at the same time. I have heard so many times, "Oh I just am doing this for cruise." I guess it speaks to just how much life is different when on a ship.

Speaking about life being different, me and one of my good friends were sitting around yesterday (as we have done many other times) and we came to a rather odd realization. Being on the ship is like being on prison for several reasons. 1. We all wear the same color (some prisons even wear khaki) 2. Nutrition is questionable 3. We have forced labor 4. We're stuck in one confined area 5. We take classes so that we are better off when we get out 6. We all are counting down to the day we get to leave

Oh yes well since I am getting closer and closer to getting home, please email me and let me know if you desire my presence at some point in time while I am home between June 30th and August 8th, before I go to training in San Diego for a month.

Hope every one has a great day

Sailors Really Sing

" A capital ship on an Ocean trip, watched the hallowing winds go by
No winds that blew dismayed this crew, nor troubled the captains mind.
The man at the wheel was made to feel contempt for the wildest blow,
Though it often appeared when the gale had cleared that he'd hidden in his bunk below.
Well roll you and roll I roam and I will go,
I'll Stay no more on Latin shores so let the music roll,
I'm off on the morning train I'll cross the raging main
I'm off to the sea it's the place for me and there I'm gonna stay."

More Pictures of Stevie

Division 3 PRIDE

Action Shot!!!

The unlikely team: Sea scouts from the Tiki-Too, the Renegades and Chaser

Plumber's Nightmare


We all can't be models, its ok...

I don't know what has gotten into me...

but I have just been in very blogging mood these past few days. Maybe its the fact that some things have actually been happening, maybe its my desire to make you read alot about my life, because in 13 days 14 1/2 hours (at 0530 ZULU) my life will become non-blogging worthy, or maybe it is because I am avoiding studying for my midterm tomorrow... I'm going to guess its a little of all of them.

Well it seems the TSGB is doing its work for the community by not just training mariners to support the 90% of Global trade which travels by ship, but rather to help out your friendly neighborhood meteorologist. Good ol'NOAA (the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) requested our assistance in the deployment of several "ARGOS floats". We have made several deployments that have been occurring on the Golden Bear at specific positions on our route for the past few days. Once in the water, these floats lower themselves to depths of nearly 2,000 meters and then raise back to the surface at regular intervals. Along their vertical journey, they record things like water temperature and salinity at specific depths, all things I know nothing about. Each time they return to the surface, they beam their data to a satellite and then begin another cycle. The cycles continue for a few years until they sink for the last time... into Davey Jones' Locker... yarr... its very technical.

I'm glad I haven't gone crazy yet... well then I guess that other people who haven't been on this ship for the past 2 months will have to be the judge of that.

Oh yeah and we're in the Northern Hemisphere again, surprise! So my toilet spins the other way, the weather will be getting hot as we pass through the hot zone, the water on the ship will be nearly boiling when it comes out of the cold water tap (I get my cold out of the hot one now (no seriously I do, it is really sad)) oh yeah and it seems like the water is a lot bluer, its really odd (I just guess thats because the Northern Hemisphere rocks (I mean our seasons make sense and everything)).

Stay Frosty,

Sailor Reporting Salinity

Sinbad Sunday

Well yesterday was probably the most fun at sea I have had yet to date. Every cruise, the ship shuts down all class and work (except watch) to hold inter-divisional games. The school's Corps of Cadets is split into two Companies. Each Company contains 3 Division. Each company sails on one cruise. This year 1st cruise went to Blue Company. So yesterday all 3 division's competed in an assortment of events in order to win a bag of goodies, but more importantly the right to be the first Division dismissed from cruise, easily one of the most coveted prize able to be offered on cruise.

The events of the games were a mix of different nautical skills that put everyone to the test. There were events such as the lifeboat crank, where the whole division teams together to hoist up one of the lifeboats. Oddly enough this was the one event that left me bruised. I guess it just shows my dedication. There were other events such as plumbers nightmare, which presented a 8 ft of pipe with probably 30 problems and a running fire hose on one end. Whoever could plug the most holes and raise the pressure at the other end of the pipe the highest won. Other events were less amusing such as heaving line and hauser toss where it just involved throwing things. But 2 events in particular, took me back to my days of Sea Scouting events. There was knot tying and Boatswain's Chair. Knot tying is self explanatory, but Bos'n's chair involves tying a french bowline around your self and then being hoisted 20 feet off the deck as fast as possible. Now back in the day (which was a Wednesday) this was my event. But oddly enough the team I was now competing with was filled with other Sea Scouts from teams I used to compete against. Quite an amusing thought indeed. Unfortunately in the end... despite me getting 1st's in all the events I participated in, my division ended up getting, hmm how do I put this: second runner up, 2nd loser, 3rd place and dead last. *Sigh* it was fun none the less and was a good way to start the home stretch of cruise.

Well it is official ladies and gentleman, I will officially submit my "2 week notice" tomorrow. I cant believe 2 months is almost all but gone, but it couldn't be done a day sooner.

Stay Frosty,

Safety Restraint Systems

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures.

ECUADOR! ECUADOR! ECUADOR!

Guayaquil Ecuador... What a place!
We made our 4 hour journey up river from the sea at about 0400, did the customs and security dance as is standard procedure. We had our liberty restricted from the usual midnight restriction to 2000. Despite this severe cut back in time, we without hesitation set off into Guayaquil on the wheels of one of the countless crazy taxis that fly around Latin America. We were lucky enough to be in Ecuador on the day of the big soccer game versus Argentina. So my gangbunch and I sat back and watched. The interesting thing to see was how much of city shut down at the opening of the game. Luckily Ecuador won and the riot that the police were ready for, never came. That was basically all that we could do with our limited time that day. When I arrived back at the ship I hardly knew what to do with myself and all my extra time.

The next day was our educational day. We went and met with the U.S. Consulate in the heart of Guayaquil. This involved people more intelligent than I speaking about things that I am only lucky to have understood. After this we climbed back on the bus and headed over to the Banana Port (we were originally supposed to have gone to a banana plantation, but consulate security deemed it too dangerous). Now this port is run by Dole, and the amount of fruit that went out of that port each day was staggering. They had container upon container, each which held approximately 40,000 bananas. That is alot of bananas. After this and probably the second best pizza I've ever had, we went on a less than glamorous sight seeing tour. Do to some navigational areas we got to see a far less talked about part of Ecuador, we saw the slums of Guayaquil which was an unforgettable site to see. After this we finally found our way to our destination, a local Woman's Co-op. Via our guide's translation, we heard their story of how the co-op rose out of local depression and need. This day as a whole was truly indescribable, one that I will never forget.

The last day was definitely interesting. The morning was filled with Churches, statues and iguanas. But unfortunately it was not a great day for all cadets. One of the cadets I was with had too much to drink, and I decided that it would be best for to take him back to the ship. Unfortunately this took the rest of my day as I spent the rest of my liberty taking care of him, and helping him return to a state in which he could return to the ship.

This port more than others has taught me a great deal.

I will have a tale of the adventures which took place during the Sinbad Games today up tomorrow...

later days,

Steven Robert Schiesser

*insert witty/flashy title here*

Ok well, today I have a few updates and stories, which is exciting because I had something new yesterday too.

I'll start off with the boring stuff. We had another drill today and suddenly 5 1/2 weeks in they decide to show us how to get into our life boats... seems kinda late to me. Well at least it happened before you know, we really needed to know it. Anyways, the drill is not out of the ordinary. It was the pyrotechnic demonstration that the Deck department held afterward that was a change of pace. Now in all honesty it was pretty boring, especially after I taught a class on emergency signals, and probably shot off 100x more signals then they did, it was fun to see that I still sometimes know more than some Marine Transportation majors after being in Sea Scouts. But it was rather frightening and hilarious, the amount of times the "MT's" almost shot each other in the face with rockets and magnesium flares...

In other more relatively exciting news, we received word from our teacher, that we are most likely going to Mexico now, all we have to wait for is U.S. State Departments final clearance, but the captain, I quote, "Feels good about us getting our clearance." So hopefully we get cleared because in all honesty I do not want to be going to San Diego. Not that there is anyting wrong with being in San Diego, just I'm going to be spending July there, so I would much rather pass.

Other than that, I believe food is getting worse day by day. I am finding less and less interest in eating ship food. Can't wait for some Ecuadorian cuisine and then some home cookin.

later days,

SRS

C/C and more

Star Date: 200906080000

MIDN's LOG

21 Days to go, 2 countries and 1 equator crossing and this little adventure will be all but done. Our next stop, for those of you who have been following along, is Guayaquil, Ecuador. In order to get to Guayaquil we actually have to make a 4 hour trip up river (not sure which one) in order to reach the Port. We will be making our attack run on Wednesday and it should be lots of fun.

But why not something that's a change of pace. Today I had what is called C/C duty today. I think it stands for cooking and cleaning duty except that all I did was the cleaning part. I had to wake up at 0530 and worked til 0900 in the garbage room. then went to class (completely slept right through it (we were debating whether drugs should be legalized or not, so I didn't miss a thing)) then for lunch I worked in the scullery from 1100 to 1330. The scullery is where we clean all the dishes, it was surprisingly not that bad and it didn't smell as bad as the garbage room. Then for dinner we worked from 1600 to 2000 had a BBQ on the fantail as is tradition for Sundays here on the TSGB. I spent the time running between the galley and the stern and then sweating up a storm in the scullery (you'll learn some nautical terms, just stay tuned). Due to our hard work and my obviously dashing good looks, Mom, the ship's baker,(who calls us all "Son") has promised us a pie and great big chocolate chip cookies all to ourselves tomorrow. Then for the final act of the day we emptied the garbage room by throwing the paper and food over the side out of nice little hatch in the side of the ship, that is nice and body sized. We compact the plastic and then incinerate it, well the incineration fun saved for more qualified individuals. Altogether today was at times gross, but not to hard, just really long.

I would now like to take this time to thank those who make all these post worth while with their continuing emails of encouragement. In particular, my brother, who despite: midterms, finals (ive been on this boat too long) taking care of my dog, the shingles, looking for a Job, his senior project, and work; he still manages to email me every day or so, for a sanity check. But thank you to all of you who have emailed me, I mention my brother, because he was the brains that made this blog possible. OH! and if you email me and i don email you back that day it means one of two things. My email blocked you because it is over protective, and in that case I will email you as soon as I get Vallejo to unblock you or, I'm in port and thus not on the ship to check it. But again thank you all for emailing me, keep it up! and if you haven't, (Santino Borling) there is no time like the present to start!

Thank you again, take care

remember to spay and neuter your pets

S.R.Schiesser
MIDN 3/c USNR

Chile Pictures

a Day on the Bear

Hello there people on terra firma

So I feel I Should let you in on what exactly it is that I do on a daily basis. First off we have class every morning from 9 to 11, all week long. After class we have lunch then we have "Quarters". Now the purpose of Quarters is for accountability for the cadets, and to make sure nobody has fallen off the ship or something along those lines. Well we get up there at the same time everyday, and then wait around 10 minutes while they talk to the corps officers in a private meeting in front of the formation and then they call us to attention and dismiss us. Yeah thats basically it. We stand around for 10 minutes for less then 1 minute of activity. Then the afternoon differs depending on the week. Either I have a work day or I sit around and basically do nothing. Then around 1600 we have clean sweep down. Each person is assigned to a group that is asssigned an area of the ship to clean. My are is the Fantail of the ship. So each day I report there and clean the same area day after day. I admit, sometimes I have to pretend to be cleaning because it can only get so dirty some days. After all that nonsense, we have chow and then start it all over again.

I hope everyone is doing well, feel free to send me an email anytime!

S

Northward Bound

Well for one thing it was only somewhat chilly in Chile, and that pun is officially done and over with because I might go more insane than 1 month has merited. Speaking of which, with the arrival in Chile last Saturday that brought along the end to the first half of cruise and the beginning of the second. With the beginning of the second cruise we have one particular addition to the faculty on board that is actually rather amusing. During the second half of cruise it is standard procedure to have the schools psychologist come aboard. This is probably the clearest indication of the fact that a good number of the people on this ship are going to go a little nutzo in the next few weeks. But other than that not much else has changed.

Chile:

Day one: Unlike Panama we made the short trip into Puerto Valparaiso while "manning the rails." This involves the majority of the crew dressed in their "Salt and Pepper" uniforms along the side of the ship on all the outside decks. It was quite the show we put on infront of the Chilean Navy who were our neighbors on the pier. The first day was again our work day which was spent scrubbing the sides of the ship. We were released early in the day and thats when the fun truly began. I had one major change in my game plan that really made my port days go by a whole lot smoother. The group I chose to hang out included a native Spanish speaker. I never could've imagined how much easier it would be to have someone whose abilities wit the Spanish language go light years far beyond that of my skill to count to 5 and say yes, no and bueno (oh yeah I learned how to ask where the bathroom is pretty fast too) So we made are way into Valparaiso's sister city, Vina del Mar. We roamed around taking in the sights and avoiding the very large population of stray dogs. The day was spent roaming the city and eating good food. That night we celebrated a friends birthday at one of the local bars in Valpo and then strolled back to the ship early for curfew.

Day two: Well the next day was our site seeing adventure. We were all over the two towns; visiting the house of Pablo Neuardae, the palaces and fortress left behind by the Spanish royalty and of course the beautiful beaches. We did a little shopping and got the experience of dealing with the local street vendors. The buildings of Valparaiso are an array of colors and some of the "artwork" that adorns the walls is considered some of the finest in the whole world. The two cities are not as modern as the Santiago; it was put best as being stuck in 1985... whatever that means.

Day three: Day Three was spent in the city of Santiago. Santiago is the capital of Chile and one of the most amazing cities I've ever been to. The city is the mix of a modern Western city inter-spliced with a city of old Europe. The Shadow of the sky bridge between to of the newer skyscrapers is cast upon the presidential palaces high stone pillars and ornate carvings and statues. It was such an astounding sight to see, and really helped finish off the stay. The purpose for our little visit and two hour drive, was a visit to the world trade center and a briefing with a company called AmCham. Ill spare you the details, so that I don't put you to sleep.

Ill post some emails tomorrow.... er well my today, your tomorrow.

Hold Fast,

SRS