I’ll be working on the " EOT Spar" as an cadet. I would like to hear some advice from some experienced merchant mariner. Once I’m finished this internship I will be an AB special.
Good ship with interesting runs. Owners take care of her as well.
You from SMA? I did my engineering internship on there as well. It was a great learning opportunity. An interesting/fun ship as well. Two MAK’s for propulsion with two shaft generators, and an auxiliary generator. I did basically everything on that boat from cleaning, painting, garbage, stores, moving cranes, maintenance, fixing the deck crews grinders & needle guns, sweeping the cargo hold, ballasting, and was in charge of topping up the day tank morning and night. By the time I left I was confident and the Chief had confidence in me as well. I was able to start up the boat from just being on the aux gen, and have it ready for sea by myself. The only bad part was the cook & I had some issues (basically he didn’t like me eating a bowl of cereal when I woke up and then having breakfast 2hrs later at meal time). Good small crew that worked together when I was there and some of the AB/Bosuns are guys with decades of experience and even more stories. The story about the guy that built the wooden raft for his pet serval or ocelot was hilarious!!! I had two guys that were both upward of 65yrs old and they had massive amounts of knowledge. Watching them hand splice a 6inch mooring line was an experience in and of itself.
Myself and a deck cadet joined the same day (both from SMA), and the best advice I can give you is to show up at the boat ready to go to work instantly. We were in work clothes & boots when we showed up and within a half hour of stepping on the boat we were loading stores and helping with mooring lines, etc till the end of the day. Sea days are pretty relaxed, but when you get to port be prepared for a 16-18hr day. It kinda sucked, but at the same time it could be fun, as in the time we had to lasso the anchor from the dock in order to spin it 180 degrees so it would go home correctly. Usually the port people were the ones offloading or loading the cargo, but we always had lots of stuff to do during it and afterwards. I would recommend some safety sunglasses just for saving your eyes a bit and maybe some sort of sea sickness stuff if you are prone to that, the house is forward and it bounces around quite a bit depending on the sea. You’ll be doing your own laundry so maybe pack enough to last you a few days at a time. The room was pretty good, nothing horrible or amazing.
When I was there we went out of Houston to Haiti, Chile, Columbia, and some other places. Some neat memories from that boat. Sitting outside the Panama Canal smoking a cigar and watching a lighting storm, and having a burial at sea for the cardboard girlfriend I made for my roommate were two of the better ones.
Sailed on EOT Spar for 2 years when it was Strong Patriot. Great run to Azores and one trip to Bermuda. Tough ride when it gets rough but you will learn a lot. Good luck.
[QUOTE=“Kingrobby;119334”]You from SMA? I did my engineering internship on there as well. It was a great learning opportunity. An interesting/fun ship as well. Two MAK’s for propulsion with two shaft generators, and an auxiliary generator. I did basically everything on that boat from cleaning, painting, garbage, stores, moving cranes, maintenance, fixing the deck crews grinders & needle guns, sweeping the cargo hold, ballasting, and was in charge of topping up the day tank morning and night. By the time I left I was confident and the Chief had confidence in me as well. I was able to start up the boat from just being on the aux gen, and have it ready for sea by myself. The only bad part was the cook & I had some issues (basically he didn’t like me eating a bowl of cereal when I woke up and then having breakfast 2hrs later at meal time). Good small crew that worked together when I was there and some of the AB/Bosuns are guys with decades of experience and even more stories. The story about the guy that built the wooden raft for his pet serval or ocelot was hilarious!!! I had two guys that were both upward of 65yrs old and they had massive amounts of knowledge. Watching them hand splice a 6inch mooring line was an experience in and of itself.
Myself and a deck cadet joined the same day (both from SMA), and the best advice I can give you is to show up at the boat ready to go to work instantly. We were in work clothes & boots when we showed up and within a half hour of stepping on the boat we were loading stores and helping with mooring lines, etc till the end of the day. Sea days are pretty relaxed, but when you get to port be prepared for a 16-18hr day. It kinda sucked, but at the same time it could be fun, as in the time we had to lasso the anchor from the dock in order to spin it 180 degrees so it would go home correctly. Usually the port people were the ones offloading or loading the cargo, but we always had lots of stuff to do during it and afterwards. I would recommend some safety sunglasses just for saving your eyes a bit and maybe some sort of sea sickness stuff if you are prone to that, the house is forward and it bounces around quite a bit depending on the sea. You’ll be doing your own laundry so maybe pack enough to last you a few days at a time. The room was pretty good, nothing horrible or amazing.
When I was there we went out of Houston to Haiti, Chile, Columbia, and some other places. Some neat memories from that boat. Sitting outside the Panama Canal smoking a cigar and watching a lighting storm, and having a burial at sea for the cardboard girlfriend I made for my roommate were two of the better ones.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for such an en lighting story and experience. Yes, I did go to SMA. After reading this, im more excited and ready to work hard and show some seamanship skill.