I got an email from Randy via his laptop and the wireless network on the CMA campus late Friday afternoon. Here's what he had to report.
" 'Training' is complete. We have liberty until midnight tomorrow. They cancelled our rowing training this afternoon because high winds through the straights here made the bay too rough for us novices. But yesterday [Thursday, April 27] we did - in the pool - practice getting in and out of life rafts. And had to jump off a 10-foot-high platform with our life jackets on. And since life jackets are a lot more buoyant than people, the life jacket tries to take your ears off when you hit the water. But all survived. Otherwise, a bunch of training videos, a ships tour. And we got to shoot a firehose on the dock.
"Most CMA faculty and officers have been staying at home, so not too many in the 'officers mess.' In fact, when I went in for dinner last night, there was just one guy there! But the total contingent of faculty and officers is nearly 50, so the dining room should be full once we get underway. We have fairly nice round tables that seat 8 each. Blue table clothes, real glasses. The students eat on plastic table tops with plastic dishes. Ah, the rewards of class!
"I spent Wednesday night cleaning the room - even down to partially cleaning the upholstery on the chair with a sponge. And cleaning some of the worst areas of the carpet, although it's rather hopeless. But just vacuuming helped some. All in all, it looks vastly better, and also looks better with the bed made and pictures up, etc.
"Not sure what I'll do for liberty day tomorrow. The ferry runs from Vallejo [actual location of CMA] to SF, but the forecast is for fog and drizzle and pretty cool in SF. In fact, I can see the fog bank looking down the bay now. May just hang around, read and finish class preparations, hike over to Starbucks."
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