Saturday, February 19, 2011

FTV 2/19/11

Today is Field Day. After a long voyage, the ship needs to be cleaned. Cleaning the ship is part of the required maintenance until it sets sail again. Everyone who is not on watch has been very busy cleaning and organizing every space on the ship. Desks and chairs are secured and stored neatly, offices are being packed up to be offloaded, and bulkheads and decks are being washed down. Not to mention the enormous amount of trash that is being compacted that is stored for offload. During our journey home we traveled through the North Atlantic. While in the North Atlantic we are allowed to dump almost all our trash over the side. There are certain regulations of course that only allow us to dump and discharge certain things.

Most of these regulations pertain to where dumping is allowed. For example, nothing can be dumped within three miles of any land. Also there is no dumping in Caribbean and Greater Caribbean oceans.. One of the items that cannot be dumped anywhere is plastic. Plastic is harmful to the environment. This is because all other trash that is dumped can break down to its natural element, plastic does not do this. Plastic only breaks down into smaller pieces; these small pieces never break down. We do our best to prevent plastic from entering the ocean. We store our un-dumped or non-dumping trash in a large container that sits on top of the two hold hatch. In the end, our trash is either dumped over the side or stored until it can be offloaded in port.

We are currently anchored in Cape Cod Bay, not too far from the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal. Everyone is eager to start our trip down the canal and reach home. It will be an exciting trip down the canal, as family and friends line the canal and academy for our return.


Why is our time of arrival (1042) so specific? (Hint: We are waiting for a certain time of day.)

Why is plastic considered harmful to sea animals?

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