Captain's Class

So, since I told you about the interviews, I thought I'd tell you a bit about the classes I've been taking. The first class was the 100 Ton Master's Near Coastal with Towing & Sailing endorsements. This was a two week class class that culminates with a rather tough standardized test. Kim and Jon ponied up the cash for the class, for which I will be forever grateful, from BigMop proceeds to invest in my education. This gave me a great incentive to give it everything I had. I even stopped drinking in the evenings because I had so much homework.

Anyhoo, Arnstein Mustad, a sailing bigwig out here, taught the class at OCSC, just down the road near the marina in Berkeley. I was a little nervous going in, but the material was presented in a straightforward way, and the class built on itself. We had daily quizzes over the previous night's assignment, so you could really gauge your progress. We covered Rules of the Road, directly from the COLREGS, we covered safety, fire fighting, deck and boat handling, seamanship, weather, aids to navigation, charting, etc. I of course loved anything to do with the charts and math. We covered dead reckoning, set and drift of tidal current, three line of position fix, running fix, etc.

At the end of the first week, I felt things were going along nicely, although I was overwhelmed with the volume of material we were being held responsible for. I was looking forward to a break over the weekend to decompress. That's when he gave us homework for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! I also had to work at West Marine on Sunday, so I did my Friday homework Friday night, and took nine hours on Saturday to do the other two day's worth. Whew! Friday's class was also Hawaiian shirt day, so I pulled out my most obnoxious Parrothead shirt and shamed the whole class and got a Maritime Institute hat for my trouble.

Monday we hit it hard again, and Friday's test started to loom. We covered another week's worth of stuff and the test finally came around. Thursday night, he suggested we not study. There was no homework. If you didn't know it now, it was too late. I did just a little bit of memory work to keep sharp, and we relaxed. I felt in good shape for the test because my daily quizzes hat hit 100%. I took my time during the test, and felt very prepared for the material. I was actually the last guy in the class to finish. Nice and slow, since it wasn't a timed test. It felt like forever for him to grade it, but he finally said, "Congratulations Captain Larsen." Whew. I actually got the hightest cumulative grade in the class, with 100% on Rules of the Road and Charting, 93% on another section, and 96% on the other.

I can't tell you how happy and proud I am of having had this opportunity. It had been a goal of mine for many years to accomplish before I turned 40. It has also opened a lot of doors for me in the sailing community out here and has prequalified me for several job opportunities. I'm looking forward to getting all of the paperwork finished and taking down to the Oakland USCG Regional Exam Center. I just received my drug screening, I've got all of my letters of recommendation and sea service documentd. The only thing left is the American Red Cross Adult CPR and First Aid classes, which I'm currently working on registering for. Once I get my ticket, I'll start at Club Nautique. I'm actually certified to skipper a boat that can have up to 320 passengers. Scary, huh? Thanks for all the support from everyone!