Mail during sea year

kdbax

10-Year Member
5-Year Member
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Mar 18, 2009
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What happens to mail sent to a mid at the KP address while he/she is on sea year? I've been trying to explain to Grandmom that mail is not a good idea for the next few months, but it doesn't seem to be sinking in.:redface:
 
mail just accumulates in our mailboxes. we usually have about 24 pounds of mail when we get back from sea.
 
How does communication work for sea year? About how often do they communicate back home? Just curious
 
well we all (at least all of my friends did) get ship emails while we're at sea. emails are sent and received usually twice a day. so there is a bit of a lag in emails, but not too bad considering you can keep in touch while being on the other side of the room. many MSC (military sealift command) ships have sat phones that can be used in conjunction with an international calling card. some of my friends also had sat phones on commercial ships where you could do the same thing. a couple people buy SIM cards for very cheap overseas so that they can use their cell while in port. my friend did this in china for 10 dollars and had unlimited minutes. also, for ships that have internet, facebook is a viable alternative to email, the only drawback being that it might take a long time to load facebook while at sea.
 
Thanks for the info KPMIDKP it is good to start collecting for DS who is A Split
 
To add to KP's post, all communications are at the Captain’s discretion and policies set forth by the company. The ships internet service is primarily for communication with the home office. Also, there is no privacy on ships emails. Consider yourself extremely lucky if you here from them once a week.
 
DS at sea now

Our DS is currently at sea, for his first sea year, headed for Hong Kong. The main communication method is emails and calls on an international calling card. Do not get too comfortable knowing there will be emails...the mids are working and doing their sea projects. Ours said his day typically begins around 5-5:30 and is generally a 12 hour day so the emails come when he has a break.
 
also remember that attachments to both incoming and outgoing emails are generally not allowed.
 
DS has been gone since early July on Gulf of Mex to Northern Europe route and we have heard nothing from him by any means- phone, email....
I hope we will hear when he gets back into port in Houston.

Indoc and plebe year is good parental training for sea year! I'm not at all worried about him but we can't wait to hear all about his experience so far. He was so excited when he called right after they left the last US port and headed for the North Atlantic.
Sea year is very different than Indoc because they are doing what they love and what they worked so hard for.
 
Parental Training

Jessibee~You are completely correct! INDOC and Plebe Year were great training for the no emails/calls (or lack there of) during sea year. Let me know how your DS is doing when he does contact you. Our DS has been gone since July 6th out of Oakland headed for the Far East. Hopefully, I can tell you about Hong Kong this Saturday :shake:
 
AMEN sisters! Our son is at port in Yokohama after 3 delays of getting out to sea and 3 ship change schedules over the course of 3 wk. Yes, indoc and plebe year are a great way of getting used to NO communications from our dd/ds. I was hoping by now we'd have gotten an email from him, (he started on Monday), but alas, I fear we will have to wait a long time according to these posts. At least we heard from him before he left San Francisco and before his battery ran out of charge at the hotel in yokohama while Instant Messaging. Does anyone else out there save the voicemail messages on their phones so they can hear their son's and daughter's voices? My husband thinks I'm nuts. But he usually proves himself wrong!:yllol:
 
Fun Parent Project for Sea Year

I was reading through all of the information on Sea Year and thought I would post something that kept the family engaged and up to date while our son was traveling around the world. It was a fun way to keep track of his travels while out on Sea Year and his internship on a tug boat.

We purchased a 1.5' x 3' world map and attached it to a piece of foam board. I then got a pack of multi colored stick pins. When I was able to locate his ship or when we received information on where he was we stuck a pin in the map. He was on four different ships so we used four different colored pins. I also printed out pictures of each ship and put those on the map.


If you are going to do this get a world map that is centered on the Atlantic or the Pacific based on were your kid will be most of the time. You also do not want to put a pin in every day. I placed a pin every day on the first trip and ran out of pins and the map got too cluttered.

Now that he is finished with his sailing for a while it is a great conversation piece in my office.

async
 
NU81~What a great idea! Going to COSTCO (I remember seeing a variety of world maps) today to get a map and colorful pins!! Thank you :thumb:
 
NU81, i hear teacher language here! Engaged. I was thinking about doing the same thing! Ok, now if I get this teaching job, my students can track our son too!:thumb:
 
I was reading through all of the information on Sea Year and thought I would post something that kept the family engaged and up to date while our son was traveling around the world. It was a fun way to keep track of his travels while out on Sea Year and his internship on a tug boat.

We purchased a 1.5' x 3' world map and attached it to a piece of foam board. I then got a pack of multi colored stick pins. When I was able to locate his ship or when we received information on where he was we stuck a pin in the map. He was on four different ships so we used four different colored pins. I also printed out pictures of each ship and put those on the map.


If you are going to do this get a world map that is centered on the Atlantic or the Pacific based on were your kid will be most of the time. You also do not want to put a pin in every day. I placed a pin every day on the first trip and ran out of pins and the map got too cluttered.

Now that he is finished with his sailing for a while it is a great conversation piece in my office.

async

WOW, what a wonderful idea! I will have to remember that for next year...:thumb:
 
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