Sea Stops!

So as I wait to receive an appointment: I kinda want to ask all of the current students/alumni(parents can chime in too) some questions.

What countries and cities did you stop at when you were at sea?

How long were you there?

What was/were your favorite stops?
Least favorite stop?

One more concern. So according to this link (that was last updated in 2015)

https://www.usmma.edu/academics/departments/sea-year

Mids get a stipend of around 1K a month. How currently accurate is this information? Is that for both the 165 day and 365 day block that they go to sea? Are there any opportunities to work on campus in the meantime? Anytime during the summer to pick up internships? I'm just a little worried that I might not have enough saved up to take care of my fixed expenses throughout the year. Especially plebe year.

Jbmz said:

So as I wait to receive an appointment: I kinda want to ask all of the current students/alumni(parents can chime in too) some questions.

What countries and cities did you stop at when you were at sea?

How long were you there?

What was/were your favorite stops?
Least favorite stop?

One more concern. So according to this link (that was last updated in 2015)

https://www.usmma.edu/academics/departments/sea-year

Mids get a stipend of around 1K a month. How currently accurate is this information? Is that for both the 165 day and 365 day block that they go to sea? Are there any opportunities to work on campus in the meantime? Anytime during the summer to pick up internships? I'm just a little worried that I might not have enough saved up to take care of my fixed expenses throughout the year. Especially plebe year.

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I can not answer all of your questions as I have not yet gone out to sea, but I will try my best on the others.

The Countries you visit can depend on the route that your ships takes (i.e. Middle east, Northern Europe, Southeast Asia). From what I have been told some go back and forth between the same few ports while others go "around the world" and back. In port time also depends on the type of ship you are on. If on a Container Ship or RO/RO (car carries) there in port time is not more than 24 hours, and usually less, around 12-18 hours. Getting off the ship to explore depends on if you need to stay and help with the offloading and on loading of the new cargo being taken aboard. Commercial ships tend to have the least amount of port time. But on the other end of the spectrum, MSC ship can be out for a few days and then back in port for a few. All depends on what their job is and what location of the world they are operating in.

Mids can pick up jobs that people are offering in the surrounding area, not much really to be done on campus. I would not recommend that at all during your Plebe year because you will not have enough time to add a job to your already busy load with classes, the regiment, and a sports team if you participate on one. Plebe Year is when your class will loose a lot of people due to academics so that extra time taken up by a job will not be beneficial. Yes, you can do internships during summer break or either one of your sailing periods. If you are a part of the EMT program you have to work one Indoc over the course of your time here, so what ever summer you choose (or are voluntold) to work, you will obviously not be able to complete an internship. I may be wrong in this but this is what I have seen and learned from the upperclassmen that I know. They mostly completed their internships during their second sailing period because you have much more flexibility in scheduling when you want to complete it due to being out for eight months. But people also do their during their first sailing period and summer breaks.

Also FYI, if you are on a Naval vessel for any part of Sea year you will not get paid. In regard to paying for your expenses, if they are school costs (Laptop, printer, etc.) you can apply for scholarships and use 529 money if you have access to one. Other than that, you will not have much need for spending money besides for food in the NEX because you are stuck here on campus for most of the time.

I hope this helps, and welcome aboard!

I would echo everything written by USMMA2021 above. My DS visited 21 countries. Sea year pay is about $1,050/month. In addition to the factors referenced above, time spent ashore also depends on your captain (some are really nice and let you spend maximum time and even give you spending money), the political climate in the particular country, and whether you are talking about a male or female cadet (some countries are just not a good idea for females). Do not count on work to earn money for your plebe year. About the only thing you can do for spending money is take extra watches for pay. You will not need much spending money as a plebe because your liberty is so limited. My DS scored his last 3 years there and did regular snow shovelling and yard work for a wealthy and very generous plastic surgeon a few blocks from the academy. What you find depends on how industrious you are. If you anticipate financial struggles, be in contact with the financial aid office. Also, look for local scholarships in your area to help with initial expenses plebe year. Good luck.

As above, ports and length of stay all depend on the type of vessel, schedule, etc. It also depends on whether you can get away from the vessel or not, how your Sea Project is going, etc. On one of my ship during sea year, we had no Day 3rd Assistant, so the 1st Assistant engineer paid my Union scale to do extra work on weekends out of his own pocket. Occasionally, other engineers and or deck officers have been known to slip the cadet some spending money ashore. It all depends. As far as having money during the school year, and as mentioned above, there are weekend jobs that one can get. I remember parking cars as a valet at an upscale country club. Made tips AND a low hourly wage. Plebe year, you could probably get by on a few hundred dollars for the year. Not much to spend things on and not much time out in the world until recognition. . . .

Jbmz said:

So as I wait to receive an appointment: I kinda want to ask all of the current students/alumni(parents can chime in too) some questions.

What countries and cities did you stop at when you were at sea?

How long were you there?

What was/were your favorite stops?
Least favorite stop?

One more concern. So according to this link (that was last updated in 2015)

https://www.usmma.edu/academics/departments/sea-year

Mids get a stipend of around 1K a month. How currently accurate is this information? Is that for both the 165 day and 365 day block that they go to sea? Are there any opportunities to work on campus in the meantime? Anytime during the summer to pick up internships? I'm just a little worried that I might not have enough saved up to take care of my fixed expenses throughout the year. Especially plebe year.

Click to expand...

Uhm, you usually stop at big ports, look up a list of ports that US Flag vessels go to. A lot of it depends on who your ATR is, one of the ATRs does a lot of APL and Matson, the other does more Maersk, etc. You kind of have to go to the ATR that deals with the company you want to be with. Plebe year isn't too expensive, you can't go out which saves you a ton of money over that year. And no, you cannot work on campus and plebe year you will not be allowed to work off campus. I've done serving jobs at hotels and stuff that pay like $15/hour, those are just weekend side jobs you do as an upperclassman. Sea year pay is about $1,100/month. I also did a paid internship, 2 weeks for about $800.

kpmom2013 said:

some countries are just not a good idea for females

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Woah, what a politically incorrect statement.

Originally from Seattle so I went out of west coast ports. Overseas I hit Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Kobe Japan. Okinawa, Pusan Korea, Hong Kong, Kaoishung Taiwan and Singapore.

My favorite was Taiwan. It was dirty, we used to say you could smell it before you could see it, but it felt the most like a foreign country, the people were interesting (Fong the cab driver) and the food was awesome.

In the US, I hit Seattle, Tacoma, Anchorage, Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Crockett CA, Honolulu, Nawilwili (Kauai) and Kahului (Maui). My favorites were definitely Crockett CA and Hawaii. All were on the same ship which incidentally all my best sea stories come from. It was a bulker so we would spend 2-3 days on Maui and Kauai with little work to do on board, the crew was great and I also happened to learn the most engineering on that ship too. It was definitely my worst ship for creature comforts but if I had sailed MEBA after graduation I would have gone back to that ship in a heartbeat.

The industry/ships has changed too much for my experiences to be worth anything more than the musings of an old sailor waxing nostalgic over the good old days (I can’t believe I just said that ... sadly I can)

As for work at KP, I did valet parking, waited weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs at the multitude of local temples, waiter/bar tender at Melville Hall and did some local parties. Not sure if it’s still there but there used to be a job box in the MOD shack where locals would leave job announcements for M/N. Anything from house sitting to parties to yard work.

KPEngineer said:

Originally from Seattle so I went out of west coast ports. Overseas I hit Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Kobe Japan. Okinawa, Pusan Korea, Hong Kong, Kaoishung Taiwan and Singapore.

My favorite was Taiwan. It was dirty, we used to say you could smell it before you could see it, but it felt the most like a foreign country, the people were interesting (Fong the cab driver) and the food was awesome.

In the US, I hit Seattle, Tacoma, Anchorage, Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Crockett CA, Honolulu, Nawilwili (Kauai) and Kahului (Maui). My favorites were definitely Crockett CA and Hawaii. All were on the same ship which incidentally all my best sea stories come from. It was a bulker so we would spend 2-3 days on Maui and Kauai with little work to do on board, the crew was great and I also happened to learn the most engineering on that ship too. It was definitely my worst ship for creature comforts but if I had sailed MEBA after graduation I would have gone back to that ship in a heartbeat.

The industry/ships has changed too much for my experiences to be worth anything more than the musings of an old sailor waxing nostalgic over the good old days (I can’t believe I just said that ... sadly I can)

As for work at KP, I did valet parking, waited weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs at the multitude of local temples, waiter/bar tender at Melville Hall and did some local parties. Not sure if it’s still there but there used to be a job box in the MOD shack where locals would leave job announcements for M/N. Anything from house sitting to parties to yard work.

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What? No Keelung? That was probably one of my favorite ports for many different reasons. Tanjung Priok (Jakarta) and Surabaya, both in Indonesia were also interesting places for much the same reasons. In Surabaya, especially, a Westerner really feels like they are in a different world. Manila and some of the "pineapple" ports in the Philippines also had their attractions. I spent a couple of weeks in Manila when the ship I was on was arrested for bad company debts. Was also lucky to sail on a couple of break bulk liners where the average stay in a port was a couple of days. Probably the most remote place we went to during my cadet shipping was up a river in Borneo to an anchorage called Tanjung Mani. Only the captain and a couple of the passengers went ashore. The rest of us stayed onboard as we anchored in the river and loaded mahogany dowels from lighters. Also was busy cleaning the superheater on one of the boilers, a curse of the old Lykes Pacer class ships. Yet, like you say; changes in the industry have made our experiences a bit obsolete. . . . .

cmakin said:

Yet, like you say; changes in the industry have made our experiences a bit obsolete. . . . .

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Only one of my cadet ships is still around. Launched in '81 and still around. Older than any of the M/N even at the Academy 10 years ago.

Just got off my forst ship after 122 days. Went to a few US ports along the gulf coast as well as Northern Europe. Ship went to Antwerp Belgium, Bremerhaven Germany, London Gate England. We also had a month long drydock in Hamburg Germany. It was a great experience. I also had friends whose ships went around the word. Some people also had runs to the middle east and back (glad I didn't get that one)

KPEngineer said:

cmakin said:

Yet, like you say; changes in the industry have made our experiences a bit obsolete. . . . .

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Only one of my cadet ships is still around. Launched in '81 and still around. Older than any of the M/N even at the Academy 10 years ago.

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There are two of my cadet ships still around, both ROROs. . . old States Lines ships.

Dsstern98 said:

Just got off my forst ship after 122 days. Went to a few US ports along the gulf coast as well as Northern Europe. Ship went to Antwerp Belgium, Bremerhaven Germany, London Gate England. We also had a month long drydock in Hamburg Germany. It was a great experience. I also had friends whose ships went around the word. Some people also had runs to the middle east and back (glad I didn't get that one)

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The Middle East isn't so bad. All depends on where you go.

cmakin said:

There are two of my cadet ships still around, both ROROs. . . old States Lines ships.

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USS Constitution?

cmakin said:

Dsstern98 said:

Just got off my forst ship after 122 days. Went to a few US ports along the gulf coast as well as Northern Europe. Ship went to Antwerp Belgium, Bremerhaven Germany, London Gate England. We also had a month long drydock in Hamburg Germany. It was a great experience. I also had friends whose ships went around the word. Some people also had runs to the middle east and back (glad I didn't get that one)

Click to expand...

The Middle East isn't so bad. All depends on where you go.

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I was originally supposed to get on a ship from Kaohsiung to Karachi. Some of it may have been less than fun, but it would have been a good "I went to ..." ship

KPEngineer said:

cmakin said:

Dsstern98 said:

Just got off my forst ship after 122 days. Went to a few US ports along the gulf coast as well as Northern Europe. Ship went to Antwerp Belgium, Bremerhaven Germany, London Gate England. We also had a month long drydock in Hamburg Germany. It was a great experience. I also had friends whose ships went around the word. Some people also had runs to the middle east and back (glad I didn't get that one)

Click to expand...

The Middle East isn't so bad. All depends on where you go.

Click to expand...

I was originally supposed to get on a ship from Kaohsiung to Karachi. Some of it may have been less than fun, but it would have been a good "I went to ..." ship

Click to expand...

Even the lousy places I have been to make for some decent stories. . . in fact, sometimes the better ones. . . although I do not have any huge desire to return to some West African ports. But I never sailed to them, instead did my work there after coming ashore. . .

Thank you everyone! These are really good insights and quality posts!

kpmom2013 said:

time spent ashore also depends on your captain (some are really nice and let you spend maximum time and even give you spending money)

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This is an absolutely terrible attitude to have. Time ashore depends largely on your supervisor... the C/M or the 1A/E... (...if a captain is that involved it'd be a little weird) it has nothing to do with how "nice" anyone is. You aren't on a cruise. You're on a working ship. With real commercial pressures. If we can spare cadets, yeah, go get lost and explore the red light districts of the world, but this business of it being a function of how "nice" anyone is is BS. Don't ever expect to get ashore (...do you know how hard it is to leave when your license is in the rack?), show up every day in port and say "Hey mate/first, what do you need?" If they say "get lost" then get lost but if the dumpster just showed up you'll be slinging trash with the second mate. Never ask to get knocked off or go ashore. Ask "Hey C/M what do you need?" it'll get you a hell of a lot farther onboard.

Be a professional first. The other stuff will come.

Dsstern98 said:

Just got off my forst ship after 122 days. Went to a few US ports along the gulf coast as well as Northern Europe. Ship went to Antwerp Belgium, Bremerhaven Germany, London Gate England. We also had a month long drydock in Hamburg Germany. It was a great experience. I also had friends whose ships went around the word. Some people also had runs to the middle east and back (glad I didn't get that one)

Click to expand...

I work for the same company where you did your cadet time. It's a good run for sure.

The middle east stuff was some of the most fun for me as a cadet. Colombo Sri Lanka was probably the coolest place I went as a cadet, and Dubai was noteworthy too.

beyond said:

Dsstern98 said:

Just got off my forst ship after 122 days. Went to a few US ports along the gulf coast as well as Northern Europe. Ship went to Antwerp Belgium, Bremerhaven Germany, London Gate England. We also had a month long drydock in Hamburg Germany. It was a great experience. I also had friends whose ships went around the word. Some people also had runs to the middle east and back (glad I didn't get that one)

Click to expand...

I work for the same company where you did your cadet time. It's a good run for sure.

The middle east stuff was some of the most fun for me as a cadet. Colombo Sri Lanka was probably the coolest place I went as a cadet, and Dubai was noteworthy too.

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My time in Dubai (and a lot of other places) came many years after I came ashore. Was out for a drydocking a few years back. Of course my perspective when I travel now is far and away different from when I was a cadet and the world has certainly changed since then, too. I am no real fan of Dubai. . . but I really DO like Istanbul and would probably even spend my own money to go there. . . .

beyond said:

kpmom2013 said:

time spent ashore also depends on your captain (some are really nice and let you spend maximum time and even give you spending money)

Click to expand...

This is an absolutely terrible attitude to have. Time ashore depends largely on your supervisor... the C/M or the 1A/E... (...if a captain is that involved it'd be a little weird) it has nothing to do with how "nice" anyone is. You aren't on a cruise. You're on a working ship. With real commercial pressures. If we can spare cadets, yeah, go get lost and explore the red light districts of the world, but this business of it being a function of how "nice" anyone is is BS. Don't ever expect to get ashore (...do you know how hard it is to leave when your license is in the rack?), show up every day in port and say "Hey mate/first, what do you need?" If they say "get lost" then get lost but if the dumpster just showed up you'll be slinging trash with the second mate. Never ask to get knocked off or go ashore. Ask "Hey C/M what do you need?" it'll get you a hell of a lot farther onboard.

Be a professional first. The other stuff will come.

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I will mostly agree ...

Be prepared to work a full day, every day you are on board even when in port. Some may be short, and some will definitely be long. I've done 20-hour days bringing a steam plant up from cold from cold iron, days where the Master gave me the keys to his truck and tasked me with a beer run upon arrival, and everything in between. I had a 1st who asked me if I wanted weekends off or days in port off. I took days in port but typically only made use of half of them. I also had a C/E who worked hard on the voyage from CA to HI and made sure we all took time off in HI.

I'm assuming it hasn't changed much but I did get given money to go ashore (along with the Captains truck), on one ship even the unlicensed took up a collection for me when I was getting off.

But to Beyond's bigger point ... don't expect it. Expect to work 12 hour days every single day on the ship, don't expect to ever get ashore and don't expect to get a single penny above the pay you are entitled too. Appreciate it if you do, but any expectation will become quickly apparent and ensure that you most likely won't.

KPEngineer said:

But to Beyond's bigger point ... don't expect it. Expect to work 12 hour days every single day on the ship, don't expect to ever get ashore and don't expect to get a single penny above the pay you are entitled too. Appreciate it if you do, but any expectation will become quickly apparent and ensure that you most likely won't.

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This is true, but a little exaggerated. As a cadet, I've worked 15+ hour days when the deck dept was really swamped and there were time constraints to get work done, and days that were maybe just a few hours. But, on average it has been 8 hours a day, Monday-Friday and if they need me on Sat-Sun I work but they usually don't need me. This is how it's been for a lot of people I know as well. I don't think 12 hour days every day are the norm for many cadets.