Author: Gerardo Acosta

Blog update 3

After a ten day journey, I have finally returned home. My journey has been an incredible experience. The USCG crew flew their way across the Pacific Ocean and arrived at Seward Alaska 1 day ahead of schedule. The ship couldn’t dock at Seward the day we arrived because it was busy unloading containers from cargo ships.  Instead, the coast guard arranged flight ops with the air operation division in Kodiak, Alaska. For most of the day, a helicopter landed and took off from the ship helipad to practice in case there was an emergency. I was able to come close to it and take some pictures.

In general I really enjoyed this trip. I love that I learned so much about while under way on the ship. Andrew and Kyle were amazing people to work with, very helpful, intelligent and all around good people. Casting the CTD was one of the most fulfilling part of the trip. Me and Kyle worked on having it ready for a test cast. We installed an altimeter, flourometer and transisometer to the CTD. All nerves ended when the CTD came out of the water and all its components came up. 

The adventures I had on this internship will stick with me for a long time. From getting sea sick the first day of the trip to walking out the door and seeing land for the first time after they voyage. Adventures and experiences like this are the reason why I really want to be a Marine Technician. Apart from cool adventures, helping out troubleshoot a machine that goes up to 4000 meters under the sea is also fulfilling. I hope to one day, find a job where I can assist marine scientist with their electronics while under way in missions.

I would like to thank the crew of USCG, Andrew and the marine tech, Nandita at MATE and everyone else who helped me receive this internship.  

Hi my name is Gerardo Acosta, a student from Long Beach City College. I have been given this chance to participate in the MATE internship. This internship is a great opportunity and I intend to take full advantage of it. This is the first of my blogs that I will do throughout the two weeks I will be at sea on board the USCG Healy. To begin with, going into this internship I feel it to be a bit intimidating. The science coordinator, David and I had a phone call in which he briefly discussed my job on the ship. We talked for about thirty and while on the phone I typed notes on my laptop of the details about the job so that I can research specific components at a later time. When I talked with David, I was able to speak with Kyle Yusen who is the other intern that will be joining me on the cruise.  Kyle Yusen sounded like a very intelligent and friendly person. I look forward to working with him on this cruise. David briefly explained to us the complex system of piping that Kyle and I will be working on. The components I will be working on for the ships vital information system that the crew needs in order to make decisions for navigation. The whole idea of this cruise seemed very intimidating for several reasons. One, the people I spoke with were well education and had lots of experience. The last reason is because the moment I learned that I received the internship, I researched the history, missions and accolades of Healy. I googled the name and clicked on the first Wikipedia page. The first sentence on Wikipedia read, “The United States’ largest and most technologically advanced icebreaker“. This gave me the idea that work here will be serious because one, I will be working with US coast guards, two, even if it’s just an internship I will need to give it my full attention to have correct data for the ships navigation, and three because I feel like I have a duty to do my job with zero mistakes to get our ship to safely cross the ocean. When I finished talking on the phone with David, I was under the impression that he had lots of experience and that if I had any question about the trip he would answer. Also, after telling my professor at Long Beach City College about this cruise, he told me to just focus on my work and try to get as much experience as I can in this trip and if I had any questions to no hesitate to call and ask him.

A few days later Nandita the MATE internship coordinator called me to conduct a phone interview and discuss the details of my flights and travel plans. Nandita was very helpful when it came to setting up travel plans. The plan is to leave from LAX to Honolulu and meet up with the rest of the team. Then conduct all emergency details required to be on the boat. Then, be on our way for our cruise and arrive at Seward Alaska. There, we take a train to Anchorage with Andrew Woogen and Kyle and then catch our individual fights back home. In this cruise I will give it my best and gain as much experience as possible to someday get that dream job.

After this cruise my goal is to use this experience to get a job in the field. Most importantly though, I will try and network with ship crew members to see if they would happen to know any opportunities to actually work with them and getting paid full time to conduct research on the ship. Over all though I think this will be an excellent work experience opportunity. My dream job involves doing something I love to do. Being able to travel the world while working in the field I studied is life goal.