CASTINE, Maine — On Saturday more than 200 Maine Maritime Academy students, officers and crew will leave Castine for a two week training voyage to Saint Croix in the Virgin Islands.
They will be aboard the 500 foot Training Ship State of Maine which originally served as a Navy oceanographic research vessel, It was assigned to Maine Maritime in 1997.
MMA Commandant of Midshipmen Captain Nathan Gandy says the students are all upperclassmen who already have quite a bit of sea time.
"They'll be standing watch as officers running a ship," says Gandy. "They'll be performing maintenance functions on equipment, much the way any other licensed officer would, just with oversight."
Traditionally MMA has it's training trips in the spring and summer. Gandy says, for the past two years, short January trainings cruises have been added to accommodate increases in the amount of sea time needed to meet certification requirements.
