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Journal at Sea: Day 13

Day 13: Thursday

Robert started to educate me on all the different types of bulk carriers, such as the handy size bulkers which are used mainly for smaller ports/rivers.

Panamax bulkers are appropriately named as they are the largest bulk carriers able to transit the Panama Canal, whereas the cape-size trade via the Cape of Good Hope. In the tanker trade, Suezmax tankers are the largest size that can go through the Suez canal.

He then told me about the very large ore carriers that Vale built which are called Valemax. He showed me a picture of one which is 400,000 dwt and it would make the Saga Andorinha look like a sunfish!

Moment of Silence by Mark Conroy

Editor’s Note: Mark Conroy, director of athletics, presented the following during Upper School Assembly on November 28, 2012.

Good morning everyone.

The primary purpose of our assembly this morning is to review our fall athletic season. Before doing so I wanted to take this opportunity to acknowledge a beloved member of our community, Al Lavalle, who passed away earlier this week.

Many of you know that Al worked at Williston for the past 13 years. While he was on the athletic grounds staff the past three years, for the previous 10, Al ran our Cage at the Athletic Center.

Al had an incredibly profound impact on everyone who knew him. With all due respect to all of us who work with students on a regular basis here, no one in our community impacted more students than Al during those ten years.

The 2007 yearbook was dedicated to Al. I wanted to share a couple of words from this dedication “Al is the second Dad we all wish we had. Never condescending, always funny, he is the person at Williston we go to for advice – Al is a true teacher in every sense of the word.” “Please and Thank You—two simple words that Al constantly reminded us to say—the lessons we learned from Al at the cage will stick with us for life.”

I would like to ask all of us to observe a few moments of silence in Al LaValle’s memory.

Go to the full list of Fall Team Highlights and Individual Honors.

Journal at Sea: Day 12

Day 12: Wednesday

We set sail for Vancouver, Canada and the Second Officer let me take the helm for a few minutes. Not sure how it looked on the chart, but I was nervous and it was certainly a lot harder than it looks!

I was taught how to navigate and how to see if we were on course. We were a tad starboard and so we adjusted the navigation to head 341. I did not however, have the chance to learn celestial navigation. The captain had told me this is a requirement, since there has to be a back-up plan should the systems fail.

I joined Robert on his watch duty from 2400 hrs to 0600 hrs. We passed the San Juan Islands and Johns Island where I had spent a month at Camp Norwester a few years ago. In the distance, I could see the teepee tents of the camp.

“We Will Remember Al”: A Yearbook Dedication

The following dedication by Molly Newton was originally published in The Williston Northampton School 2007 Log.

Please and thank you, two simple little words we all could spell by third grade. two simple little words many of us forgot sometime in those long years between third grade and our arrival at Williston; two simple words that Al Lavalle constantly reminded us to say, and never let us get away with forgetting.

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Journal at Sea: Day 11

Day 11: Tuesday

Today we completed loading of the soda ash and prepared to sail from Portland and take the six-hour journey back down the Colombia River to the Astoria Pilot station.

We left Portland at 1600 hrs and had a pilot change at 2000 hrs from Colombia River Pilots to Colombia River Bar Pilots. At 2300 hrs, as we passed the last outbound pilot station at Astoria, a helicopter landed on the hatch cover to take the pilot ashore.

By this time it was quite windy. I actually enjoyed talking to the second pilot since he was a graduate of Annapolis Naval Academy, which is an institution I would also like to attend.