ONBOARD ODDYSEA: MONDAY AUGUST 9TH

We spent a miserable night on the mooring. The heat we can deal with, a fan. But the waves started to rock us back and forth during the night making it impossible to sleep. Almost felt like we were in a Three Stooges movie rolling back and forth!

So much for saving money! We’re spending the kid’s inheritance and going to the marina. Sorry kids!

We knew our bad mojo was changing as soon as we arrived and saw this sight across from us. Our B.V.I. compadres will understand!

We walked to the Naval Academy for a tour. What an amazing place!! The purpose of the Academy is to develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty.

These are Plebes. They are the newest class coming in. Their hats are referred to as “Dixie cups”. The wear them the entire first year. The books they are holding up in front of them they need to memorize by the first year. It is the book of proper responses and procedure.

Cadets have to be between 17 and 24, unmarried with no dependents. The education is free, but they serve a 5 year commitment afterwards. An assignment of their choice in the Navy or Marines.The average number of applications for the Plebe class is 10 to 12,000. This year they had well over 17,000 applications for approximately 1200 spots. High School grade point average is not what they look at when choosing an Cadet.

Some graduates of the Academy have been football player Roger Staubach, basketball player David Robinson, and President Jimmy Carter. So far 53 graduates have gone on to become astronauts.

We felt a deep sense of pride seeing these cadets and realizing their strong commitment and dedication to become their best and protect our liberties.

The Plebes first year is tough with many tests to stress them. The Academy is training them to think on their feet, especially under stress. This type of testing ends with a tradition at the end of the first year. But even this isn't easy. The cadets build a human pyramid to retrieve a "Dixie cup" from the peak of this statue. Once the hat is retrieved, they no longer are required to wear them. But like their school year, this seems easier than it is. The statue is greased with lard!!

This is a statue of Tecumsah. He is a mascot of sorts for the cadets. Often he is painted with various colors of water-soluble paint. During the football season he is wearing war paint, sometimes he’s painted like the flag. He’s also been painted like Batman, Superman and Shrek. The scaffolding around him is in preparation of his painting for the start of the school year.

And legend has it, if you toss a penny into the quiver with his arrows, you will pass your next exam!

This is the entrance to Bancroft Hall. Beautiful isn’t it?

This building covers 33 acres, houses 4,000 midshipmen, has almost 5 miles of hallway and can feed all the students at one time in their 25 minute allotted meal time!! The building is so large it has its own zip code! It is like an aircraft carrier in that it is like a small city.

The Chapel dome.

The inside of the Chapel.

This candle always has fresh flowers around it, and the pew is never sat in. The candle burns during worship and it is to remind worshipers to pray for the soldiers lost in the Viet Nam War.

The crypt of John Paul Jones is under the Chapel. He spent too much money entertaining and throwing lavish parties. He died in Paris, broke. His friends had him placed in a lead coffin filled with straw. The lead cover was sealed, and a hole drilled in the top. The coffin was then filled with alcohol and the hole plugged. They were going to ship him back to America. Jones had been born in Scotland so had no family in the U.S. They buried him in Paris. Although outside of the city as he was a Protestant. Years later the lead coffin was exhumed and he was sent to the U.S. We were told the coffin was opened and he was perfectly preserved other than some skin gone on the tip of his nose. He was a great naval commander and never lost a battle.