Every year, Maine Maritime Academy takes their training ship, T/S State of Maine, on a two month training cruise in May and June. This gives the freshman their first taste of life at sea (if not a somewhat warped sense of it) and the juniors their first opportunity to step up and be in charge of the vessel (a somewhat warped sense of that too but hey, better than nothing eh?). My junior year the ship went from Castine, ME, USA to Barcelona, Spain (where one of my best friends Mar lives) to Gdynia, Poland to Cohb, Ireland to Portland, ME, USA and finally back to Castine. We're in each port for three days, one day of which is spent on watch. That gives two days to get out and explore the countries (well, more like one day total since we get off at noon or later).
