For sea-weary California Maritime Academy cadets Friday morning was all about coming home.

Cadet Kevin Hawkins was thrilled to not only to be on the Vallejo campus but to see six people from home waving at him as the Golden Bear training ship slid into port.

Hawkins was among 288 students (also called cadets) and 57 officers and staff aboard the Golden Bear training ship who arrived safely after a two-month voyage.

The training cruise included a transit through the Panama Canal and ports of call in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Montego Bay, Jamaica and El Salvador.

“I’m really glad to be home and I was really looking forward to seeing them,” Hawkins said of family members who came to see him.

“We’re really excited to see him,” his mother Cheryl said.

After he unloaded his gear and performed other chores, Hawkins joined family for a drive back to home in San Jose. Other cadets were happy at prospects of seeing their sweethearts and pets again, too.

The Golden Bear’s arrival was an especially memorable one for outgoing Cal Maritime president Bill Eisenhardt who worked his last day Friday, and for new president Thomas Cropper who officially begins his post Sunday.

Both men were on hand with their wives to greet the ship and its crew.

“This is a big thrill for me,” Cropper said. “I’m the luckiest man in California,” he added of his new job.

Cropper is a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral who has switched careers to head up the California State University campus. Like Eisenhardt and his wife Kathryn, Cropper and his wife Heather will live in the president’s house on campus.

The Cal Maritime training cruises aboard the Golden Bear, a veritable floating classroom, are a highlight of the students’ education at Cal Maritime.

For the duration of the cruise, cadets are responsible for running the ship, including navigation, driving, repairs and other activities. They are assisted by faculty and other staff members.

A veteran of numerous cruises, Golden Bear Captain Harry Bolton said this trip was “fabulous. It was the first time I’ve been in the Caribbean for a long time and we had really good weather.”

The cruise through the Panama Canal was especially memorable as cadets manned the ship’s rails to look at the historic structure and the massive ships passing through it, he said.

“It was like going through it for the first time with the cadets there,” Bolton said.

Likewise, pilot Bill Atthowe said that by the end of the cruise cadets were performing most of the work after having received invaluable on-the-job maritime training and skills.

“It was real smooth,” Atthowe said of the cruise. “There are not enough Os in the word ‘smooth’ to describe how smooth it went.”

Several cadets said the experience on the training cruise was more than they could have anticipated.

“It was amazing,” said Maverick Blake.

“Fantastic,” added cadet Steven Arsenault.

The voyage through the Panama Canal plus delivering medical supplies and various equipment to poor communities in Haiti and Jamaica were also memorable experiences, they said.

The Golden Bear, anchored under the Carquinez Bridge, will remain in Vallejo until next year when another group of cadets sets sail.

Source: Times Herald