Cleaning Duty (T.S.G.B.)

Seth McCallum

Purpose

To clean dishes and discard trash, helping to develop young leadership and discipline among the cadets aboard The Training Ship Golden Bear.

Survival

To survive this horrible experience one must develop certain skills to make it through your day of misery. Starting off you walk up before the rest of the ship; you have to get ready to clean. This would imply a good night’s sleep before hand, making you a somewhat happy camper when you wake up. Discovering who your counterparts will be for the day is a pretty sobering experience. Having friends while on cleaning crew or “CC duty,” helps out a lot. Talking to someone and occasionally cracking a joke gets your head out of the funk, making the time fly by. Breaks are always nice, you have to get all you can out of them, when they say take a break, take a break. Trying to finish that last dish is a hopeless battle, so fight the fight another day. All of these things will help a lower class cadet get through their CC duty, but the most important is to have a positive outlook on it, try to remember something fun.

Four Random Thoughts

Four Random thoughts are probably the most important thing while on CC duty. These random ideas of pleasure and excitement get you through the day with no problems. Each one has to keep your head busy and thinking about something other than what you are doing. This is because if you are focused during this job you will go crazy; it’s a mindless job. Thinking will get you in trouble; having four random thoughts will let you have the ability to not think at all but to be off in some sort of dream world. If you are able to keep four random thoughts in your head you will be fine, it’s not a thinking job, it’s a day dreaming job.

What you miss out on

Cleaning crew is the one job no one ever wants to do, and for good reasons. CC duty is part of the watch rotation, which is a five day training rotation done on cruise. This means one out of the five days on watch you could get the shaft, seriously. While on CC for that day you miss out on a lot of cool stuff. Leaving and entering port, this is the worst, you miss out on the key parts of both being a sailor and the cruise experience. Other things may include practical training for what you are trying to become, lessons in life, and the most important sleep. These are all things that you miss out on while serving your vessel and providing a much-needed service.

Work

When it comes to work you have to keep an open mind, cleaning dishes and taking trash out is not a fun thing to do. There are a few jobs when it comes to dishes, one is rinsing and putting the dishes in the washing machine. This is the most mind-numbing job you can ever have and is a perfect example of why you need four random thoughts. Another dishes job is putting them away; during this you might only us three random thoughts. Finding the right place for each dish can be tough, so you have to talk to the kitchen staff. Ask mom, she’s probably the best at giving you directions and will always give you something super good to eat. That is another thing that is good about dishes is that you get to eat whatever people didn’t want, I am not saying you should but you do but if you really wanted to, you could do. Taking the trash out is tough, its probably one of the most disgusting thing you can do. Four random thoughts and nose plugs might help out with this job. The slimy, smelly, sticky, guck that is the trash can basically ruin your day and personal hygiene. All you have to do it separate the plastic from the stuff you can throw over board. Throwing the trash over can be tricky, if you are careful you can get away clean but if you are not, and then you will get a nice facial of slim and a powder of some sort. If you keep careful and do the dishes, remember not to think, you will be fine.

How to Deal with the Workers

I am not going to use names but there is a certain worker who you will enjoy very much, this is sarcasm. She will annoy you and make you wish god didn’t give you ears, and this is no joke. All of the other works think exactly what you are thinking about the same person. Just stay away from this person and you will be fine; if you get in the way then you just welcomed yourself to hell.

Getting Done

This is the best part of the day, the time where you are glad too finally be done. It’s the end of the day, if you have made it this far then I would say give yourself a pat on the back. As soon as you get done you will need to wash your clothes and take a long super hot shower. If you don’t understand now then you will, it’s a feeling of being covered with everybody’s spit, all over. But after you make it through this day then you will be glad when you don’t have to do the dishes, and respect those who are on CC duty. Make sure to clean your plate and to place your tray down instead of throwing it at the stalk. If you do all of the things I said and remember to keep those four random thoughts in your head then you will make it through CC duty and be able to say you survived.