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June 17, 2013 / 8:30am- 2pm

 

      Today was the first day of my internship. Introductions with the employees went well and I started on my first task, which doesn't seem all that hard. I'll be taking a survey of the certification dates on the side of all of the boats in the water on marina property. So far im only halfway done, but I plan on finishing tomorrow.

Hours

June 18, 2013 / 8:30am- 2pm

 

      The second day and everything is still going well. I finished with my task from yesterday. I had a few hours to spend so they asked me to start on the dry docks. This time may take a bit longer, but at least I got a little more than a third of it done before I had to go to astronomy.

June 19, 2013 / 8:30am- 2pm

 

      I strayed a bit from the dry dock survey this morning to do something else of import. The marina owner asked me to take a quick survey of the computers on the property. All I had to do was write down the certain operating systems each one ran by. Fortunately I got an hour or so of dry dock surveying in after I was done helping everyone in the other building. 

June 20, 2013 / 8:30am- 2pm

 

      There wasn't much to do today but finish the dry dock survey. After that I looked over my notes and went around really quick to make sure I got everything on paper. I didn't miss much the first time around, so I only had to take note of the spots that were coincidentally empty the other day.

June 21, 2013 / 8:30am- 5pm

 

      Today was all work! I didn't think stuffing envelopes would take so long, but when you have to stuff almost 1000, it can take up a couple hours at the least. It was monthly billing day and I got some practice on a letter folding machine. You put less than a dozen in the slot and stand there while the thing makes a lot of noise. There are a few tricks to avoid jamming it, but most tasks letter related are fairly straightfoward. Paying for the post was a bit confusing though. There was another machine that printed all of the stamps rather than sticking them all on and closed the envelopes for you. There was a minute of technical difficulties but after it all was sorted out my supervisor explained everything fairly well.

June 24, 2013 / 8:30am- 2pm

 

      All of the marina dock surveys I had to do last week were visited yet again. My supervisor had me go back and find all of the names and addresses of the occupants who didn't have an up to date registration sticker. There were a couple of things I had to ask about, like a couple of trailers that weren't supposed to be at the end of the dry docks. I only asked a couple of clarification questions, figuring that everything like duplicate addresses didn't need to be brought up till later. After going though everyone, I sent out letters of notice and was done for the day.

June 25, 2013 / 8:30am- 2pm

 

Nothing much happened today. All I did was file the extra documents that were shoved aside. My supervisor, the harbor master, and his assistant were always too busy to organise the binders in the cabinets. Before filing those extra documents I updated some of the digital documentation. When all of the files in the paper bin were safely in the folders it was just about time for me to go to astronomy so I left a couple minutes early.

Closing Report

 

      For the graduation requirement I interned at the Alameda Marina on Clement Avenue. My supervisors were the harbor master and his assistant. At the time my family had a boat on the water there, so in our attempt to get me an internship we came across the marina. In the process of completing all the tasks they gave me, I used my organization and note taking skills. I was required to use at least a bit of these two skills to get about the day, for most of the time I was either filing or surveying.

      About half of the first week I was walking around the marina taking notes. The first three or four days my daily duty was to take note of anything out of place or undocumented. Usually I would look for a colorful sticker on the side of each vessel, but occasionally there was a motorhome or insufficiently tied down boat that needed notation. The other days I was helping send out billing letters and filing.

      While interning at the marina I learned how to use a postal machine. This machine printed stamps on the letters and closed them. It took a moment to get used to the calibration process, but my supervisor explained the whole thing after a couple rounds of technical difficulties. The last and possibly hardestaspect to learn was punctuality. A couple of days in the first week I was late. Near the end of the internship I was better at being on time.

      My only real obstacle was time. Some days I would want to get more of the surveys done, but I would have to leave for my college class. Other days I was so efficient that they didn’t know what to do with me. A couple of times it took five minutes or so for them to give me something to do. While they were occupied taking calls or dealing with people, all I could do was busy myself with cleaning up the desk I was sat at. Sooner or later though they would always send me off to do something worthwhile or at least useful. The aspect of time that really hit me though was being on time. I am horrible when it comes to that, but I managed to be at least relatively on time every day of my internship.

      When I first started my internship I thought I would be a lost cause, asking for help every chance I got, when in fact everything was straightforward. I had a relatively easy time doing paperwork and other jobs that they assigned me. When I needed help the assistant harbor master was available. Communicating with the small staff was also a surprize. Instead of awkward exchanges, there were nice and informative discussions, or even interesting conversations at times. I got the chance to talk to the assistant harbor master about his previous careers in the maritime industry and I even met the owner of the marina. In the end, my experience with the marina staff was much nicer than I had previously expected. They also let me eat at the desk I worked at, which let me comfortably go about my business.

Intern at the Alameda Marina on Clement Avenue assisting the harbor master.

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