BANGOR (AP) – Maine Maritime Academy’s training vessel State of Maine is back in its home port in Castine after completing its annual training cruise, which took the 500-foot vessel to Tampa, Fla., Mexico, Bermuda and Puerto Rico.

The ship completed the 9,000-mile cruise Tuesday. A small flotilla of local boats and the academy’s historic schooner Bowdoin accompanied the State of Maine as it made its way to port, where a crowd awaiting its arrival waved and cheered.

The crowd wasn’t as large as usual because many of the parents, under a special permit from the Coast Guard, were allowed to sail with their sons and daughters on the last leg of the cruise from Rockland to Castine.

More than 200 students and 52 staff and crew made the two-month voyage, which “went beautifully,” according to Capt. Jeff Loustaunau.

“The ship worked well and everyone is more accomplished,” the skipper said.

Maine Maritime freshman Beth Chasse embarked on the cruise a little worried about seasickness because it was the East Millinocket student’s first time on the water. Chasse said everything turned out all right and summed up the trip as “awesome.”

MMA President Leonard Tyler, who joined the ship in Tampa and sailed to Puerto Rico, said the students are busy from the time they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night.

“They’re training and polishing, chipping paint or painting, or taking a piece of an engine apart,” Tyler said.

Students run all of the ship’s operations during the cruise under the supervision of a professional crew. The MMA upperclassmen in turn supervise the younger students on board.

While the cruise ended Tuesday, it wasn’t officially over until the ship was cleaned up on Wednesday.

AP-ES-06-30-04 1645EDT