A 35 foot wave.. give or take a few

Back from Patrol!

Well I am finally back from being underway for 61 days. It feels good to know im going to be on dry land for a couple months now! Here are some pictures from the patrol that I havent posted yet of my famous boarding of the Deadliest catch boat, our 50 cal gun shoot, or towing evolution with the Cutter Alex Haley and Dutch Harbor, hope yall enjoy! Cant wait to come home!!! More to come!

Tom

My first Boarding

So here are a couple photos the small boat took of us while we were doing our boarding. The one picture of the back of the crab boat has me in it, im the one standing at the bottom of the ladder watchin my buddy go up top. Thought these were pretty cool!! More to come!

Tom

Good ol Dutch

Well the first day in Dutch went pretty well, after we got rid of trash and onloaded a bunch of food I took off to this place called Alaska Shipping and Supply store. This place has got all sorts of stuff, its like a cross between Sams, hhgreg, dicks sporting goods, and auto zone all in one huge barn looking building. After a couple hours there, me and all of deck force took out the four new guys to eat and piged out on burgers and milk shakes. By the end of that time I was about ready to pass out, so I watched the Godfater part 2 and passed out.. I'll write more tomorrow about my sightseeing!! later!

Tom

Finally, we made it to Dutch Harbor

Well finally after the longest I have ever been off land we have arrived in Dutch Harbor for a MUCH needed rest and relaxation port call. These past couple weeks have been full of fish boat boardings, storms, and lack of sleep. Most of the time I can only get about 5 hours before my watch and then another couple hours of sleep after it, unless we are doing boardings throughout the night then I get maybe a couple hours of sleep at best. When you do get to sleep I have learned to prop yourself in your bed beause when we hit these Bering sea storms people tend to fall out of their racks. We had two pretty nasty storms, most of the time they would be called hurricanes down south, but since they happen so often up here they are just called storms. The first one had 105 mph winds and about 45 foot seas, the one a couple days ago had about 80 mph winds and 30 foot seas. Its been a trip for sure, I like it a lot, but hate it all at the same time, its weird, but Im pretty sure im liking it more then not. Its good to be here in Dutch though, the town isnt much though, sort of resembles what a mondern day frontier town would look like with just a few supply stores, couple restraunts and hotels, and lots of fishing boats. Well I am about to go get 4 new guys squared away, so Untill next time.. Hope all is well back in Indiana!! Love yall!! PS.. no cell service in Dutch Harbor, I will be looking for a phone card though! Talk to yall later!

Tom

Turning point...

Well being up here in Kodiak I have had time to visit the Air station and talk to a lot of airmen about what they do and actually play in some of the airplanes and helicopters, and well I like it a lot! I know that I am close to being a boatswains mate come this January, but the rate of Aviation electronics tech is critical, so I wouldnt be here a whole lot longer than that. I was just thinking that I have gotten the experience of ships and I have gotten a lot of quals that will continue to stay with me, maybe its time I go a whole different route and learn something totaly different. Being a boatswains mate most likely wont get me a lot of jobs besides driving boats out of the coast guard, but having a degree, helicopter experience, the law enforcement training im getting now, and then on top of that learn how to work on aviation electronics I should be able to get a job no problem if I decide to get out. So that is just my thinking, I really like the aviation side of things, and I do believe I am going to switch my name and put it on the AET A school list this week. Time for another change! Thats all for now, and here is a picture of my running my crew and the crane for our small boat lowering, I am the one with the yellow hard hat on and my arm out directing the crane. Pretty sweet huh!?

-Tom

Beautiful

Here are some awesome pictures of our time from Juneau to Kodiak and in between compliments of some of my friends on the boat. The picture of the ice bergs in the water is around Valdeez Alaska where that huge oil spil was. The one of the huge glacier is the Mendenhal glacier in Juneau and there is a picture of my buddy standing underneath the glacier in a tunnel. Lastly the real foggy picture is when we were pulling into Juneau, it was realllly foggy..Enjoy!

Pictures by Petty officer 2nd class Murphy

So he has a really nice camera and way more free time than me.. I really like his pictures

Week one of patrol

Well one week down, seven more to go. We finally made it up to Juneau for a couple days. The trip up doesnt actually take a long time, but we made a lot of stops and fishing and sightseeing along the way. Its going pretty well so far, everyone is still getting along for the most part and the watch rotation isnt to bad, at least untill they stuck me breaking in boatswains mate of the watch, so now im back on a 1 and 3 rotation, but hopefully I will get qualified quickly. Its not all bad though, I dont have to stand up on look out and drive the boat any more, now its my job to oversee the guys on helm and lookout, make rounds in and outside of the ship, be the first responder for casualties to the ship, and do whatever the officers tell me to do. Here are a few pictures I took on the way up! Oh and sweet picture in the Kokomo tribune! HA bet they dont get to many Bering sea photos, I will have to get a really good one for them as soon as we hit some nasty weather! Hope yall like!

Tom

DUDE mountain aka wallet stealer

So before we left to go on patrol we hiked up Dude Mountain, it was a fun mountain with a very nice view from the top. My friends and I had a good time going up and hanging out at the top (which was like a place out of a movie) but the hike down the me mountain was another story indeed. It started raining, it was steep, and I fell... Needless to say I lost my wallet out of my pants and all the contents inside of it, everything even my social security! woo.. Needless to say the moral of this story is to never leave your wallet on you while hiking! But I did get some cool pictures!

Back to Alaska

Well we finally made it back to good Ol Ketchikan Alaska. It took us three trys to leave Bellingham, but after a fuel leak, shaft problems, couple electrical fires, and a sweet stack fire we finally made it back! I am definatly glad to be done with the 9 hours work days and 1 and 3 duty sections, but after just being back in Alaska for a few hours we all wished we were back in Bellingham. Now its time for a couple weeks of down time untill we leave for our 2 month patrol of the Bering on Nov 15th. We have been given quite a few days off, so thats good, but still a lot to do before we leave! Looking forward to the crazy times to come while underway and seeing different parts of Alaska. Who knows whats going to happen over the patrol!? I will have plenty of pictures and video to share though! Till next time...

Tom

ps.. check out these two beauties, been a while since the ol girl has had these!

More Bellingham

So the first picture is from standing at the floor of the dry dock lookin up at the boat, looks a lot bigger out of the water. Next is a sunset picture I took with my new phone, we get nice ones like this everrryy night. Next is a picture of the dry dock before we pulled the boat into it. And lastly is a picture of the town of bellingham, well at least the waterfront part. Overall, awesome town..

Past few weeks

Well dry dock is slowly comming to an end, word is that we will be back in the water by the end of next week. Its all just a little bittersweet actually. I am excited to head back to Ketchikan for some well deserved time off and relaxation, but on the other hand it has been beautiful down here, there is a lot to do, and my girl friend who I have seen two weekends back to back only lives 5 hours away! I have had a good time though and made some memories, Bellingham is an awesome town bar none. Also my and allisons trip to Vancouver Canada was a blast! I am glad for my time here, but it is time to move on to different things (the Bering Sea for two months) then hopefully at least by january or early february I will be on my way to Yorktown virginia for A school and then off to my next duty station after that wherever it may be! Well I suppose that is all for now, hope everyone back home is doing well and sorry for not keeping up with the phone calls, but we start work early and end work late with a bunch of duty days in the middle so its hard to find time. I miss yall lots though! Talk to ya later!

Tom

Bellingham and Vancouver

Bellingham WA

Well so far I have been down here in Bellingham for almost a week, and it seems like a nice place. It has been beautiful weather, the town is really nice, and there are actually things to do around town as compared to Alaska! I went down and visited Ally down in Astoria this past weekend. I rented a sweet truck and had a nice little 5 hour road trip. Cant wait till this weekend when she comes up here! Other than that things have been the same, we are working like dogs every day and probably even working this comming weekend some (which is lame). Well I have been trying to take some photos from around town and I will try and get them posted as soon as possible.. Take care!

Tom

Update

So its been a few days since the last posting and not a whole whole lot has changed, but here is what has happened and what is comming up in the next few months or so.. Still here in Ketchikan untill Saturday, leaving Saturday morning for Bellingham Washington which sould take 3 days from what I hear. Once down there we are going to have a TON of work to do and the duty rotation sounds like it could be a 24 our duty day every other day :( but lets hope not! While down there I will be seeing my girl Allison finally! This whole long distance thing is annoying, but I really like her and she makes me happy, so I guess I just have to deal with it. I will be down in the Bellingham area untill the end of August then we will make our way back up here and get ready for our patrol that leaves September 15th untill November 9th. All in the mean time I am starting to study and work harder on my Boatswains mate package and trying to get that done soon and hopefully get out of Alaska by the end of Feb.!! So yeah thats a lot of stuff sorta, its going to be a busy few months commin up! Photos of the trip to Bellingham comming soon!

Been a little while!

Well where do I start, sorry for not updating this in a while, just been really busy I suppose. About 3 weeks ago I left for Astoria OR to the coast guard cutter Steadfast. I spent 3 weeks patrolling the OR coast doing mostly fishery boardings, but we also had about 3 search and rescue cases, only one where we actually helped a broken down vessel. When I first got there it was a little weird, I was used to knowing everything about the boat and what do, but when I go there I was like the new guy alllll over again. After about a week or so all the other deckies were pretty cool with us and we actually started having fun. It was also nice to be down in the "real world" for a while and have quite a few days in port, where I also met a girl Allison. Not exactly sure whats up with the whole thing, but we are going to keep talking. Lastly it was time to trek back to Alaska and start training the new guys here how to get underway. I sorta missed the ol girl (my boat) Im glad to be back for a while.. Next up, Bellingham Washington, then the Bering sea!

some pictures

Attn to all hands

Soo I got my new orders to go to the Coast Guard cutter Stedfast! I will be meeting them in Portland OR. and then begin working my way down south to California and perhaps mexico. I will only be gone for 3 weeks, but I suppose that is ok. Not sure how much time I will have in Portland, I imagine I will be pretty busy preparing to get underway. Cant wait to get out on the water and learn some more stuff. I leave this next tuesday the 24th and return july 14th, just in time to make the trip down to Washington with my boat. Hopefully I will still get the opportunity to go to boarding team member school in August, who knows.. Well thats it for now, I am sure I will have a ton of pictures! So stand by!

Tom

Off the rock... hopefully

So if all goes to plan, I will be leaving this little rock called Ketchikan on July 21st and heading down to Charelston NC for boarding team member school for 12 days. I have to pass a few physical tests and a couple pistol courses first though, so lets hope those go smoothly.. After that I wont be heading back to Ketchikan, but rather Bellingham Washington where our boat is going to be dry docked for a while! I cant wait to be back in the real world for a while.. But after all that is over with we have two patrols this Winter starting with one september 15th i believe. So thats just a little update about where im going to be in the comming future, hopefully i'll get to see some people!

Tom

randomness

So here are some pictures i just randomly have saved on my network here at the boat.. Anything from me and my friends to mountains and trees... Hopefully some new trail pics tomorrow! Sooo the first top picture is of us comming down deer mt. It was like being on the moon because we could jump off a 10 foot drop into the snow and kind of sink as we landed so it was like we hardly fell at all, kind of weird actually, but Eric jumped and started to slide right into a tree.. Second picture is of me, my roommate burton, graves, and hartel just walkin around town at night.. Third picture is of me and one of the new guys potter when we were making it to the top of Deer mt, pretty much exhausted.. And last picture is of Ryan, we took it and sort of cut off his feet, but its cool because it looks like he is free falling, next time we are going to get a picture of all of us doing it.. So thats is for today, just some random photos while i sit here on the quarter deck. Me and 3 buddies just got done working late and painted the whole starboard side of our ship, not to shabby if you ask me! More pictures to come tomorrow or saturday! Miss yall! bye!