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!

Been a while

Well I will admit it has been a few days since my last post, but not much has really happened.. Still waiting on word as to when I will be heading down to California to the Stedfast. Same ol same ol really, been doing a lot of painting on the outside of our hull, so that means a lot of long days. Had a special wet trainer trailer here last thursday, the thing simulated the inside of a ship with cracked pipes and holes and we had to plug and patch them as it fill up with water, I am proud to say me and my buddy Eric got first place out of the whole boat! Thats about it I suppose, havent done any new hikes yet, but I think there is one comming up this friday, so I will definatly have some new pictures by then! Hope everyone is doing well back home, miss yall lots!!

Tom

Here is a pic of the boat dad took when I was working on monday. Had to move the paint float over to the starboard anchor to sand it down and paint it

So get this!

I found out this week that me and another guy from the boat are being sent down to Alemeda California to the Coast guard cutter Stedfast (which is another 210 foot boat like mine) to go on patrol down by mexico and central America, maybe even south america im not sure. Since we have been broken so long they have to send some of us to get training for when we get underway up here. Im not going to argue, I cant wait to get some warm weather!! The down there I will be driving the ship, standing lookout watches, and trying to get some new qualifications finished up. They do a lot of drug interdiction down there, so maybe I will get to do some interesting stuff! I just though I would add that, not exactly sure when I will be leaving, but I imagine it wont be to long from now. As for things up here, they are going well, just had Dad come up and visit. It was nice to see a familiar face up here, now I can take on another six months. Doing lots of work and having fun in the free time since the weather is shaping up now. Hope everyone is doing well back home! take care!

Tom

Finally.. The top of deer mountain

Finally we made it to the top of deer mountain. Amazing view, now its time to start moving on to bigger mountains, who knows, maybe Everst sometime!

taking some pictures at settlers cove

Hiking a new trail

So we got off early from work one day for everyone to go hiking on this trail. It was a cool trail, about 3 and a half miles long to the end and back, the catch is, its all board walks and stairs, lots and lots of stairs . But at the end was a really cool lake. So here are a couple pictures of Lake Perseverance..

Cabin trip

So I went on this community service trip to do some work on a cabin for the forest services department. It was roughly 50 miles north and took about two hours by small boat to get to. This place was litterally in the middle of nowhere, no power, no water, no cell service. It was pretty awesome, and so here are some pictures of where we were.

Exploring

You would be really surprized what all you can find when you are walking up the mountain.. There is actually a road under about 5 feet of snow.. Some pretty cool views though!!