Back in the Bering!

Well I know it has been quite a while since I have updated this blog, after last patrol I decided to take three weeks of leave for some rest and relaxation and well I sort of forgot about this thing. But I soon arrived back in Alaska and headed back out for our winter patrol. We left Ketchikan on Feb 6th and now it is the 19th. It has been quite the busy first couple of weeks. With a two day stop in Kodiak for fish school, standing watch twice a day, and having a week straight of back to back field days (Insane cleaning) for the past week for the 3 Admirals that are comming aboard in two days, well lets just say about everyone is at their wits end. And Yes, 3 admirals are joining us on our boat for two days to get a "Taste" of the oldest commision ship on the Bering Sea. The one admiral is said to most likely be the next comindant of the Coast guard. So for anyone who knows anything about the military and high ranking officials will understand how tense things are around here. We are all hopeing to sea one of the Admirals blow chunks over the side actually, hows that for a taste of the Bering Sea :)!! ha.. Well I am going to close for now, I have limited off time here in Dutch harbor for this port call, with a color guard ceremony tomorrow, and the admirals comming the next day I will be quite busy. I will try to post a couple pictures tomorrow! Hope everyone is well back home. Miss yall!

Tom

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