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!!

lookin good

Here is a picture of a while back when my buddy Eric got married..

The ol girl

Took a picture while I was walking around on the small finger pier next to our ship.. looks a lot bigger when your on the water level

Ward Lake

Here are a couple pictures of ward lake. We go up here pretty much every nice day we have and build campfires and play horse shoes. Its a pretty nice place

Zip Video

Zip Line

So yesterday morning me and some of the crew went on a zip line tour off in the mountains, it was one of the coolest things ive ever done. Almost 200 feet up in the air zipping 800 feet at 30 miles per hour, it was nuts!! Here are some pictures of our little expedition!

Saturday morning..

I suppose having watch from 4 am till 9am isnt so bad sometimes, this morning was probably one of the most clear mornings I have seen, and the colors of the sun comming up actually made this place looks awesome as apposed to all the clouds and rain we normally get. The forcast for the next few days looks awesome, 50s and Sunny!!! Today I am going to be going on a zip line tour through the mountain tree tops, sounds exciting i know! Someone told me you hand about 200 feet above the ground and your doing like 40 mph on this thin piece of cable! I will try to get as many good photos as possible and I will post them on here, then sunday is another paintball day and i'll try to get some pics from that.
As for this past week not much happened, I got a new pair of boots that I am currently trying to break in, but they seem to be breaking me in instead. We also just finished up laying down new non-skid and painting the deck on the back of the boat. Our little circus tent was about to bite the dust so we just took it down before the wind did. The decks look pretty good if I do say so myself! Well that is it for now, everyone have a good weekend.. And keep an eye out for some pictures here tonight or tomorrow!

- Tom

Quarterdeck madness

I dont remember where in my contract it said I would be a receptionist, but I guess it did somewhere. Today was my first quarterdeck watch by myself, which was interesting, pretty much all you do is answer the phones, take messages, and page people over the com system... One would think this is easy, but getting 3 phone calls at once, having a Master Cheif standing outside your window, and making a page over the com at one time is absolute chaos.. Enough of that though, im still alive.. Just another duty day in the life of a Coastie, nothing really new going on, I get late sleepers tomorrow because I have the midnight shift today(so thats cool), then tomorrow I have to go over to industrial and sand blast a bunch of things for our fantail project. Excting exciting.. I did however purchase my first gun, its a Glock 9mm.. A buddy of mine gave me a deal on it and its a niice gun. Now hopefully I wont be to worried about bears when im walking around out in the mountains. Well I suppose thats all for now, im just gonna finish up my watch out here till 330am and then pass out again. Untill next time.. take care

tom

On the other hand...

1000 dollars aproximatly in 7 days is a lot of money in such a short time to spend. I suppose I could always continue to build up my leave time for later on down the road when I may really need it. Hopefully sooner than later I will be leaving for the airman program for 4 months and then on my way to North Carolina for school, that is just a short drive away compared to Alaska.. So on one hand I would really like to come see friends and family, but on the other hand is isnt very economical and I could wait till im stationed closer to home... Let me know what yall think

- Tom