Fun stuff at work

Hey, it's been a while but cool stuff happened today at the boat. First of all we've got this important inspection coming up next week, RFO (ready for operation), and the cutter needs to be immaculate. So, what that meant for me and Johnny D is that the bilges needed to be cleaned and what not and the bilges under the main engines get oil in them and they're hard to get to. Here's some pictures of how much fun I had today.



This is me right after I got down into the space, the deck is roughly even with my ears right now.


And this was my world for about an hour and a half or so. It's about 4 feet wide with 2 feet of head room where the picture was taken from and I had to crawl under that gray pipe to get to the back but there is no room to get out from under the pipe, so I got to lay down in the oil a little.

Here is a link to a video of the end of the oh-so-fun event. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4956444351553801304&hl=en

Another Month...

Sooo.....
It's been over a month again and it's time for an update. :P

Since my last post we haven't done much different from usual, going out on the boat escorting subs and occasionally boarding random boaters, but one day we got to help out the cutter Spar with some drills. They got to tow us and sail around us a few times, I wasn't real solid on what all drills they did but it was fun.



There she is, the USCGC Spar. Kinda a cool looking cutter.


Also, a couple of weeks ago I got to go with the boarding team and see what they do on their boardings (Which is good 'cause I'm going to Boarding Team Member School in South Carolina in June.) and I got to drive the small boat, lots of fun and really fast. :)

So, until the next post...Taylor, out.

Over a month, geez...

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this but here's what's been going on.

Shortly after I bought my truck our boat came out of drydock and went back into the water and sat for about a week and a half while we put it back together (Lots of stuff had to come off so the shipyard people could work on it). Once most of the equipment was back on we got underway and did a sub escort. It was pretty cool while at the same time pretty uneventful (a good thing). We stayed underway for the week, came home for the weekend, went back out on Monday, and Wednesday I was sick with strep throat and got sent home from the boat. That pretty much shot the rest of my week, laid on the couch and watched TV and munched on meds that the Coast Guard gave me. This week and next week are repair periods and most of our time has been/will be spent on preventative maintenance. Some of it is kinda fun while some of it is not so fun. The Coast Guard is a job just like any other, high points and lows.

One low points for me so far is that the whole time that I've been here I've been working on "Inport OOD" qualifications (lots of demonstrating that I can do something and getting a signature saying that "yeah he can do it") and I haven't really gotten any relax time away from the quals. Today I had my OOD board, it reminded me a lot of a Boy Scout board of review; all of the higher-ups asking me questions about the boat and what to do if something breaks/explodes/catches on fire (don't worry, only the dishwasher has exploded while I've been here). The high point is that I passed my board on the first go, YAY!!! I now get to stand a regular watch on a regular rotation, no more staying on the boat every other 2 days.

On the non-work side of things I'm not really doing a whole lot but I'm having a good time. Tonight I went to Ferndale and played poker with some of the guys from the boat and lost $5 but it's cheaper than going to a movie and more entertainment hour for your dollar. Fun stuff for Saturday, too, the morale officer set up a game of paintball for the afternoon so I'm pretty excited about that since it's going to be the first time I've played, I'll try to get some pictures and put them up here soon.

New Wheels

I bought a truck today. It runs good, and the price was right. It's a 2000 Chevy S-10 and it only
has 85,000 miles on it. It's a nice little truck.

The Terrapin

This is the USCGC Terrapin, they moore up to the other side of the pier from the USCGC Sea Lion (the Sea Lion is my cutter, they look the same)

My room...

So, I've been here for a little over a week and my room is really starting to feel more like a home. I have a computer desk and a chair as of last night and it just feels like a nicer place to hang out. It also feels really nice to have a made bed, so I made my bed. And here are some pictures...