Coast Guard Cutter SPAR conducts winter patrol
During a recent winter patrol, the Coast Guard Cutter SPAR crew stayed busy. We’d like to take you on their recent voyage around Kodiak Island. Coast Guard Cutter SPAR crewmembers conducted a burial at sea near Kodiak, Alaska. Petty Officer 1st […]
Unit spotlight: Aids to Navigation Team Kodiak
Every mariner who takes to the sea plots their course and navigates day and night, through storms or calm seas with one constant to rely on; navigational aids. The Coast Guard has been committed to keeping the maritime community safe by maintaining navigational aids since the first American lighthouse was illuminated in Boston Harbor in 1716. The United States placed its first aids to navigation in Alaskan waters in 1884.
To the other side of the globe and back: The Seasonal Kuskokwim Patrol of the CGC Hickory
The Kuskokwim River seasonal patrols are traditionally the Coast Guard Cutter Hickory’s most challenging and exciting trips. Our trackline takes us to the furthest extent of any United States federally marked waterway and presents us with a landscape that can truly be described as “the last real frontier.”
Through the Lens: Setting the Mendenhall Bar
Every Spring the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Elderberry drops 18 buoys into the Gastineau Channel. These floating aids to navigation serve as markers for mariners operating on the narrow, shallow Mendenhall River Bar during the busy summer boating season. It’s a preventative measure that stops a lot of search and rescue cases before they even happen, an integral part of the Coast Guard’s mission to protect the safety of life at sea.
Coast Guard Cutter SPAR crew work aids, spreads holiday cheer to Old Harbor, Alaska
By Petty Officer 1st Class Richard Quintana As December arrives and the darkest part of the year is upon us, SPAR’s crew conducted aids to navigation work, vocational outreach and spread holiday cheer throughout south Kodiak. SPAR has made […]
Coast Guard Cutter SPAR back in action in Alaska
By Ensign Keith Arnold The crew of Coast Guard Cutter SPAR was underway for the first time in almost three months after a long dockside period at the end of October. During the first day underway, members of the crew […]
Crew of Coast Guard Cutter SPAR completes first week of Arctic Shield 2013 deployment
By Cadet Jack Hall and Seaman George Benjamin The first week under way has been busy for the crew of Coast Guard Cutter SPAR as they steamed north from their homeport in Kodiak, Alaska, to participate in Operation Arctic Shield […]
Coast Guard marks safe passage to Bethel, Alaska
In the Kuskokwim Delta, April brings showers, May brings flowers and June brings buoys. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Sycamore recently conducted a summer aids to navigation run in the region. The crew traveled 2,330 miles during […]
Deck Watch: ANT Kodiak works Western Alaska aids
Have you ever wondered how the lights that flash from the edges of remote Alaska islands of trecherous rock outcroppings get serviced? Petty Officer 2nd Class Jay Tracy, from Aids to Navigation Team Kodiak, gives us a little insight into that world on this week’s Deck Watch Radio.
Cutter SPAR completes fall buoy run in Western Alaska
SUCCESS! The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter SPAR completed a fall aids to navigation maintenance run in Western, Alaska, in October. According to the crew, one of the most challenging aids was a shore aid at Isanotski Strait, near […]