USCG Eagle August 19

USCG Eagle August 19-29 2015
Gale ‘Jake’ Jacobs
Cruise on the Coast Guard Tall Ship
USCG Cutter Eagle
Aboard from August 19 to August 30, 2015
Crew members were allowed to invite family members to join on a training cruise. There
were four civilians aboard. I was delighted to serve as a part-time crewmember which
included line hauling, helmsman duty, emergency drills, mess cooking, gear maintenance,
celestial navigation, course plotting, climbing the rigging and jumping off the deck for a
swim call.
As a guest of my crew member son-in-law FS2 Rich Pedersen I met the ship for a 10 day
Officer Candidate cruise from Portsmouth, Virginia, out to sea sailing 130 miles Southeast
for 10 days, then transiting Chesapeake Bay under motor, anchoring for 2 nights on the
way, and docking at the Baltimore Inner Harbor for a dignitary reception where I was
assigned bartender duties. The next day the ship moved to the Coast Guard station dry
dock for upgrades to prepare for the next season. And Rich spent part of December on
temporary duty at the White House.
As a former Navy aircraft carrier sailor on the USS Hornet, aviator and sometime small
boat sailor, for me it was a trip of a lifetime!
USCG Eagle Cruise 2015
Jake at the helm
USCG Eagle in a good wind
Portsmouth, VA to Baltimore MD
Start - 1 High Street, Portsmouth, VA
End - Baltimore Inner Harbor
Portsmouth, VA I flew into Norfork and caught the ferry over watch the Eagle arrive
Arriving Portsmouth One of two boats aboard
USCG Eagle
USCG Eagle August 19-29 2015 Ready to dock
Welcome aboard in Portsmouth
Brews and Pretzels with son-in-law Rich Pedersen - Portsmouth
USCG Eagle August 19-29 2015 Visit to a Pub before the next day’s sailing
Rich with a brew and nice salad
Elizabeth River Ferry $1.75 ($1.00 senior) From Norfolk to Portsmouth
Norfolk – Elizabeth River
USCG Eagle docked at Portsmouth
A visit to Gen. Douglas MacArthur Museum in Norfolk – A+
Old soldiers never die, they just fade away
Portsmouth, VA dignitary reception
Crew briefing
Mess cooks beginning to prepare dinner in the mess hall
Mess cook duty
Getting ready for chow time
Steak first night out. We used paper when not at sea
Door to our bunk area
My bunk. 3 high in this area. About the same as USS Hornet, but more modern
Head sink area
Head toilet area. Shipboard showers nearby.
Now hear this….
Up the rigging
On the yard arm
Aircraft carrier at dock as we left Portsmouth
Into the setting sun
USCG Eagle August 19-29 2015 Hauling the sails aloft
Heave Ho Sailor
Senior Chief Rosati Sextant navigation briefing
Officer candidates Sextant briefing
We encountered a little rain
Celestial navigation concepts
Star gazing - Sextant training at dusk
Wind!
Th’ar she blows. View of the mainsails looking aft from anchor windlass area
Navigation table
USCG Eagle navigation
A little dead reckoning
A few good lines.
Rich on the lookout for porpoises
Porpoises
Porpoises jumping
The good book
Hauling the sail up. Heave ! Ho!
Mainsail (23 sails total)
Good wind, about 9KTS speed
USCG Eagle bow
USCG Eagle August 19-29 2015
USCG Eagle 100+ feet high
The Eagle flies
Social climbers
View from aloft
View from aloft
View from aloft
Jake in the rigging
Rich in the rigging
Shipboard haircut $4. Plastic bag cover
Kent Matsuoka- Tall Ships group
Repairing sails
Nick, Tall Ships, checking Gummy survival suits
Training / Chef’s office off the mess haul. Sextant storage
Dry food storage hatch cover– 3 decks below
Menu – great food!
Jumping in for swim call. Felt like a long way down
Swim Call. 83 degree water, nice! With Kent Matsuoka of Tall Ships
No sharks, but a boat patrolled nearby with guns. About 100 swam
My backstroke
Swimmers in the water
Fire drill
Leak repair training
Jake the practice victim
3 workout sessions per day. Everyone was in good shape.
Calm winds require “iron spinnaker)”
Veggie Flats– We kept cool in the 90 deg weather. Hauling food to galley with Rich.
Thawing steaks in Veggie Flats
Rich – freezer inventory – 3 hours total. 6’4” person working in 5’ ceiling.
Freezer inventory project –damn cold!
USCG Eagle getting ready for a presentation
USCG Eagle August 19-29 2015
Navigation table
Stern auxiliary helm. Usually disconnected
Wind!
USCG Eagle August 19-29 2015
At quarters
Where are we? I kept track with ForeFlight aviation app via GPS
Full Sail (makes me thirsty)
Sailing
Lots of lines
Visitors coming aboard
Cargo ship in distance SQ Root of Height x 1.169 for distance to horizon. About 5 NM
Sunset
End of the day at sea
Navigation briefing. Captain, OPS, EX
Anchor capstans . Pulling up anchor in Chesapeake Bay
Container ship passing by
Man overboard rescue. With boat pickup. Others were by turning the ship to pickup.
Under the bridge
3 shots of anchor (90 feet per shot) to anchor.
16 cylinder, 1,000 HP Caterpillar engine.
Propeller shaft
Engine controls
Fellow traveller
Oscar in the water. Man overboard drill
End of a perfect day
Buoy, buoy, land ahoy
Visitors coming aboard at Annapolis
Two of these boats brought sea riders aboard
Baltimore Inner Harbor
Entering port at Baltimore
Busy harbor
Inner Harbor. USS Constellation in distance
USCG Eagle docked at Inner Harbor Baltimore. Moved to USCG yard two days later.
Jake the bartender for dignitary reception- fun!
USCG Eagle at night in Baltimore
The Eagle crew for ship’s photo
USCG Eagle August 19-29 2015 -------------------- Thanks for joining us.
USCG Cutter Eagle
The USCG Eagle was built in Germany in 1936 as the Horst Wessel.
It was taken by the US as a war reparation following WWII and
commissioned in 1946 as a US Coast Guard training ship.
295 feet long, 39 foot beam, displaces 1,784 tons . 23 sails,
23,000 square feet of sail, 190 lines. Mast height 147 feet.
17 knots under full sail. 11 knots with 1,000 Caterpillar diesel.
Sails with 68 crew and 150 trainees
The end
(note: videos to be added later)
USCG Eagle August 19-29 2015