Volume -- IV  Issue – 7                          District--8  Flotilla--39                                                 July 2000

 

 

Vessel Safety Checks

Ken MacRae

 

The Flotilla has completed 61 Vessel Safety Checks this year.  We are getting used to the new form but still do not have the new Manual to use.  Steve Andrews has visited the Bridge of the Power Squadron in Fairhope and explained the new procedure for getting them qualified to do Vessel Safety Checks.  Our ramp days are still the last Saturday of the month and we need you to come out! 

 

We have made 71 Marine Dealer Visits this year.  This includes many new organizations that had not been previously included in the program.  Our follow up activity has shown a lot of interest in keeping in touch with the Auxiliary.

 

Public Education in June

Ken MacRae

 

The Flotilla put on three Boating Safely classes.  We presented the course to the members of the Group Mobile, to a group of 16 students on Saturday the 8th, and to a small group on Sunday the 16th.  In spite of the heat, we are still getting calls and finding that the one day course is received the best.  If we can just hold up!  We plan to offer another course in August.

 

'THE PERFECT STORM';

The real heroes aren't actors

MARK LANDRY

The Wilmington Star

Thursday, June 29, 2000

 

Tomorrow, in a theater near you, Hollywood will release another summertime blockbuster movie thriller titled The Perfect Storm.  It is based on the true saga of the fishing vessel Andrea Gail and her crew, lost in the Northwest Atlantic on an ill-fated trip to the dangerous Grand Banks fishing grounds of New England.  The year was 1991, Halloween Eve to be exact, and by all accounts the crew of the Andrea Gail met an unfortunate fate, having encountered what has been called the storm of the century, the perfect storm, with mountainous seas reportedly cresting over 100 feet.

 

No doubt there may be an Oscar winning performance delivered by the talented movie cast, with millions of dollars to be made as America throngs to the theater for a dose of computer generated animation - anticipating that rush of adrenaline making you feel like you were there. There will be tragedy and calls for courage; human drama on the high seas played out on the big screen. For those who enjoy a heartthrob, there will be George Clooney; for the faint of heart, a possible bout of malaise.  In the movie, for 10- to-15 important minutes actors will portray a heroic rescue, not of the crew of Andrea Gail - hey are lost at sea - but of the crew from a sailing vessel caught at the mercy of Mother Nature and of survivors from a crashed Air National Guard rescue helicopter.

 

All the drama makes for a good movie plot, but here is where Hollywood and reality part ways.  Hollywood acts it, others live it.  Unbeknownst to most people is the saga of a group of real heroes - heroes who will never receive Oscars. They will likely never see the millions, nor ever get that chance in front of the big screen.  Those heroes have not sought a life of fame, they seek a life of purpose and selfless service in one of the most unforgiving of school grounds - the sea.

 

Look closely during the movie and you will see some familiar people and hardware. Come down and walk aboard the bridge of the Coast Guard Cutter Diligence, moored here in downtown Wilmington. You will see the same setting used during the rescue scene in the movie, the scene where the Coast Guard ship captain makes the gut wrenching call to put his ship and the lives of his sailors at risk rescuing the crew of a downed helicopter.

 

When you see Coast Guardsmen reaching over the gunwale as the Coast Guard cutter nearly capsizes in heavy seas to pick up survivors, you will be looking at a mock up of the starboard main deck of - you guessed it - a cutter like the Diligence. When you walk by that little white shack that sits on the waterfront at 109 N. Water St., you will also see a young cutterman standing the watch. In those eyes you will see the same sense of purposeful duty and a willingness to hang it all on the line when the next call comes for assistance, that same courageous call to action that you will see portrayed by Hollywood actors.

 

Add up a Bonnie, Dennis, Floyd, Irene, Lenny and Jose. You may not have the collective makings of a perfect storm, but the hours upon hours of hurricane evasion - playing cat and mouse with smaller but as lethal storms, this has been the business of those Diligence crewmembers these past few years.

 

Usually they are the first to put to sea when a hurricane threatens Wilmington, taking refuge to protect a $45 million government asset bought with hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

 

As importantly, taking to sea, poised for the next big rescue, poised to assist when the next call of distress cracks faintly over the radio.

 

There have been many a brave crew of the six cutters that proudly carried the name Diligence - dating back to 1790 when then President George Washington made the wise decision to relocate the original Revenue Cutter Diligence from New Bern, to Wilmington. Today's crew of Diligence will be standing their watch, like the crews of the many Coast Guard Cutters that have called Wilmington home.

 

Sleep well Wilmington, the Diligence be a little old and a little short of fuel money for the moment, but her crew will stay Always Ready - Semper Paratus - as they stand the watch.

 

Enjoy the movie!

 

Mark Landry is a commander in the United States Coast Guard and commanded the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Diligence from 1998 until today, when he relinquishes command to take a new assignment with the Coast Guard in Boston.

 

 

20 July	Flotilla 39 Meeting, Base Mobile, 1930
20 – 23 July	Dauphin Island Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo
29 July	VE, Luscher Park, 1000 - 1400
4 August	Bay Bears Baseball Game, Hank Aaron Field, 1900
5 August	Coast Guard Day Event
12 August	BC Training, Dauphin Island SAR Station
17 August	Flotilla 39 Meeting, Base Mobile, 1930
26 August	VE, Dauphin Island, 1000 - 1400
21 September	Flotilla 39 Meeting, Base Mobile, 1930
23 September	Division Elections, hosted by Flotilla 39
30 September	VE, Fowl River, 1000 - 1400

 

Driftwords on Web

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