Telstar Logistics

The Coast Guard's New Cutter Settles in San Francisco

The US Coast Guard base in Alameda, California recently became homeport for the newest cutter to enter the fleet: the USCG Bertholf (WMSL-752). Built to support the Coast Guard's national security mission, the 418' Bertholf is the first of the USCG's Legend Class cutters, part of a long overdue (and delayed) effort to replace the Hamilton-class cutters that were built during the 1960s.

Bertolf, and the the rest of the Legend Class ships, were designed to operate in the new post-Cold War global environment. Based on a Pentagon contract issued in 2002, Bertholf is a product of the post 9/11 emphasis on maritime homeland defense -- with all the delays and cost overruns that have come to typify that effort. That said, her list of features includes:

* Automated weapons systems
* A 57 mm deck gun capable of stopping rogue merchant vessels
* Helicopter launch and recovery pad with hangar capacity for two aircraft
* A stern boat well for small boat launch and recovery
* Bow thrusters, for enhanced maneuverability
* State-of-the-art communications systems to enhance interoperability between Coast Guard and the the Department of Defense
* Detection and defense capabilities against chemical, biological, or radiological attack
* Advanced sensors for intelligence collection and sharing
* An advanced Ships Integrated Control System to improve automation and reduce manpower requirements.

After shakedown voyages and commissioning, Bertholf has settled her new home in Alameda, and this week the ship returned from an eight-week cruise to complete Combat System Ship Qualification Trials -- a series of exercises to evaluate weapons systems, test the propulsion system, and practice fueling at sea. We'll be keeping an eye out for her on San Francisco Bay in the years ahead. In the meantime, this Pentagon-produced video provides an overview of the Bertholf's features and how the ship fits into the new defense procurement landscape:

Photos from a Somali Pirate Attack

Our maritime friends over at gCaptain recently spotted a vivid collection of photos detailing the November hijacking of the tanker M/V Biscaglia by Somali pirates. The images, of provenance unknown, were published in the British tabloid The Mirror. The pirates approached the Biscaglia in this high-powered skiff:

The Biscaglia was reasonably well prepared. Following a long string of pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia, the ship had been equipped with water cannon, acoustic deterrents, and a small detachment of British security guards. Here are the water cannons, hard at work:

None of these defenses proved effective, however, and the Biscaglia was quickly seized. The British security guards -- ex-military, one and all -- retreated to the roof of the ship. Outgunned and outnumbered, they eventually jumped into the sea, where they were rescued by a French navy helicopter. In breathless tabloid prose, the Mirror tells the tale:

The Biscaglia and 18 other cargo vessels at first sailed with a French frigate for protection. But two days out of Oman, 300 miles off the Somali coast,  it fell behind. [Former British paratrooper Mike Kelly], from Dublin, said: “We noticed a skiff about three miles off our port side – and knew it was pirates.”

The Biscaglia sent a distress signal to the frigate as the skiff circled the tanker staying well out of range of water cannons.

Mike said: “We used our makeshift bazooka but it was wildly inaccurate and the pirates started firing rocket-propelled grenades.”

While two pirates stayed in the skiff, six scrambled on board, firing AK-47s at the bridge where the three men were masterminding the defence.

[ex-Royal Marine Carl “Rocky” Mason], from Poole, said: “They started shooting at me and I ran with them coming after me. They were only about 18, skinny and looked high on the local drug, called khat. They were spraying bullets everywhere.”

The men decided to use the sonic weapon, called an L-RAD.

Mike said: “We thought it would make the pirates back off, but they just laughed. It was a total waste of time.”

 

The trio locked all the hatches and doors and retreated to the roof of the bridge. Half an hour after the attack had begun, a helicopter from the French warship appeared.

Although it was armed, it is against maritime laws in the area to board a vessel by force after it has been taken by pirates. So the helicopter crew were forced to hover and photograph events from above.

LINKS:

Heroic Brit Trio Take on Somali Pirates Before Escaping into Sea (UK Mirror article)

Pirate Attack Photos (gCaptain blog post)

PREVIOUSLY:

Aaarrrr! The US Navy Battles Modern Pirates to Save North Koreans off the Coast of Africa

(Images from www.mirror.co.uk)

A Princess Visits San Francisco

 

Although it only reminds us of how much we miss the SS Independence, there's a new tenant at the BAE Shipyard in San Francisco: the Princess Cruises liner Star Princess. At more than 900 feet from end to end, the Star Princess is basically like a oceangoing version of a Las Vegas hotel, with accommodations for 2600 passengers and 1600 crew.

We haven't made it on board, but Flickr user Jasperdo posted a nice set of photos taken during a recent cruise on the Star Princess, which is the next best thing. That crazy-looking cabin perched off the stern like a Formula One spoiler? That's the Skywalker Nightclub — an glitzy disco that apparently looks like this from the inside:

Here's the indoor Pool:

Here's the scene inside the Tutankhamun-inspired Explorer's Lounge:

Here are the acommodations inside cabin B332:

And here's the inevitable view from the Promenade Deck:

While hauled up in drydock, the Star Princess dominates San Francisco's southern waterfront, but just like any other tourist passing through town... it won't be here for long

LINKS:

Star Princess (official Princess Cruises webpage)

Star Princess (Wikiepedia entry)

Star Princess (165 photos of Flickr travelogue by a former Star Princess passenger)

PREVIOUSLY:

Exploring the Ghost Ship SS Independence

(PHOTOS: Star Princess in drydock by Telstar Logistics. All interior photos by Jasperdo.)

Dive! Dive! Dive! Telstar Logistics Visits the Submarine USS Pampanito

 

 

 

As part of our recent exploration of the San Francisco waterfront with BoingBoing TV, Telstar Logistics fleet operations officer Todd Lappin visited the submarine USS Pampanito to learn all about the sub — and the remarkable technology that made her so effective against Japanese shipping in the Pacific during World War II.  We could explain all this in text, but why bother when the moving pictures — and Zach Salin, our all-knowing USS Pampanito guide — tell the story so much better?  Let's thread the film through the Internet movie projector and watch...

LINK:
WWII Retro-tech: USS Pampanito sub with Todd Lappin (BBtv video)

USS Pampanito (official website and home page)

PREVIOUSLY:

We Tour A World War II Liberty Ship with BoingBoingTV

The USS San Francisco: When Submarines Collide

Homemade Submarine Intercepts Queen Mary II

(IMAGES: photos by Telstar Logistics)

We Tour A World War II Liberty Ship with BoingBoingTV

A few weeks ago our friends from BoingBoing invited Telstar Logistics fleet operations officer Todd Lappin to tour the World War II Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O'Brien as part of a video segment for BBtv. Here's BoingBoing's summary of the episode:

BBtv guest correspondent and blog pal Todd Lappin of Telstar Logistics takes us inside a steam-powered World War II "Liberty Ship," the SS Jeremiah O'Brien.

We marvel (!) at the cool old retro-technology that kept this behemoth boat running to and from the beaches of Normandy, and we meet the volunteer caretakers -- obsessive nerds just like us, only with white hair! -- who keep her ship-shape today. Did you know that shipyards in the San Francisco Bay Area once churned out Liberty Ships like this in 4 days or less, during the heat of the war? Watch and learn, li'l skippers.

Indeed.  We hope you enjoy these moving pictures, and we've provided links to our previous coverage of the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, below. And if you're in San Francisco, remember: The SS Jeremiah O'Brien is tied up at Pier 45, near Fisherman's Wharf, and it's open daily for visits. Check it!

PREVIOUSLY:

Telstar Logistics Boosts Employee Morale Aboard the SS Jeremiah O'Brien

A Ship, a Submarine, a 10,000 Year Clock, and a Penny Arcade: Mechanicrawl 2008

Taking the Littoral Combat Ship for a Test Drive

So, defense contractor Lockheed Martin has a Flickr account.  How odd.  Nevertheless, the company just uploaded some photos of the new Littoral Combat Ship (the future USS Freedom, LCS-1) undergoing sea trials this week.  The vessel looks kind of mean and a little bit stealthy, but what's a Littoral Combat Ship?  The Wikipedia explains:

The Littoral Combat Ship is the first design of the U.S. Navy's next-generation surface combatants. Intended as a relatively small surface vessel for operations in the littoral region (close to shore), the LCS is smaller than the Navy's guided missile frigates, and has been compared to the corvette of international usage. However, the LCS adds the capabilities of a small assault transport with a flight deck and hangar large enough to base two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, the capability to recover and launch small boats from a stern ramp, and enough cargo volume and payload to deliver a small assault force with armored vehicles to a roll-on/roll-off port facility. Although the LCS design offers air defense and surface-to-surface capabilities comparable to destroyers with 57 mm guns, torpedo and missile launchers, the concept emphasizes speed, flexible mission module space and a shallow draft.

Due to its modular design, the LCS will be able to replace slower and larger specialized ships such as minesweepers and larger assault ships in anti-mine and special forces missions, plus robotic air, surface, and underwater vehicles.

LINK:
Littoral Combat Ship (Flickr photoset by Lockheed Martin)

PREVIOUSLY:
Britain's Stealth Warship Masquerades as a Fishing Boat

(Images by Lockheed Martin)

USCG Eagle: Aboard the Coast Guard's Tall Ship

Last week there was a parade of tall ships in San Francisco.  More than 30 sail-powered vessels participated in the show, but by far the most spectacular of the bunch was the USCG Eagle, a steel-hulled, three-mast ship that's used as a cadet training vessel by the United States Coast Guard.

The Eagle has a fascinating history: Originally built in 1936 by the Nazis, the ship was seized as a war prize by the U.S. military after World War II. Once in American hands, it was turned over to the Coast Guard, and it’s been in use at the Coast Guard Academy ever since.

Just a few hours after the parade of tall ships ended, the Coast Guard gave Telstar Logistics a backstage tour of the Eagle.  We climbed around inside, touring the ship from front to back — from the ship's gym, to the sail locker, to the officer's wardroom, to the captain's private lounge:

The highlight came after we climbed back up to the main deck. We arrived just as the cadets were lowering the Eagle’s sails, and it was an acrobatic spectacle — one of those feats that every maritime nerd has read about in books by Joseph Conrad or Herman Melville or Patrick O'Brian, but which is rare to see up close in these early years of the 21st century.

Yet seeing the real thing is the only way to appreciate just how challenging a task lowering the sails actually is. There are no “Retract Sail” buttons to push on the Eagle; instead, dozens of cadets climb 100 feet up the masts to furl the sails by hand, while dangling off the spars from whispy ropes. It was nerve-wracking to watch even while we were dockside on a calm and sunny day in San Francisco, but the thought of trying to do all that on a stormy sea made us reach for the Dramamine:

Per standard procedure, we took plenty of photos to facilitate tele-visitation and virtual sightseeing.  And as always, Telstar Logistics would like to extend our thanks to the US Coast Guard for their kind hospitality.

LINK:
Aboard USCG Eagle (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)

PREVIOUSLY:
Hard at Work on a High-Tech Tugboat

Our Day on the Bay Aboard a US Coast Guard Cutter

Telstar Logistics Visits the USS Nimitz or: How We Learned to Stop Whining and Love Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers

A Ship, a Submarine, a 10,000 Year Clock, and a Penny Arcade: Mechanicrawl 2008

The Christmas Tree, aboard the USS Pampanito

The Long Now's Chime Generator
The Engine Room aboard the SS Jeremiah O'Brien

Telstar Logistics spent a good part of Saturday afternoon checking out the first-ever Mechanicrawl along San Francisco's northern waterfront.  Organized by the folks at the Long Now Foundation, Mechanicrawl is a celebration of the many magnificent mechanical marvels (whew!) clustered along the Bay in this part of the city. 

Taking aim at the Jeremiah O'Brien from the Pampanito

We were able to hit four of the stops on the self-guided tour: The Long Now Museum, the World War II Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O'Brien, the World War II submarine USS Pampanito, and the Musée Mécanique.

Planet Earth in the Orrery, at the Long Now Museum

All were excellent, although the Jeremiah O'Brien scored extra points by firing up one of its boilers for the tour. The ship's giant pistons were bouncing up and down throughout the day, so it felt sort of like playing Fantastic Voyage inside the engine of your car.  Amazing:

The crankshaft of the SS Jeremiah O'Brien

It's also worth emphasizing that whole the point of the Mechanicrawl was to call attention to various attractions on permanent display along the San Francisco waterfront.  So if you couldn't make it to the Mechanicrawl last Saturday, no sweat...  go see these things next chance you get, because they'll still be here, and they do not disappoint. 

Whirly Bird, a 1969 arcade game, at the Musée Mécanique

LINK:

Mechanicrawl 2008 (Photos by Telstar Logistics)

A Basic Taxonomy of American Houseboat Design

Since returning from our annual houseboat float on Lake Oroville, California, Telstar Logistics has been reviewing our photographs of the adventure and reflecting upon the state of contemporary houseboat design. 

By definition, houseboats are awkward, hybrid watercraft: more house than boat in many ways, yet nevertheless capable of extended self-sustained propulsion and operation on a calm body of water. Part beach house, part boat, part RV, and part trailer-park prefab, a houseboat is basically motorized barge in a leisure suit. Yet within that basic framework, some distinctive styles emerge.  Here are a few we noticed last weekend.

The Basic Box:

Simple houseboats for hard-working Americans, these boats provide a festive place for mom and dad to get away from it all with the kids.  Box-like in their construction, they provide only limited interior space, but ample awnings and roof decks encourage vigorous outdoor living.

The Margaritaville:

A floating party hut.  A houseboat like this is intended primarily to serve as a docking platform for a flotilla of smaller watercraft: ski boats, jet skis, paddleboats, floating trampolines, and the like.  Between wakeboarding runs and fossil-fueled dashes across the water, this is where you go to gas up on food and beer while rocking out with your  bros.  Yar.

The Beaver Cleaver:

These vintage houseboats from the glory days of Yogi Bear cartoons and the Kennedy Administration illustrate just how much houseboat technology has evolved since California was in the throes of its postwar infrastructure boom.  These boats provide a wholesome place to light up your pipe, pop open a can of Schlitz, and catch a few trout. They come in faded pastel colors, and they look like something that someone bought from a Sears catalog.  (We mean that in a good way.)

The Aquatic RV:

This was our houseboat, which we rented from Forever Resorts.  It was of contemporary vintage, sleeps 10, with four bunkrooms, a fold-out couch, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, barbeque grill, a TV and Playstation, upstairs wet bar, and rear slide.  It steered like a Greyhound bus with lazy eye, and it had the general build quality of an entry-level camper trailer, but it was clean and functional. That's Christine on the back deck.  Wave hello.

The McMansion:

So, maybe you're rich.  Not clever, but rich. You've got money to spend, but frankly, you don't want to get into the whole custom design thing. You just want a comfortable houseboat where you can hang out with friends and prospective clients, and you don't want any headaches.  A factory-built boat like this one is the way to go.  Plenty of space and lots of pre-installed accessories, all in one very big turnkey solution.

The Donald:

This houseboat makes a statement.  In fact, we saw it shimmering like the Manhattan skyline from more than a mile away as we approached Bidwell Marina from the far reaches of Lake Oroville.  As you can clearly see, it's tall.  Four stories tall, with a amusement park-style water slide snaking its way from the top deck to an outlet in the stern.  Notice the twin jet ski lifts.  And the cool white paint, with tinted glass.  If Dubai were a houseboat, it'd look something like this.

PREVIOUSLY:
A Day on the Bay in a High-Tech Tugboat

Our Day on the Bay Aboard a US Coast Guard Cutter

Telstar Logistics Visits the USS Nimitz or: How We Learned to Stop Whining and Love Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers

(IMAGES: All photos by Telstar Logistics)

We Drift While California Burns

We're back!  Our brief sojourn on a houseboat in California's Lake Oroville was restful, as always. 

It was also very smokey and mildly apocalyptic, thanks to the many wildfires that are currently ravaging the state.  The photo of the Chinook helicopter shown above is taken from a superb gallery of California firefighting images a few friends sent us this morning, and indeed, during our float we often saw Chinooks dipping their buckets into the reservoir to refill.

But to give you a more intimate sense of how the fires are impacting the state, check out these two photos taken from the exact same spot during our houseboating adventure.

This photo is from Friday, July 4:

Here's the same spot on Sunday, July 6:

The scene gave new meaning to the phrase, "Smoke on the Water."

LINKS:
California's Continuing Fires (Boston.com photo  gallery)

PREVIOUSLY:

Helitack 406: A Firefighting Helicopter in California

DC-10 Fire Tanker Joins the Fight Against SoCal Blazes

Hovercraft Save California Island from Raging Wildfire

DC-10 Airliner Attacks Big California Wildfires

(IMAGES: Top: A firefighting National Guard helicopter drops water on July 3, 2008 near Goleta, California. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images. All other images by Telstar Logistics.)

 

Gone Houseboatin', Back Soon

 

Apologies for the upcoming pause, but Telstar Logistics has departed for our annual Houseboat Offsite Retreat, taking place this year at Lake Oroville in California's sun-baked Central Valley.  We're looking forward to several days of inertia, bouyancy, merriment, and grilled meats.  We'll be back early next week to resume our regularly scheduled programming, but in the meantime... Bon Voyage!

-- The Management

(All photos by Telstar Logistics)

An Amphicar Sighting in New Jersey!

 

Remember the Amphicar?  During a recent visit to our ancestral homeland in rural northwestern New Jersey, Telstar Logistics spotted this lovely red amphibian getting some work done at a local body shop. Actually, we spotted the propellers first, and everything else followed naturally from that... 

 

Unsurprisingly, our lustful craving to own an Ampicar was renewed. *sigh*

PREVIOUSLY:

It's an Amphicar! It's an Amphicar!

(IMAGES: All photos by Telstar Logistics)

 

A Day on the Bay in a High-Tech Tugboat

A few months ago, Telstar Logistics received a priority call on our top-secret red phone:  "Rendez-vous with your contact in the parking lot on the corner of Third and 22nd Street!"  We did as instructed, connected with our man at the designated location, and together proceeded to a gritty industrial pier on San Francisco's southern waterfront, where a high-tech tugboat was waiting at idle.  We climbed aboard, and as the boat prepared to depart, took a look around.

Operated by the Seattle-based Foss Maritime Company, the Marshall Foss was a modern tractor tug, built by Halter Marine in 2001.  It was a far cry from the toot-toot look of Scuffy the Tugboat.

The Marshall Foss was equipped with twin diesel motors that delivered power to two Rolls-Royce Z-drive thrusters. (What's a Z-drive? They're propeller pods, basically, that can each rotate independently on a 360-degree axis. We've got a good photo of a Z-drive thruster here.) On the bow, a huge, self-tensioning winch enabled the Marshall Foss to maintain constant tension on its tow rope without active management from the tug's captain. The attractive galley kitchen was more Martha Stewart than Jack Sparrow, From the outside, the bridge of the Marshall Foss looked like an air traffic control tower. From the inside, it looked like a wood-trimmed Apollo space capsule:

Once we were settled in, it was time to go to work.  Our mission: Collaborate with our sister tug, the Arthur Foss, to pull the bulk freighter Sophie Oldendorff off the pier and into the deeper waters of San Francisco Bay. And so we got to it.  Ropes were secured, the diesels were brought up to speed. First we pushed, and then we pulled. Hard. We delivered 33 tons worth of tugging force, according to the captain's computer display:

From there it wasn't long until our work was done. The ropes were released, and as the Sophie Oldendorff got underway, we got a big thumbs-up from her departing crew.

Mission Accomplished! Or Miller Time, depending on your leanings. Either way, we had a great time watching the crew of the Marshall Foss at work, and they were kind enough to indulge all of our silly questions.  We also took lots of photos, so check the link below to see more images from our tugboat day on the San Francisco Bay.

LINK:
Tugboat Marshall Foss (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)

PREVIOUSLY:
Our Day on the Bay Aboard a US Coast Guard Cutter

Tugboat Races in New York City

Telstar Logistics Visits the USS Nimitz or: How We Learned to Stop Whining and Love Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers

How to Play Tug of War with a Boeing 737

Vintage Comic Book Cutaways and Sci-Fi Models from Modern Fred

Recently, one of our operatives directed Telstar Logistics toward the Flickr presence of a gentleman who goes by the name of Modern Fred. The name itself seemed intriguing, but things got even better when we plugged Modern Fred's Internet coordinates into our World Wide Web browser. Within seconds we found ourselves staring at an eye-popping collection of vintage comic book cutaway illustrations:

We oogled the illustrations with admiration and awe, noted that they were all created by an illustrator named Leslie Ashwell Wood, then fired an urgent message off to Modern Fred via electrionic mail: Where did these come from? What was Eagle Comics? What's the backstory?

A short while later we recevied a message from Mr. Fred Barr, aka Modern Fred.  In it he explained:

I found Eagle comics by way of my interest in Dan Dare, the British SciFi character who was the major feature in Eagle -- he was sort of a combination of Steve Canyon and Flash Gordon with a typical stiff-upper-lip gentleman officer personality. (Maybe he's more of a combination of Biggles and Buck Rogers come to think of it). The Eagle was the major template for British boys' comics, and TV21, which is what my generation had, was definitely modeled upon it. The delightfully detailed cutaways in each issue were transformed into amazing cutaways of the vehicles from Gerry Anderson's television programmes in TV21.

I had seen issues of Eagle many times but never had any in the flesh. It was remarkable to see all the content. The Dan Dare comic was remarkably drawn and coloured, easily influencing the Thunderbirds comic by Frank Bellamy. But getting a good look at the cutaways it's easy to see the artists who worked upon them were tremendously talented fellows, and there's a real sense of treating the intelligence of the audience -- schoolboys of the 1950s -- with respect, as there's no "dumbing down" or shortcuts taken.

Very cool.  Yet apart from having a keen eye for comic book illustration, Modern Fred also turns out to be an extremely skilled maker of scale models depicting classic bits of science fiction technology.  For example, check out this scratchbuilt (!!!) model Fred built of the Chariot vehicle from Lost in Space:

And this massive diorama of the International Rescue headquarters from the Thunderbirds:

And this geekalicious model of the bridge from the original USS Enterprise:

What can we say, but... Wow!  Fred's Flickr site is fertile ground for some very satisfying procrastination, so we heartily encourage you to beam aboard.

LINKS:
Vintage Comics and Books (Flickr photoset by Modern Fred)

Models (Flickr photoset by Modern Fred)

PREVIOUSLY:
The Intimate Industrial Illustrations of Frank Soltesz

"Flight thru Instruments" and the Fine Art of Instructional Illustration

Merry Shopping: Inside the 1962 Sears Christmas Catalog

(IMAGES: All images from Modern Fred, reproduced here with permission.)

Our Day on the Bay Aboard a US Coast Guard Cutter

Here at Telstar Logistics, we like safety.  And we like boating.  Not necessarily in that order, mind you, but still... when a public affairs liaison from the United States Coast Guard invited us to spend an afternoon aboard a USCG cutter to talk about boating safety and watch a live demonstration of helicopter-assisted search and rescue techniques, we jumped at the opportunity.  Safely, of course.

We arrived at the Coast Guard's base on Yerba Buena Island, smack in the middle of San Francisco Bay and quite literally in the shadow of the Bay Bridge, on a recent sunny afternoon. After passing the sentry at the main gate (Sweeeet!) we made our way to the USCG Hawksbill, WPB 87312.  The Hawksbill is one of the Coast Guard's 87-foot Marine Protector cutters, a medium sized ship designed for extended law enforcement, rescue, and coastal defense patrols. Vessels in the Marine Protector class are all of recent vintage -- the Hawksbill was built by Bolinger Shipyards in 1999 --  and they all can carry a crew of 10 on missions lasting as long as five days. Equipped with contemporary electronics, communications, and radar equipment, as well as two M2 .50 caliber machine guns, Marine Protectors can also launch and recover a rigid inflatable Zodiac boat while underway at speed.  Each ship cost Uncle Sam $3.5 million.

Once on board, we took a look around. We started in the lower deck, where we toured the crew's mess and galley. (NOTE: Interior design mavens, check out those superslick drawers and cabinets!)

Then we moved on to the engine room, and the twin MTU diesel motors:

On the main deck, we poked our heads into the ship's office, response locker, and the officer's cabin:

In the pilothouse, we oogled the electronic chart system, the radar, and all the seductive buttons and switches. Mmmmmm.  Blinky:

Out on the bay, we were soon joined by a HH-65C Aerospatiale Dolphin helicopter from the Coast Guard's San Francisco Air Station:

Which began to practice search and rescue procedures by dropping a diver into the chilly water:

Later, as the Hawksbill motored north toward the Golden Gate, we watched a demonstration of how the Zodiac is launched and recovered from the cutter's stern ramp while underway:

Lastly, it must be said, we were mightily impressed with the cutter's crew, who were not only cheerful, patient, and polite, but also exuded a quiet professionalism that made the Hawksbill feel like a much bigger boat.

We took plenty more photos aboard the Hawksbill, so follow the links below if you want to keep exploring.

Oh, and about all that safety stuff.  The Coast Guard asks that you please be careful while boating, and just as importantly, that you please avoid calling in distracting false alarms if you're not in life-threatening trouble.  The word "Mayday?"  It's not to be used casually during radio communications. Roger that? Don't make this guy come looking for you. Let's have fun on the water, fellow aquanauts.  But let's be careful out there.

LINKS:
Aboard USCG Hawksbill, Sector San Francisco (Flickr photoset and ship tour by Telstar Logistics)

VIDEO: Coast Guard Rescue Training (KTVU-TV video filmed during our time aboard Hawksbill)

WPB 87' Marine Protector Class (Ship history and data from Globalsecurity.org)

PREVIOUSLY:
Telstar Logistics Visits the USS Nimitz or: How We Learned to Stop Whining and Love Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers

Turning the Launch Key Inside a Titan ICBM Missile Silo

Exploring the Ghost Ship SS Independence

Telstar Logistics Gets Intimate with an Airbus A380

(IMAGES: Top, Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Kevin J. Neff, showing Telstar Logistics on the deck of the USCG Hawksbill. All other photos by Telstar Logistics.)