Fred's Place - The Place To Meet Old Coast Guard Shipmates

Welcome Aboard The CGC Healy August 14, 2005
Come aboard as the Healy sails into the Artic Ocean and back into the ice. All photos are credited: U.S. Coast Guard.	The Coast Guard Cutter Healy, homeported in Seattle, Washington.

August 7, 2005. Jeff Jackson, Executive Officer

Warmest Greetings to family & friends from the 78 Degrees North/152 Degrees West, 720 miles from the North Pole

After a lively ride through the Bering Sea from Dutch Harbor to the Arctic Ocean we moved back into the ice this week start our final science mission, which will ultimately take us to Tromso, Norway via the North Pole.

The Marine Science Division (MST’s) found themselves very busy setting up another complicated batch of scientific equipment which will be operated 24 hours a day during this important cruise. There are 2 principal components to this scientific effort, hydrographics and coring. The hydrographics group streams gear from our fantail which emits an air burst (a small explosion, really) which provides a sound wave that penetrates the seabed to a depth of several kilometers before it echoes back to the surface where hydrophones pick up the sound for computer analysis. The coring group uses our winches to lower a coring pipe to the seabed to collect cylindrical samples of the materials on the ocean floor. Then they get to analyze the mud. Stay in school, kids!

The late summer ice conditions are dramatically less difficult than those we experienced 2 months ago. With little effort and only 2 engines driving the ship we pushed several hundred miles north of the spot where we were beset in June. The ice is beginning to thicken, however, and I’m sure that we’ll see much more difficult conditions between here and the North Pole.

Several members of our crew made significant professional accomplishments and received awards this week:

SN Brittany Rasmussen – Bridge Watchstander & Junior Officer of the Deck
MK3 Malinda Nesvold – Permanent Cutterman Pin
ET3 Steven Daem – Commandant’s Letter of Commendation (for service at his previous unit, LORAN Station Port Clarence, Alaska)
LTJG Jessica Noel, ENS Keidi Neimann, and BM2 Philip Dawalt – Meritorious Team Commendation (for diving operations on our hull when we were in Seattle)

I’m writing this a day early (Saturday) because we’re nearing the limit of the range of the satellite system we use to transmit data back to the US. We are planning to shift to another satellite system that offers coverage all the way to the Pole, but we may experience technical difficulties during the transition. If you don’t see the next few updates precisely on schedule, don’t worry – we’re safe. Just struggling with the electronics.

For Captain Dan Oliver, Command Master Chief Pete Perron and myself, thanks for all your support. You’ll hear from us again next week.

Unfortunately, we do not have any photos this week. Apparently the Healy loss connection with the satellite during transmission of the photos as they were only partially uploaded and none of the photos were completed.