Life Aboard A USCG Patrol Boat
The United States Coast Guard’s mission is as multi-varied as any of its sister services in the United States Military. Some of those missions are carried out by their fleet of 87-foot patrol boats. This video gives you a complete and interesting, even entertaining, look at what one of these patrol boats looks like and what it does.
You are guided by the CO of this patrol boat, Erin Edwards. She is a delightful personality with a complete and professional command of all elements of her boat. Her boat is stationed in Washington State in the Pacific Northwest and is one of two such patrol boats at her USCG Station.
These 87-foot patrol boats have a variety of missions. As Edwards will explain, these boats usually are on a mission for a week at a time. They come to homeport halfway through the week to replenish supplies and fuel, then continue their week-long mission. They then come back to port, where the usual maintenance and repairs are made. They also get a deep cleaning and continue the training of the crew. While one of the two patrol boats is in port, the other patrol boat is out at sea on the continuing missions.
What are those missions for these 87-foot cutters? One of the missions is to manage the fisheries in their areas. They ensure that the fishermen are observing the fishing limit laws and act as the general law enforcement agency in our coastal waters. They are also there to, when necessary, perform search and rescue missions. They can use their small boats when they find distressed boats to rescue persons aboard or those in the water. They can call for helicopters to pick up critically injured people and transport them to medical care quickly, when necessary. They can also perform higher-level law enforcement duties like drug interdiction, and when called upon, work alongside the U.S. Navy in national defense efforts.
You will get a very detailed introduction in this video as to what these boats look like and what life is like serving aboard one of these patrol boats. You’ll see what the ‘staterooms’ look like. They are spartan, small, but quite clean and comfortable. Each has a sink, storage lockers, and storage space under each rack. There are other berthing areas on board for the crew as well. There are two bathrooms on these boats; in shipboard parlance, that would be ‘the head,’ which includes toilets and showers.
As anyone who has served aboard a ship knows, water conservation is hugely important. A “shower” is something different onboard one of these boats, or any ship, than what “land lubbers” are familiar with. You take what is known as a Navy shower. You get wet, turn it off, soap up, then turn it back on to rinse. Short and sweet. No luxuriating here.
You’ll see the galley or “mess deck” on these boats are very small, intimate you might say, but then the crews are small on these boats too. Edwards will show you the ‘vestibule’ where the potable water tanks and the CO2 firefighting canisters are situated on board. The engine room holds two engines and two generators that propel the boat and provide the electrical power necessities for the boat.
Edwards’ introduction to the bridge is informative as well. The patrol boat’s two life rafts and its small boat are stored on the fantail of the boat. On the forecastle, or bow, of the boat, there are the lines and the boat’s anchor, as well as the Damage Control Locker, where all of the necessary equipment that would be used for both firefighting or flooding emergencies is stored. In all, Edwards gives us a clear description and sense of the size and the capabilities of these 87-foot USCG patrol boats.
Enjoy the tour.
