Coast Guard members buoy each other up in annual training

U.S. Coast Guard buoy tenders from Alaska and across the Pacific coast competed in the 17th annual Buoy Tender Olympics on Wednesday as part of the buoy tender round-up at Coast Guard Station Juneau.

More than 250 Coast Guard members tested their seamanship skills in a competition of camaraderie. The training allows any of the cutters to cover for another asset because it teaches them the same level of standardized training.

Richard Sargent, chief boatswain’s mate for the Coast Guard, said the event brings buoy tenders from as many districts as possible to build internetworking and provide specialized training. He has been in District 17 for the last two years and has participated in the Buoy Tender Olympics for three years. He serves as the aids to navigation training chief (ATON).

“Makes me proud to watch what I teach get put into effect,” Sargent said. “We have other facilities that are here coming to train and it just helps expedite the training process, but it gives us quality training in the environment we need.”

Tug-of-war

Coast Guard members first competed in a game of tug-of-war, pulling with all their might while others cheered from the sidelines.

“We don’t do tug-of-war, but we do handle lines,” Sargent said. “These ships are 225-feet or 175-feet long and we have to put those lines over the pier, and we have to have that ability to pull work as a cohesive unit to get the job done, to make sure it’s safe, and we’re able to get to the pier and be able to do the missions we need to.”

Final scores:

1. Cypress

2. Elm

3. Aspen

Chain pull

Coast Guard members move the chain in this contest like they would throughout a ship’s deck and uniformly lay it as if members are pre-staging for their next mission.

“The buoy deck is only a certain size and we carry multiple buoys on board,” Sargent said. “We have rocks that go to the bottom of the ocean. We have the chain to hold it. We have the big buoys, anywhere from small foams to nine-foot-diameter buoys, and we have to be able to stack them on the deck, but also have cleanliness of the chain and the appendages.”

Final scores:

1. Kukui

2. Henry Blake and Elderberry tied

3. N/A

Line toss

Coast Guard members who participate in the line toss competition take immense pride in it, Coast Guard public affairs officer Mike Salerno said. This contest trains technical efficiency and clear focus.

“We’re maritime professionals,” Sargent said. “When we go in the water and someone says, ‘There’s a person in the water,’ and we find those people in the water, we gotta get the line to them, so we train on that. And it’s a simple thing. It’s a line with a ball on it, and it sounds like a simple thing, just toss it in a straight line. But you have wind, you have the environment, you have the pressure of just everyone on the boat watching you throw that line.”

Final scores:

1. Elderberry

2. Henry Blake

3. Aspen

Boom spot

For the boom spot event, Coast Guard members move buoys. Sargent said it’s important to remember they work in all environments with waves, winds, and seas.

“The boat could be tipping, the boat could be rocking, but we still got to make sure that 13,000-pound buoy goes across the deck and doesn’t harm anybody,” he said. “So that’s where that proficiency is, is slowly moving it, but efficiently moving it because there has to be a component of speed.”

Final scores:

1. Henry Blake

2. Cypress

3. Aspen

Heat-and-beat

Coast Guard members referred to their last event on Wednesday as the feature attraction. While sparks flew nearby, the crowd’s cheers could be heard over the sound of pounding sledgehammers.

“On the seabed, normally people know of a shackle,” Sargent said. “It’s either a screw pin or a bolt and a nut that goes on the end. In the ocean as it’s bouncing up and on the sea floor, those can back themselves out, and then the buoy goes free.”

“So what we do is we pull the pin, we heat it up and we smash it down to where it becomes one solid metal object pressed again. That way, no matter if it’s getting beat on the seafloor or just bouncing in the water column, it maintains its integrity for as long as possible until we can come back out, reevaluate the heat and beats, or relay new chain, or even change out the entire system if need be.”

Rear Adm. Megan Dean, the commander for Coast Guard District 17, watched the heat-and-beat with a smile.

“This is where I started out with the Coast Guard,” she said. “I spent most of my early time on buoy tenders, so a platform just like this. I had a command of one. We have great missions in the Coast Guard. There’s nothing like our navigation mission and the people that do it. These are people that really keep our waterways safe.”

It was seaman Hailey Crawford’s second year participating in the Buoy Tender Olympics. She heated up the pin so the shackle could be hit down by her teammates. Crawford’s team, which placed first in the event, was visiting Juneau from Everett, Washington, aboard the Coast Guard keeper-class cutter Henry Blake.

“I love just how everybody works as a team,” she said. “Everybody’s competing against each other, but it’s good fun.”

Final scores:

1. Henry Blake

2. Elderberry

3. Aspen

The best in show awards were given to:

1. Kukui

2. Cypress

3. Elm

• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356.