Give the gift of safety to the boater in your life

Give the Gift of Safety to the Boater in Your Life
By: Chris Mongillo (Coast Guard Auxiliary Intern)

With the holiday season just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to start thinking about what you want to get for that certain boating enthusiast in your life.

The Coast Guard said this year you might want to opt out of buying your favorite boater that captain’s hat they’ve always wanted. In its place, you should consider giving the gift of safety.

There are a lot of different and helpful gifts that every boater could use. Some of which are even required by state and federal law. You might do some digging to first see if your boater has all of the legally required equipment.

According to Washington State law, the following list is a requirement for any boat to have before it even leaves the dock.

1. All boats, including kayaks and canoes, are required to have at least one U.S. Coast Guard approved life jacket for each person aboard.
2. Boats over 16 feet long need to have one throw able life jacket.
3. Properly functioning navigation lights. Are the bulbs functioning properly?
4. Type B fire extinguishers for the following boats
a. Inboard engines
b. Boat length of 26 feet or longer
c. Closed compartments used to store portable fuel tanks
d. Enclosed living quarters
e. Permanently enclosed fuel tanks
5. A horn of some kind. It can either be built in or handheld.

Once you know the requirements, you can check the boat to see if anything is missing.

If you can’t find some of the required equipment, then you’ve got your Christmas present!
But fear not, if the boater in your life has everything they’re supposed to, there are many other safety devices to make boating safe and enjoyable.

It’s never a bad idea to have flares. There are a couple different types. There are aerial flares shot from a 12 gauge launcher and hand held smoke signals.

Boaters should also have a good first aid kit on board. There are many first aid kits out there and each is designed for something different. Make sure you buy a kit that matches the type of boating you do.

If you plan to cross the pacific, you’ll need more than one box of band aids. Other things you should consider, but are not required, is a CB Radio, a GPS or an emergency position-indicating radio beacon.

And what mariner can leave the dock without a trusty compass? When all else fails a good compass won’t.

Stocking stuffer ideas might include new line, or for a really big stocking; a set of fenders.

One free gift idea comes from the Coast Guard. It’s a Paddle Smart sticker that you adhere to your unregistered boat. These boats include kayaks, canoes, rowboats and skiffs. This waterproof sticker could help get your lost boat returned to you or even lead to your rescue.

To get the Paddle Smart identification sticker, please visit the following link.
http://www.uscgboating.org/

Coast Guard’s top nautical gifts ideas are:

• A Marine GPS navigation system
• A 406 Mhz EPIRB (make sure you register it after purchase, or rescuers may be delayed in reaching you!  In remote Alaska areas, this may become your ONLY way to call for help.)
• A Coast Guard-approved life jacket (because they float, you don’t…)
• A handheld VHF marine radio
• A Boating Safety Course (boater education saves lives — it’s a fact)
• Vessel Safety Check (VSC) from the Coast Guard Auxiliary (it’s free!)
• A Coast Guard approved fire extinguisher
• A first aid kit in a watertight container
• A seamanship book
• Nautical charts for the areas your favorite mariner frequents
• A signaling kit (mirror, whistle and day/ night flares)
• Clothing that is warm and water resistant and appropriate for Alaska and its extreme environments
• Life raft with a survival kit

Happy holidays!

USCG Innovation Expo: What is your innovation - Web Based Armed Forces Classification Testing

Mary Norwood, FORCECOM 541 discusses Web Based Armed Forces Classification Testing which replaces a paper based process used by Educational Service Officers (ESO) with a online test.



These videos are uploaded in high definition - HD versions can be viewed by using the HD button on the YouTube player.

USCG Innovation Expo: What is your innovation - Incident Command Post in a Box

ITC James Ussery of ESU New Orleans discusses the Incident Command Post (ICP) in a Box.

USCG Innovation Expo: What is your innovation - Force Tracker

Ben Ferguson of ESU New Orleans discusses Force Tracker.

Honorary Master Chief

I wanted to take a moment to share an event from last night here at the 2009 Coast Guard Innovation Expo. Our old boss, Vice Admiral Currier was recognized by the Master Chiefs, Senior Chiefs and Chiefs of the Coast Guard. During the festivities he was named an Honorary Coast Guard Master Chief by the Master Chief of the Coast Guard Charles Bowen, Master Chief Kevin Isherwood and Master Chief John Dunn.

The title of Honorary Chief is bestowed on individuals by the Master Chief of the Coast Guard as a way to recognize people who have demonstrated a significant commitment to Coast Guard Chiefs, the Chief's Mess and the enlisted corps.



Congratulations Vice Admiral Currier and welcome to the Chief's Mess.

USCG Innovation Expo: What is your innovation - Paddle Smart

LT. Patrick Montgomery, FORCECOM, shares the Paddle Smart Initiative. Simple in concept, this innovation has the potential to significantly reduce Search and Rescue cases by helping owners of human powered watercraft label their vessels with contact information. When this contact information is on a wayward vessel we can quickly determine if the vessel has simply been lost or if the operator is potentially in distress.



I'm looking forward to these materials arriving at Sector Portland - we will get them into the field and start getting our area's human powered vessels labeled.

Walkthrough of the 2009 Coast Guard Innovation Expo

Day two at the Coast Guard Innovation Expo in Virginia Beach and the creative juices are flowing. We've met old friends and made lots of new ones. The highlight today was a breakfast with the Coast Guard's enlisted innovators. The exceptional petty officers met and had breakfast with the Coast Guard's senior enlisted and officer leadership.

Today we took an opportunity to try and give you a feel for what it's like to be on the expo floor. Here is a video of a walkthrough of the expo. This is the only way to view the entire 2009 Coast Guard Innovation Expo floor in under ten minutes, trust me we tried. There are so many great ideas and cool things to see you just have to stop, look and talk to your fellow Guardian's to see if there is a way you can use this or that idea at your unit.

USCG Innovation Expo: What is your innovation - USCGC Healy

As part of our Innovation Expo coverage we are interviewing Guardian Innovators about their innovations. Ensign Lisa Myatt briefs us on the USCGC Healy's waste management and recycling program which won the 2009 CDR Joel Magnussen Innovation Award for Management. Congratulations to the crew of USCGC Healy! Leading the way in the Arctic and leading the way in protecting the marine environment.

Innovation Expo Day One: USCG Podcamp

Day two of the Innovation Expo found us splitting our time between the booth and the first ever Coast Guard Podcamp. 

The air throughout the convention center is electric with ideas being shared and new ideas being hatched. The one thing is clear Guardians are problem solvers. We'll have more of those innovations later.

The big focus today was the first ever Coast Guard Podcamp. We discussed the tools and how-to's that have helped make social media in the Coast Guard successful. We had a visit from Blogger Bob of the TSA Blog who shared his rules for success (humor helps) and Peter Mello from Messing About in Ships talked to us about podcasting.

Thanks to all of the participants and organizers for making the Podcamp a success

Keep with us throughout the week for more from Virginia Beach.

Welcome to Virginia Beach and the Coast Guard Innovation Expo

Has it been a year already? We are back in Virginia Beach at the Virginia Beach Convention Center to talk about innovation in the Coast Guard.

Where have we come in one year? We're at the expo this year talking about just that. Where has D13 come after one year of social media work. Hundreds of tweets and posts have gone out in the year since. We have used the technology to report cases as they happen and interact with the media and the public on scene.

On a daily basis we reach out to a group of 831 followers on twitter alone; and that number is only growing. That is just a hint of where we've come in one year.

We wouldn't have gotten there without you, our readers and followers, so thanks for being social.

Follow us this week from the convention floor at our blog, youtube or on twitter.

Now with video! Sorry here is the unbroken video, I was having encoding problems.

Fuel spill in Seattle

A 65-foot vessel lies partially submerged in the Harbor Island Marina here in Seattle. The vessel was surrounded by orange containment boom to prevent the further spread of fuel seeping from the boat's fuel tanks. The orange containment boom acts as a curtain to corral an oil spill for easier clean-up and to keep it from spreading. Blue sorbant boom is placed into the water to absorb any spilled fuel and sweep it into a concentrated area for collection. The white pads on the water are sorbant pads. The pads collect spilled fuel too but require a person to steer them around for collection.

The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology), U.S. Coast Guard and the Port of Seattle continue to respond an oil spill at Harbor Island Marina in Seattle.

Port police received a report shortly after two this morning that a vessel had sunk at its mooring at the port's Harbor Island Marina, located on the southern tip of the island.  The 65-foot Angel Rae is partially submerged.  An undetermined amount of diesel fuel escaped from the vessel's fuel tanks.

A spill-response contractor this morning placed floating boom around the vessel to stop the spread of oil on the water's surface.  A diver plugged fuel-tank air vents from which the fuel was escaping.  Cleanup crews pumped out approximately 100 gallons of diesel that remained in the boat's fuel tanks.

The spilled fuel spread out quickly to create a thin patchy sheen on the water's surface.  The sheen extended within several feet of shore northward - approximately 300 yards along the East Waterway and 200 yards along the West Waterway.

Cleanup crews on boats patrolled the sheen area looking for patches dense enough to remove from the water with oil-absorbent cleanup pads.  Inside the boomed area around the boat, crews placed and removed hundreds of the two-foot square pads.

The cleanup effort received assistance from the King County Sheriff's Office which flew its helicopter over the spill area at sunrise and provided video of the sheen to Ecology.

The Port of Seattle will be removing the vessel from the harbor and taking it to dry dock.