Monday, June 1, 2009

Coast Guard Cutter "Spar"




The USCG Buoy Tender Spar has been in Unalaska this past week servicing the navigation aids in the area.  The Spar is a Juniper class buoy tender, nicknamed "The Aleutian Keeper".  She is 225 feet long and powered by two 3100 horsepower Caterpillar 3608 engines and has a 6900 mile cruising range.  She also has a couple .50 caliber machine guns in case she wants to play rough.  WLB-206 is the second Spar to serve the Coast Guard - the first Spar was WLB-403, launched in November 1943 and serving proudly for 53 years before decommissioning in 1997.  The Spar name comes from the Coast Guard Women's Reserve which served as a supplemental Coast Guard force between 1942 and 1946.  The acronym SPAR stands for the Coast Guard motto, Semper Paratus!  Always Ready!

In the third photo, you can get a closer look at the crew cleaning and servicing one of the channel markers in the East Channel.  I believe Mike Rowe did a Dirty Jobs episode on a buoy tender, possibly the Spar.  In the bottom photo you can see that those View For the Living Room shots I post on here sometimes really are right from the living room!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the amount of time we all spend out there, why don't we ever cross paths?!?!!!

Lori said...

Nice post this morning! You do have a great view from your living room window!

Alaska Steve said...

It's a big island . . . I was up at Ulatka Head tonight for 90 minutes and not a soul in sight - oddly enough the weather over there was perfect. Any thoughts on doing a plant class this summer??

Bloviating Zeppelin said...

So, I see Chico enjoys the couch as well!

And a VERY admirable living room view, indeed!

BZ

Lauri said...

Finally, I am getting to read everyone's blogs again....great view, love the photo of Chico and GF!

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