Fleet Week With the Crew of the Sea Scout Ship Compass Rose

It's been a while since I've posted anything nautical.  Time to fix that.

If you're a San Francisco Bay Area resident, you're probably aware that Fleet Week has just wrapped up out on the bay.  The Petaluma Sea Scouts were invited to attend the commissioning of the USS AMERICA (LHA-6) on Saturday.  Then on Sunday, the SSS Compass Rose steamed out of the Petaluma River and took station off of Alcatraz Island to watch the airshow over the bay on Sunday featuring the Blue Angels.

The crew had a pretty good time:


For more photos and details, read on...

SSS Compass Rose, Still in the Yard

A while back I mentioned that the Sea Scout Ship Compass Rose was going in for haulout at Bay Marine Boat Works.  About three days after she was put up on the hard, I stopped by to take a look.  Here's a shot of the port side:

Here's a shot showing the point of the bow:

It's been about five years since the last time she was out of the water, but the bottom was still surprisingly clean.  There was a little bit of growth in a few spots back aft, but otherwise it looks like the paint has held up pretty well.  Here's a shot of the worst-looking spot:

Here you can see some of the barnacle growth under the stern:

We were expecting the starboard propeller to be bent since we definitely hit something during summer cruise.  It was pretty bad, but it turns out the port propeller was pretty badly mangled as well:

Amazingly enough, they say they can iron out both of the screws and make them useful again.

We should be getting word that the boat is ready to go back into the water any minute now.

Stay tuned...

Funny story as a side note:  When I went down to the boatyard to check on the Rose, I was on my way home from my drill weekend with the Naval Reserves.  Since I was in my usual rush to get away from the reserve center, I was still in my Navy uniform when I walked through the coded access gate at the boatyard just after they'd closed for the day.

As I turned the corner and started down the fairway between all the boats, one of the yard workers walked up to me and asked, "are you here to pick up that thing?" and pointed to a Navy security boat all polished up and sitting on a trailer in the middle of the yard.  To rephrase: he was mistakenly offering me the keys to a large, high-speed, rigid-hulled inflatable boat with dual outdrives and all sorts of high-end electronics in its cozy, tricked-out little pilothouse.

I'll admit that the first thought that crossed my mind was saying "Yep, is it all fueled up and ready to go?  Throw her in the water and I'll be off,"  and then seeing how far I could get before anyone caught up with me.

I figure if I'd given them the name of a former executive officer that I disliked, it'd give me a few extra hours before anyone knocked on my door...

.

SSS Compass Rose, Off to the Yard

Tuesday morning started bright and early aboard the Sea Scout Ship Compass Rose on the Petaluma River:

The ship was headed down to Richmond to be hauled out of the water for some new bottom paint.  While there, we're also pulling the starboard propeller off to have it straightened out.  Apparently we like that prop a lot and we've managed to knock it into something no less than four times since the last haulout.

Since the trip to the yard happened on short notice and it was to be the last day of summer before the crew had to start school again, the only scout who was able to make the trip was Brian, the ship's bosun:

We still had my niece and nephew aboard as well as Melissa's daughter Elise:

Fortunately, they managed to keep themselves entertained:

We left the marina in Petaluma at max ebb, so it was a pretty quick transit to Richmond:

Upon arrival, the Skipper and I went ashore and toured the very crowded yard:

I'm not sure what the haulout is going to cost, but there was no shortage of commercial and government boats there, so it must be cheap:

There was also this gorgeous Chinese junk:

While we were ashore one of the yard dogs found his way aboard the Rose.  His name is "Whitney."

Having checked in with the office and verified that all was secure on board, we left the ship alongside the dock to wait for space to open up so she can be yanked out of the water.

More to come.  Stay tuned...

2011 Summer Cruise Aboard the SSS Compass Rose

About a week and a half ago, the Sea Scout Ship Compass Rose set out from her homeport in Petaluma, California on her annual summer cruise.  There were nine scouts on board as well as my niece and nephew.  As they dawdled along in the Sacramento River Delta, ports of call included Vallejo, Rio Vista, Sacramento, and Westgate Landing.  I was aboard taking pictures and enjoying this rare opportunity to relax.


There are tons of pictures and more details about the trip after the jump

2011 Ancient Mariner's Regatta

Last weekend marked the 60th Annual Ancient Mariners Regatta, a chance for Sea Scout Ships from all over California to come together and match their skills in all manner of aquatic competition.  This year the regatta was held in Alameda at the USS HORNET Museum.


I cruised there aboard the SSS COMPASS ROSE.  When I say I cruised there, what I mean is I loaded my gear onto the ship and we got underway.  It was only a short while after that when I'd sat down to read a book.  Then I woke up and we were moored outboard of our sister ship, the SSS ALBATROSS out of Martinez, CA:

I guess I was overdue for some rest.

Attendance in all types of scouting has been on the decline for years, but you wouldn't guess it from the crowd that assembled for the opening remarks on Saturday morning:



For my part, I was the event director for Flotilla Drill throughout the weekend.  Flotilla Drill is a precision rowing event in which the crews are judged on their ability to crew a 26-foot whaleboat with eight oars.  This meant that most of my view for the weekend looked like so:



At some point my sister Rose snagged my camera to get pictures of the rest of the event, but all she really got was this shot of me debriefing one of the crews after their flotilla run:



Fortunately Melissa Howell, a much more diligent photographer managed to get these other shots:









In addition to plenty of pics from the flotilla drill, she snapped some gorgeous shots of other events. Here's Breeches Buoy:



Pulling Boat Race:



Scuttlebutt:



Flag Signalling:


You can see the rest of the pictures she took during the regatta by clicking HERE.  Out of all the photos Melissa took for the weekend, this one is still my favorite:


She also took this picture:


For the sake of retribution, I snapped this winning shot of her:



Because the crew of the COMPASS ROSE didn't have enough people to muster a full competing team, they combined with the crew of the SEA FOX for the duration of the regatta.  For all of their lack of previous cooperative practice, they actually did pretty good.

Finally, here's a shot of the two crews after the dress blue inspection on Sunday night:


At least they look like they've got their act together...

.

Random SF Bay Cruise aboard the SSS Compass Rose

The weather forecast called for snow.  So when the weekly Wednesday night meeting discussion turned to planning for the weekend, naturally the kids in the crew of the Sea Scout Ship Compass Rose wanted to take the boat out and bounce around the bay.


The plan: get underway on Friday evening and make it up as we go.  How did it go?  Story and pictures after the jump...

Sea Scout Trip to the Napa Mini Regatta

Last weekend I went out with the Petaluma Sea Scout Ship Compass Rose so the crew could participate in the Napa Mini Regatta.  This is an annual event where ships crews from all over the San Francisco Bay area get a chance to practice the various events and exercise the skills they'll need when competitive regatta season begins.

Over the last few years, recruiting has been a challenge (I blame the internet) and the crew has been too small to effectively compete.  This year we're starting the season with a solid eleven members, so things are looking good.

On Friday I met the ship down at the Marina:


We were underway by 1800 and I spent the downriver transit in the pilothouse making sure everyone was on top of their game.  As it turns out, this group doesn't need much supervision and all I was doing was drinking coffee and answering the occasional question:


As we approached the Highway 37 Bridge at the mouth of the river, the sun set:


While crossing San Pablo Bay toward the Napa River, Jeremiah (another adult volunteer) grilled up dinner:


While the crew waited patiently in the cabin:


By 2300 we were moored outboard of the Rio Vista Sea Scout ship, a restored Vietnam-era fast patrol boat.  Not long after that, everyone turned in so they could be well rested for a full day Saturday.

Saturday morning found me and Jeremiah in charge of the knot tying event.  Our task was to give remedial training to those folks who were less than 100% confident in their knot tying abilities.  Each scout had to correctly tie each of ten knots frequently used in boating.  For those few who were overtly cocky about their skills, we took it upon ourselves to challenge them to a race to see who could tie them faster.  I'm happy to say that despite my total lack of recent practice (I hadn't tied knots for speed in at least fifteen years) that there was only one well-drilled youth who was able to match me in a tie.  The next closest took half again as long as me to tie all ten.
While we were running the knot event, the rest of the Napa Sea Scout Base was crawling with other activities.  Sadly, I only got a few snapshots.  Tragically, this is the best of them:


During the lunch break, the crews went down to their ships to eat and socialize:


After lunch I left Jeremiah to the knot tying and went down to check out the flotilla drill training.  This event tests the crew's abilities in precision rowing and maneuvering of an eight-oared rowboat:

From what I witnessed, all of the crews have a long ways to go.

Once the events closed for the day, the crew got cleaned up and headed into town to the awards ceremony.  Four of them are still new enough that they still don't have dress uniforms:


Exhausted, I ended up sleeping through most of the transit back to Petaluma.  Here's a shot of the crew pumping out the holding tank once we were back at the marina:

Here's an inspired self-portrait:


And here's an angry bird:


It was a fun trip and went by pretty quickly, but I was glad to be home:


Stay tuned for more adventures...

Fleet Week Cruise with the Scouts

A couple of weeks back I spent a day out on the Bay with the Petaluma Sea Scouts.  I meant to post pictures and do a brief writeup, but it got lost in the mix of the past few weeks craziness.  So without further ado, here's some pictures.


First off, it was a gorgeous day to be out on the bay.  Here's a shot as the ship was approaching Angel Island:



Since we arrived with some time to kill before the air show started, the Skipper decided to take a quick jaunt out through the gate and into the Pacific.  Along the way, we passed this pretty little cutter:

I've been regularly tempted to have my next suit of sails made in that dark red color (called "tanbark").

Here's a shot of the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge as we left it astern:



Once we were back in the bay, we wedged the ship into the rest of the crowd of boats:



Not long after that, the air show started:



The best part was the low-level flyovers:



Then there was formation flying:



And of course, low-level flyovers in formation:



Much of the event was sponsored by United Airlines, so at some point in the airshow one of their airliners did a low pass over the bay:
I really was hoping that it would do something more interesting than just flying over, but I guess that wouldn't go over well with the passengers on board:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has turned on the fasten seat belt light, please return to your seats and hold on tight, we're about to do a barrel roll."

They also did some low-level flyovers:

(Note: I got some good pictures of the crew watching the show and some good pictures of the aircraft flying over.  The above photo is a photoshop amalgamation of two of them.)


Here's one of my better shots of the six plane formation:


And here's one of my better shots of the crew sitting on top of the pilothouse watching the show:



When it was all over, we headed back up the river to Petaluma.  Along the way I spent some time trying to capture a decent picture of the moonset.  Here's the best I came up with:


Not terrible considering the fact that it was shot in nearly no light from the deck of a moving boat.

So that's that.

Stay tuned for further adventures...

  .Once the passenger jet was out of the area the Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, aka the Blue Angels, arrived: