It's all in a Day's Work for  South Portland based Coast Guard Buoy Tenders

Floating Signposts for Supertankers Need Constant Care.

by

Jack Reynolds

True,  a boatswainsmate second class (BM2),  cons the 46-foot black barge shaped vessel under the Casco Bay Bridge and closes in on  Fore River Channel Green Lighted Buoy No. 1.  This time it's just a routine annual maintenance check.  The Coast Guard's annual check policy keeps most of its aids on station and functioning between inspections.  Its the unforeseen, however,  that keeps True and fellow  buoy tender skippers hopping.  Fixing and replacing buoys moved or damaged by ice, ship collisions, and tides is all in a day's work.  Sometimes its just a matter of a good legal defense.
 
 
 

"If a merchant vessel runs aground we have to check on the aid's position to make sure the grounding was not our fault." said True. "And  buoys do move around. Even a moon tide can stretch out the chain and lift the sinker from the bottom. In other cases, the problem is with the light.  A big fishing boat colliding with a lighted buoy can destroy the lighting mechanism."
 
 

True, his crew of  three, and their small black hulled vessel serve in the Coast Guard's workaday "black boat navy"   Buoy Tender 46302's  only resemblance to spit and polish "white boat navy" cutters is its colorful Coast Guard diagonal bow stripe.     But it means business.  For close-in work its Schottel swiveling propellor can turn it on a dime and the  yellow two legged hoist towering over its stern can snatch a 4000  pound concrete buoy anchor from deep water.  It can make two week cruises to service navigation aids in any of the Gulf of Maine harbors and rivers.

A few yards from morning commuters whizzing along Commercial Street,  True positions the tender's stern over Buoy No. 1.  Crew members, BM3 Jason Willey from Vermont and BM2 Mike Whitman from Pennsylvania,  hook the hoist wires onto its  hull mounted hoisting pad eyes.  Fireman Matt Sampson, a Florida native,  finesses the hydraulic hoist controls to guide the buoy's delicate solar panel under the hoist cross bar.  The  5-foot diameter steel hull eases to a soft landing on deck.  Willey and Whitman with help from Sampson's winch next grapple No. 1's 30 feet of  anchor chain to short stay.   Micrometer readings of links  tell the condition of the chain links; those that scrape on the bottom get close attention.

After scraping green layers of marine growth from the hull, Willey flips open the green light to check on its 6 bulbs.  The bulbs are mounted in circular tray that rotates a fresh bulb into firing position when its predecessor has burned out.

Depending on conditions each of the low wattage bulbs is good for about six months.  The Fresnell shaped lens  magnifies the bulb's feeble 1.15 watts to a bright green flash visible for several miles. "A bulb can last up to six months," says Willey, " but the vibration on bell buoys cuts that down."

Willey next tests the battery voltage and solar panel voltages.  He finishes up with an inspection of the flasher mechanism. At night mariners recognize  No. 1. by its "characteristic" green flash every 2.5 seconds. They depend on it to guide their tankers safely up river to the oil docks.   The size of those passing tankers and the hazardous cargoes they are hauling has earned No. 1 an "Alpha"  rating.    Its 50-foot diameter swinging circle is the lowest tolerance allowed by the Coast Guard.  Less critical buoys descend  the Coast Guard's phonetic alphabet scale to the lowest rating of "Foxtrot."

With its hull scraped, and mooring chain and electrical system checked out, Fore River Channel No. 1 Green Lighted Buoy is ready for resetting.  True scrolls through the wheelhouse computer's menus of rivers and bays from Southwest Harbor to New Hampshire under the care of South Portland Station. "Local," the designation for Portland Harbor lights up.  One more tap on the computer keyboard fills the screen with No. 1's specifications.  A GPS position fix beamed from an orbiting satellite to pilot house computer shows that at the stern of the True's vessel in over the designated position.    Sampson eases the 11-foot high green structure back into the water.

True scrolls down through the Local menu to the next project on today's schedule and guns the boat toward a red nun a quarter mile further up-river.  Meanwhile, Fore River Channel No. 1 should be good for another year.   BM2 True and his crew have  something in common with painters of big bridges.  Just when you get to the end its time to start again.
 
 
 
 

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