SPRING HAS ARRIVED IN JUNEAU, ALASKA

By Noreen Folkerts, Flotilla 11 Publications Officer, Juneau, AK

The buoys were dropped in position and the crew of Elderberry One set them, it was back to the Buoy Tender for more.

It may not have looked like it on April 1, but spring has come to Juneau, Alaska. How can you tell? Each year, in late March or early April, the 65-foot Coast Guard Buoy Tender Elderberry makes the 120-mile journey from Petersburg, Alaska to Juneau.

One of their primary missions is to set the 18 seasonal buoys on the Mendenhall Bar, an 8-mile stretch of tide sensitive channel between Juneau and Auke Bay, an indication, at least to Juneau residents, that spring has arrived.

Alaskan waters experience two tides daily and the channel on the Mendenhall Bar virtually dries during the low tide cycles. The channel is not deep enough for even the small buoy tender to navigate so it is up to the two man crew on the Elderberry’s small boat (Elderberry One) to transport and set the buoys. With time working against them, it is difficult for the crew of the Elderberry to set all 18 buoys during one high tide.

Enter the Coast Guard Auxiliary with the smallest of their operational facilities to lend a hand. High tide on April 1 was at 0519, sunrise was at 0625. The crew of the Elderberry would start setting buoys at 0600, but the personal watercraft offered for use by the Juneau Flotilla Auxiliarists would not be able to get underway until sunrise. Three of the vessels met at Douglas Harbor, launched and at sunrise were underway to assist with the buoy setting evolution.

As the trio arrived at the cutter, Elderberry One was returning from its first trip up the bar. The first two buoys had been set but there were 16 to go and the tide was already ebbing, meaning time was of the essence.

The crew on the cutter rigged tow lines on the small buoys and dropped them over the side in pairs. The Auxiliary watercraft each picked up the lines and, with buoys in tow, headed up the bar where the two-man crew on Elderberry One would pick them up and set them in their designated locations.

An evolution that would normally take two high tide cycles was accomplished in a little over four hours with the Auxiliary PWCs, driven by Dan Logan, Mike Folkerts and Noreen Folkerts, towing 13 of the buoys up the channel. By 1000 the mission was complete.

~GJA