Hi Chuck,
Good to hear from you. Fishing has been lousy this year, and this last flood we had was the worst since 1936 according to the news. This one wiped me out!...and now fishing won't be worth anything till spring of next year. I lost a lot in this one, and I guess I'm an idiot for living in a flood area. Included in the loss was a boat trailer that I was able to recover a 1000 yards down the creek when the tide went out. Had to put in a new well pump and lost the Bay-B-"K". She was damaged by large logs and is beyond repair. It is easier to just build another Featherwind rather than to try to repair this one. There was 4 feet of water in the shop. It all happened in 4 hours....and since Saturday the weather has been beautiful but the damage is done. These pictures were taken way before it finally peaked and the water came up about 2 more feet. The winds and heavy rain got too bad and I didn't want to get the camera damaged. The Islander has a cracked hull. It crushed the dog kennel and slammed into a large willow tree. It's repairable but I don't think I'm going to mess with it. Of course all the dog houses disappeared too! All the other boats were inside. I barely saved the Teardrop and as I pulled it out of danger the water came up so fast it flooded out the inside of my Tracker but in 4wd Low Range I was able to get her to high ground. I guess I need to put a bilge pump in my Tracker! The Teardrop is built like a boat so she's waterproof except for around the doors. No water got inside the Teardrop but was within a half inch when I got it out. Roads were washed out and many people couldn't get home till after midnight, and school kids couldn't get home and had to stay on the buses until routes were cleared over the ridges. I'll be going on a trip again soon and then you'll get another story. I carry the white skinboat all the time now on the Teardrop, but just haven't done anything all that exciting this summer as my doctor more or less grounded me for a while. I want to get my "new" skinboat built but just haven'et had the time or energy but will probably start on it in November when I get my other shed built. Can't use the old shop anymore. The tide went out almost as fast as it came in. This was from the hurricanes. There was over 5 feet of water in the basement, and power was out and I didn't have any drinking water for 2 days until I got the well pump repaired. It would have been nice if I had had some help but I was alone this time. About a thousand bucks worth of material went down the river too that I had just bought for a new deck and room. I really hate to relocate since I have so much invested here but getting too damn old to fight this anymore! Well I gotta lotta mud to get out of this place. Thanks for the compliments and i'm glad Robb liked the article. I'm going to Indiana at the end of the month so I should have a story when I get back...but right now I'm hip deep in mud! It looked like a giant yard sale along the road as well as a petting zoo! Dogs, horses, chickens and a couple of pigs lined the main road for a couple of miles until the water receded as they had no where else to go. Well back to clean up.
Later,
Richard Frye

Arkansas Messabout

Click HERE for more info

Team Coast Guard trains local Law Enforcement in Small Boat Handling

Members of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, with support and facilities provided by their Active Duty counter-parts will participate in a 10 day training session for the Officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD), starting 26 July 2004.

The first of a series of courses, the Small Boat Handling Course for Local Law Enforcement, created by the Staff of the Director of Auxiliary, First Coast Guard District, Southern Region is the first of its kind in the New York Metropolitan area.

The Port Authority Police Department is the 24th largest police department in the nation. The Police Officers, who serve at one of the four Airport Commands, are also cross-trained in structural firefighting, emergency first aid and now small boat handling. Both the John F Kennedy Command, at New York’s JFK Airport and the LaGuardia Command at New York’s LaGuardia Airport are surrounded by water.

The first course will take place at the PAPD training center, at JFK, and in the waters of Jamaica Bay, the Narrows and the Atlantic Ocean. This course is utilizing the skills and experiences of over twenty-five members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary as well as the men and women from CG Station New York. Also schedule to participate are members of Air Station Atlantic City. Subsequent courses are scheduled to be run at both JFK and LaGuardia airports.

The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is the uniformed civilian volunteer component of the Coast Guard, operating both their own vessels and on Coast Guard assets in all missions of the Coast Guard except military and direct law enforcement. The Auxiliary, which was created by Congress in 1941 currently, has over 35,000 members.

All Auxiliary members participating in this course are volunteers, freely giving their time and knowledge to increasing Homeland Security, here in New York City, as well as nationwide.

The Small Boat Handling Course concept was born when Inspector Kenneth Honig, Commanding Officer of the JFK Command, PAPD approached a Coast Guard Auxiliarist, seeking assistance in finding suitable trainers for his men in small boat handling. The idea was then brought to the attention of CDR John Felker, the Director of Auxiliary for the First Coast Guard District, Southern Region, which encompasses the area from Southern New Jersey to Connecticut, west to Vermont and Great Lakes region of New York. CDR Felker enthusiastically embraced the concept, assigning his Operations Training Officer, Chief Warrant Officer Mark Ferreira to assist the Auxiliary with the development of the appropriate course(s).

The Auxiliary tailored the Small Boat Handling Course to meet the needs of this unique Police Department, and their Marine Bureau’s unique mission. What makes the PAPD marine mission unique is that their craft is a “Life Raft Distribution Vessel” (LRDV), with secondary missions as a Patrol and/or Search and Rescue vessel. The PAPD’s Marine Bureau’s primary mission is to distribute life rafts at a scene of an aircraft landing that occurs in the waters around the airport. Their LRDV boats are capable of distributing life rafts that can hold up to three hundred people, in case of an accidental waterborne landing.

In addition to these shallow draft vessels, the PAPD also has jet-ski type boats and air-boats, similar to what is used in the Florida Keys to navigate the large marsh areas that make up Jamaica Bay, the primary waters surrounding JFK Airport.

Other courses that are being developed for both the PAPD and local law enforcement are Cold Water operations, Air Boat operations and JetSki boat operations.

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Wayne Spivak, BC-AIG, N-IC
National Press Corps
National Public Affairs Department
United States Coast Guard Auxiliary