One down...

Well I have my first patrol under my belt. We went out on a three week in and out patrol. We went all over Southern Florida. I have to say it was very tiring and exciting all at the same time.  We had a little bit of everything thrown our way. We had a couple of Search and rescue cases, alot of boardings, a big law enforcement case that involved multiple countries and agencies and a almost drug and smuggling case.

The second search and rescue case involved us picking up two guys who had been lost at sea for 3 days. They were happy to see us! Haha. Of course we were miles away from them to so it took us forever to get to them.  We got them onboard and then towed their boat all the way back to Miami. We passed the boat off to Station Miami Beach and got to moor up for a couple of hours.

The guy driving the small boat from the Station was a good friend of mine. He of course wasn't to happy that we passed off a broken down boat with 2 guys who have been reaking in the sea for the pass three days. haha. This was his response:

I have awesome friends!

Now we have had a few days back at home. Which is good because on the last day of patrol I started to get sick, a cold not sea-sick. Almost everyone on the boat was catching it. I came home and started to dope up on Advil Cold and Sinus and Nyquil. Oh, and a little Wild Turkey American Honey to wash it down with. Needless to say I didn't do anything on my time off except for sleeping and lounging around. Today was the first day back and I feel better. I still have a cough, but at least its not as bad as it was. The first day I was sick I had a tremendous headache so I laid down around 6 pm and didn't wake up till the next morning. Haha I guess I needed it. I'm just surprised that I actually got to sleep on the boat that long.

From here on out our new mission on the boat is OT&E which is Operational Testing and Evaluation on the Cutter. This is usually done on the first of the fleet, but since we are so awesome, they are doing it with us. It's a good thing to do, we get to prove what we can do, but it also takes away from patrolling. The Captain said that if there is a case or a go-fast (boat trying to get into the country suspiciously) we will go for it and if we have free time we will do more boardings. So we won't be totally out of the game but just sitting on the sidelines waiting for the coach to call us in.