One Awesome Coast Guard Summer (Picture Heavy)

[RobR1205]

I thought I'd share a few pictures from my first cruise aboard the USCGC Eagle, the US's only operational tallship. I had the opportunity to sail Eagle for six weeks, during which time I traveled to: Atlanta, Bermuda, NYC, Norfolk, and Baltimore. For those who don't know, I am currently at USCGA and am working toward becoming an officer in the Coast Guard. One of Eagle's primary missions is to train future Coast Guard officers. With that, I hope you enjoy the pictures!

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/eagle6.jpg
Eagle Specs: Length: 295', Beam: 39', Height: 147', Speed: 10 kts under diesel and 18 kts under sail, Displacement: 1813 tons, Crew: 9 officers, 55 enlisted, and apprx. 175 cadets/TAD

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/eagle5.jpg
Eagle coming into NYC (Photo by M. Sabatini)

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/eagle2.jpg
All work on sails is done by hand. Here, my shipmates and I work on the "Royals", the highest sails.

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/eagle1.jpg
Myself atop the "Royals", looking about 145 feet down to the waterline

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/Eagle2PO2ErikSwanson.jpg
CAPT Eric Jones (left) is relieved by CAPT Wes Pulver (right) after 3 years as CO of Eagle (Photo by PA2 Swanson)

[RobR1205]

And a couple more:

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/Eagle2PO3Weydert.jpg
Learning pipe patching for emergencies

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/EaglePO2ErikSwanson.jpg
Eagle during 4th of July celebration

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/EaglePO2RobSimpson.jpg
Securing Sails

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/eagle3.jpg
Shipmates and I working on the T'Gallents, the second highest sails

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/EaglePO3DaveWeydert.jpg
Shipmates steering and learning helm commands

[CigarNut]

Very cool!

[Blak Smyth]

Thanks for sharing, some great pics. That ship is awesome, gonna be my screen saver for a while! Thanks for your service, my best friend and my little sister were both in the CG.

[Steve]

Very sweet! I love the old tall ships!

BTW, was it hard getting it into Atlanta? :noon

[688sonarmen]

Very cool, I've seen her come in and our of New London quite a few times. Are you over from the Sub base in Groton?

[elderboy02]

Great pictures. I love the fireworks picture! :tu

[RobR1205]

Very cool, I've seen her come in and our of New London quite a few times. Are you over from the Sub base in Groton?

I'm very close, just a few minutes down the Thames River. The Academy is in New London, and Eagle is kept in Ft. Trumbull when not underway.

[Taki]

Awesome pics..thanks for sharing!!
Not sure if I have the stones for those heights!!

[RobR1205]

Very sweet! I love the old tall ships!

BTW, was it hard getting it into Atlanta? :noon

That's actually where I started my first leg of the cruise. I flew in, so Eagle was already there. The tides on the river were incredibly high...the gangplank was almost perfectly vertical at one point! Transport out of Atlanta was tight and pretty wet...it was raining BUCKETS and we had to stand attention for an hour and a half because we had to render honors! :r Other than that, no major delays or problems flying down :tu

[688sonarmen]

I'm very close, just a few minutes down the Thames River. The Academy is in New London, and Eagle is kept in Ft. Trumbull when not underway.

Nice, I was stationed in Groton for a few years, planning on going back. There is a good B&M off of route 12 called cigar store and more if you are ever over that way:tu

[RobR1205]

Thanks for sharing, some great pics. That ship is awesome, gonna be my screen saver for a while! Thanks for your service, my best friend and my little sister were both in the CG.

It's a great service! I'm sure they enjoyed their time. Looking forward to meeting you at the Floating Herf :tu

[Ogre]

Thanks for sharing the Pics and for your service. That is one Awesome Ship!!!

[RobR1205]

Nice, I was stationed in Groton for a few years, planning on going back. There is a good B&M off of route 12 called cigar store and more if you are ever over that way:tu

Thank you! Didn't know about it, but will definitely check it out when I get the chance! -(P

[Blak Smyth]

It's a great service! I'm sure they enjoyed their time. Looking forward to meeting you at the Floating Herf :tu

:tu Likewise

[markem]

Wow, what an amazing experience and the pics are fantastic! That one showing you from above is a great "I was here" photograph.

Thank you for your service and for sharing your experiences with us.

[363]

Awesome pics..thanks for sharing!!
Not sure if I have the stones for those heights!!

:tpd: they are great pictures!

[NeuRon]

Thanks for the awesome pics Rob! You are the man. See you in a few weeks!

[N2 GOLD]

Very kool, you took some real good pic's... -(P

[OLS]

Wait, WHAT?
I think Steve was wondering the same thing I was....There's a RIVER in Atlanta?
Surely you are pulling our legs right?
Surely you mean ATLANTIS. ;)

[irratebass]

Great pics!!!! Awesome ship, thanks for sharing.

[RobR1205]

Wait, WHAT?
I think Steve was wondering the same thing I was....There's a RIVER in Atlanta?
Surely you are pulling our legs right?
Surely you mean ATLANTIS. ;)

***SAVANNA!!!!! This is like the 100th time I've messed that up!!!
For some reason, I keep switching the name of these two completely different cities

;s

[RobR1205]

Very sweet! I love the old tall ships!

BTW, was it hard getting it into Atlanta? :noon

SAVANNA!! O man, now I feel like a total doofus!

If any of the moderators are reading this, could you please change the very first post from Atlanta to Savanna, so as to not confuse anyone else reading this thread!

[68TriShield]

Wow, what an amazing experience and the pics are fantastic! That one showing you from above is a great "I was here" photograph.

Thank you for your service and for sharing your experiences with us.

I can't say any better than this cat ^^^^

Thank You Robert :usa

[jledou]

Great pictures! Thank you for sharing Robert.

[Eleven]

Awesome!

[Steve]

SAVANNA!! O man, now I feel like a total doofus!

No worries! Savannah at least has a river rnnjing through it :noon

Looks like a great time aboard. Thanks for your service!

[Kevin(n)tn]

Thanks for the great pics.

[WittyUserName]

Thank you for your service and sharing those awesome photos. I was out on a coast guard fast boat this morning, some really cool guys down here.

[shark]

Holy Sheeeeit, that is one beautiful ship! Thanks for sharing!

[BHalbrooks]

It's a great service! I'm sure they enjoyed their time. Looking forward to meeting you at the Floating Herf :tu

If you're ever in Boston, look me up.

My Wife, USCG Non-rate said how jealous she is when she saw the pictures.

Her dream boat however is the Heely.

[shark]

And thank you for serving, brother! :tu




(I say brother because I did my 4 years with the Doggies, AKA the Army.... lol)

[MarkinAZ]

Robert, you're the MAN:tu After HS grad, I worked the summer back East as an ironworker. Never climbed i-beams to 145'. About 20' was my limit:D Awesome pix and thank you for sharing with us...

[smitty81]

dude, that looked like a ton of fun. Sweet ship!

[RobR1205]

If you're ever in Boston, look me up.

My Wife, USCG Non-rate said how jealous she is when she saw the pictures.

Her dream boat however is the Heely.

A lot of my friends who love Marine Science are on Healy right now! I will definitely let you know when I'm in Boston...we travel there often! :tu

[BHalbrooks]

Yea, she's going MST, so the liklihood of her getting the Heely is slim to none basically. I think they only have 3 on it at a time.

If you come here and we don't meet, don't go to the Cigar store on Park Street. Service is awful. Go to Cigar Masters on Boyleston.

[RobR1205]

Thanks for the advice :banger

[Old Sailor]

:tu:tu:tu

[G G]

Awesome pics and thanks for your service.:tu

[EricF]

Great Pics Robert!!! :tu

[jdakine]

Awesome, Thanks for sharing

[Nathan]

Badass pictures!

[OLS]

Turns out I was on that very ship in 1972....It came in and tied up at New Orleans and my Dad and i went down and took a tour
of the barque. I had no idea why a ship would be called a barque, but it was cool and my dad and I got a kick out of it. Here is
a doubloon that one of the trainees gave me, they must have been there for Mardi Gras and I bet they rode in a couple of parades
and threw the doubloons as was the Mardi Gras tradition back then, now mostly gone....

http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae23/JAMpromotionsMKTG/eagledoubleoon-1.jpg

This doubloon is not in as good a shape as it once was, I am sure it was shiny as it could possibly be back then, but it came out
of my personal collection, which usually meant it spent time in a sandbox as treasure or something. Funny that it seems like no
one in the USCG approved the proof, as they seem to have spelled barque, "bark".

[RobR1205]

Turns out I was on that very ship in 1972....It came in and tied up at New Orleans and my Dad and i went down and took a tour
of the barque. I had no idea why a ship would be called a barque, but it was cool and my dad and I got a kick out of it. Here is
a doubloon that one of the trainees gave me, they must have been there for Mardi Gras and I bet they rode in a couple of parades
and threw the doubloons as was the Mardi Gras tradition back then, now mostly gone....

This doubloon is not in as good a shape as it once was, I am sure it was shiny as it could possibly be back then, but it came out
of my personal collection, which usually meant it spent time in a sandbox as treasure or something. Funny that it seems like no
one in the USCG approved the proof, as they seem to have spelled barque, "bark".

I have a couple of coins from USCGC eagle, The current ones at least...if I have the pleasure of sending some sticks to you in the future, it would be my honor to send you one of the Eagle challenge coins! That way you have one from all those years ago and the one that we give to people today. But thanks for sharing that picture with me...i know Eagle has a rich history but it's awesome to see it first hand!

[hammondc]

Never knew they had such a ship. Badass.

[OLS]

This was....wait, first thank you, and back to the doubloon. At Mardi Gras, the throws used to be a combination
of beads, which ranged from czech glass beads (necklaces) and plastic necklaces from Taiwan, trinkets which
are just more plastic toys from the far east, squirt guns, back scratchers, junk toys, and lastly doubloons. These
are silver and occasionally varied color aluminum coins with the Carnival krewe's logo on one side and parade theme
on the other side. They would throw many hundreds of thousands over the weeks of Mardi Gras and while they
are similar to challenge coins, they are much cheaper and lighter. The coin I have was likely produced JUST for
Mardi Gras, and there would likely have been another doubloon produced for the bicentennial celebration
in 1976. I think challenge coins are much more expensive to produce and "mean much more" to the people that
give them out to others. ALL that said, thanks for your thoughts and your service and the best of luck to you
in your career. If that coin exchange takes place, I would keep it with my doubloon collection which is already
two generations old. That's not much, but one day it will be a neat historical record. Thanks again.

[md4958]

A

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/Eagle/EaglePO2ErikSwanson.jpg
Eagle during 4th of July celebration


This is one of the coolest photos Ive ever seen!

Thank you for your service. My brother in law is Commander of the Pacific Strike Team http://www.uscg.mil/hq/nsfweb/PST/welcomeaboard.asp

[IBQTEE1]

Thanks for sharing the pics. Very cool.

[CRIMPS]

I have a couple of coins from USCGC eagle, The current ones at least...if I have the pleasure of sending some sticks to you in the future, it would be my honor to send you one of the Eagle challenge coins! That way you have one from all those years ago and the one that we give to people today. But thanks for sharing that picture with me...i know Eagle has a rich history but it's awesome to see it first hand!

How cool is that?!

Awesome pictures, Rob.

I, too, believe I took a tour of that boat probably 15 years ago, if that was possible. Confidence in this statement is probably hovering around 50%.

[Remo]

Great pics Rob, thanks!!

[Big Maduro]

Fantasitc pics. The view and feeling from up on that mast must have awesome.

[RobR1205]

Fantasitc pics. The view and feeling from up on that mast must have awesome.

It was amazing, especially during sunsets

On the flip side, getting woke up at 0100 and having to climb up during a gale was not so fun!

Great experiences nonetheless :tu

[RobR1205]

How cool is that?!

Awesome pictures, Rob.

I, too, believe I took a tour of that boat probably 15 years ago, if that was possible. Confidence in this statement is probably hovering around 50%.

Considering the ship was taken from Germany as a war prize during WWII, and has been with the USCG ever since, its a highly likely possibility! :r

Here, president Kennedy addresses the Eagle crew at the time
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/eaglejfk.jpg

This picture is from a couple weeks, VADM Parker, Atlantic Area Commander, addresses the current crew...not much has changed!
http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o609/robertrubiano92/eaglenow.jpg

[Steve]

When you said she was taken as a war prize in WWII, I thought for a minute she might have been the SMS Seeadler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Seeadler_(auxiliary_cruiser)), but I see that ship was WWI vintage and was lost to a reef. I remember reading about her when I was a boy. Even though I am a power boater and don't know much about blow boats, I have always been fascinated by them.

I am sure your tour on the Eagle will be one of many high points in your career, and your life!