Boats...Boats...Boats

March 16, 2023 me and a few other selected classmates went on a small trip with the coast guard. Before we met with three active coast guard members we put on our bright orange exposure suit. We then waited 10-15 minutes for the coast guard 45 foot speed boat to come and pick us up. When they came to pick us up we met three men by the names of tyshell Jackson, BM Chris and MK dillon. My favorite part of this experience is when I got to operate the boat. Driving the coast guard boat felt better than operating indy and privateer because it wasn't as much work to turn and operate and the coolest part about the coast guard boat is it is operated by joystick and for such a big boat I felt no delay in throttle  and steering. Also another cool part about this boat is the engines were built using a school bus engine as the base. I was also surprised by how soundproof the boat is. When the engine compartment was open you could barely hear the voices of the people next to you. The biggest surprise factor of this boat is how agile it is for how big it is. It acknowledges the slightest movement or change in throttle. Then my group rotated and me and two others were going to do man overboard drills. The hardest part of this drill was communicating because even though the engine is in a soundproof compartment it was still loud enough to block out basic communication. All the members on the boat was enjoyable to be around and was easy to approach when it came to asking questions about their careers and why they chose their lifestyle.

-Christian Sherman