This is a reminder that the first ever Coast Guard Video of the Year competition is still open for voting. The final nominee was posted late last week and the voting will continue until the end of this week, January 8th.

I’d like to encourage gCaptain readers to go to the 2009 Coast Guard Video of the Year Nominees playlist on YouTube and vote for your favorite video. You can vote for all the videos, but should reserve their highest rating for the one(s) you like the most.

In order to vote, you must first sign-in to YouTube using your own user account, watch the videos in the playlist, and then cast a vote using the YouTube rating system of one to five stars directly below the video.

Votes will be accepted until January 8th and the USCG expects to announce the winners on the Coast Guard Compass blog early next week. The units with the top three videos will receive a Flip video camera to enhance their ability to capture and share imagery of their operations.

For more information about the contest and to see the compilation of the top 11 videos from 2009, READ HERE.

Every year, the Unite States Coast Guard releases a video compilation of the most compelling rescues of the year and today the USCG released its 2009 compilation.  The video (shown above) highlights 11 rescues, each representing one the service’s 11 statutory missions.

The top 11 video compilation includes (in no particular order):

• The rescue of a paraglider pilot who crashed on the shoreline of Cape Lookout near Tillamook, Ore., by an aircrew from Air Station Astoria, Ore.
• The capture of suspected pirates from a response to a vessel distress signal from Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment Team 409 while operating under Combined Task Force 151.
• A medical evacuation of a crewmember from a U.S. Navy submarine off the coast of Wash., by an aircrew from Air Station Astoria, Ore.
• The simultaneous pursuit and interdiction off two drug smuggling boats 80 miles of the coast of Guatemala by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf.
• The rescue of two crewmembers from a fishing vessel on fire 10 miles off the coast of Long Beach, Wash., by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Active and aircrew from Air Station Astoria, Ore.
• The rescue of two people from a burning boat near Corpus Christi, Texas, from an aircrew from Sector Corpus Christi, Texas.
• The rescue of six people from their capsized vessel two miles from the Columbia River, Wash., by a boatcrew from Cape Disappointment, Wash., and an aircrew from Air Station Astoria, Ore.
• The response to US Airways flight 1549 emergency landing in the Hudson River near Manhattan, N.Y., by boatcrews from Sector New York.
• The rescue of a man whose canoe flipped in heavy surf in the Necanicum River near Gearheart, Ore., by an aircrew from Air Station Astoria, Ore.
• The dewatering of the fishing vessel Blue Diamond 90 miles east of Atlantic City, N.J., from the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Sailfish.
• The rescue of three people, their cat and dog during the Red River Valley floods from an aircrew from Air Station Traverse City, Mich. [Continue Reading →]

The Seamanship Tutor has put together a series of simple computer animations that show various shiphandling techniques. The animations include search and rescue operations, use of an anchor and docking operations (among others). The full set of videos can be found HERE but we’ll share with you a short preview: [Continue Reading →]

 

 Flash Content [0:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

CNN has the story:

Officials say it could take a week to extinguish a massive fire that burned Friday afternoon at a fuel storage complex in Puerto Rico, sending a thick black cloud of smoke over large parts of metro San Juan.
“I didn’t expect to see a mushroom cloud from my house,” said Justin Gehrke, who lives 4 miles from the refinery.

Eleven fuel tanks at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. facility in the city of Bayamon, near San Juan, were ablaze, Gov. Luis Fortuno said. Firefighters were trying to cool the remaining 29 to keep them from igniting, he said. [Continue Reading →]

gCaptain contributor and Weekly Leader Podcaster USCG Chief Warrant Officer Mario Vittone, recently delivered the closing keynote at the USCG’s Human Performance Technology Workshop. The speech is both entertaining and useful to all maritime leaders but the quote that really pulled me into the speech was:

“Do you know what I learned in the last 20 years? What I learned and have settled on most definitively, is that I still don’t know anything!”

Thoughts on leadership that I certainly share.
[Continue Reading →]

Here is the latest in a series of online videos that Royal Carribean is producing on the construction of the Oasis of the Seas, set to take her maiden voyage in December of 2009.  The video above is titled “Propelling Oasis: Maneuvering Made Simple”:

It takes a lot of power to move a ship like Oasis of the Seas, but Royal Caribbean’s engineers and designers have been up to the task. Learn about the innovative propulsion systems that make the largest cruise ship in the world one of the easiest to maneuver.

More videos on the Oasis of The Seas can be found HERE.

Thanks to Nauticart for pointing us to this on the forum.

We are still debating whether this guy was using a flashlight, LED or his cell phone to check the level of this tank but we are certain it wasn’t Intrinsically Safe!

 

 Shell Gas Station Explosion [1:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

According to Reuters:

Jun 29 – Turkey’s Coast Guard rescue the 11 crew members of a Malta-flagged ship after their vessel collided with a container ship in the Aegean Sea.

No one was killed and both ships remained afloat after the accident, which occurred late on Saturday (June 27) in a shipping channel about 10 miles off the Turkish island of Bozcaada, the Anatolian news agency said. [Continue Reading →]

Prior to using a fixed fire system, especially CO2, always have a full muster! Why? This Navy video shows the inside view of what happens when this deadly gas is released.

How about when a 75lbs bottle explodes:

Why not to use CO2 on a Class D fire:

Some facts from the EPA: [Continue Reading →]