Calm Waters : Oxnard-Based Coast Guard Patrols Focus Mostly on the Routine

It was at his first post in Hawaii that Coast Guard Machinist Jim Quam realized what he could expect from his new job.

A call for help came from a sailboat that had lost its rudder and was at the mercy of the Pacific Ocean’s most turbulent waters, 900 miles away. “It took us seven days to get to them and five more to get back,” Quam recalled Wednesday.

“Ten of those days I was more seasick than I ever imagined possible. But when we got there and found the man and his family still alive, I was overcome. I knew right then that I had chosen the right profession.”

Today, Quam and 10 others patrol much calmer waters from their post with the U.S. Coast Guard in Oxnard.

While Channel Islands Harbor has a history of sudden weather shifts and dangerous currents, the calls that come in to the 82-foot cutter Point Carrew are mostly routine.

As they patrol 130 miles of California coastline, the Oxnard-based unit conducts safety inspections, tows disabled vessels and partakes in a regular regimen of drills.

But each man on the vessel, from a 19-year-old surfer from Silver Strand to a 44-year-old career Coast Guard mariner, said they joined the Coast Guard for the same reason--to save lives.

“The other services are for war, but the Coast Guard is for saving lives and for law enforcement,” Seaman Cody Danner said. “This is one of the better places to be.”

The Coast Guard day began Wednesday as the Point Carrew’s two immaculately maintained engines rumbled into motion, a seaman pulled a flag up the mast, and the master chief yelled “Underway!”

The crew agreed on a course that would have them at the Channel Islands in time for lunch. On the bridge, Master Chief Art White, a 25-year Coast Guard veteran, kept an eye on his crew while listening to the radio.

Just as the boat settled into a rhythm, the radio crackled with a report of a badly cut passenger on a sailboat, which White said was situated “at the end of the earth.”

The cutter steamed into action, and White continued to listen to dispatchers in Long Beach who would update him with details. Soon it became clear that the injury was not serious, and the response was canceled.

“The worst part of the job is the unknown,” White said. “When you get a call you don’t know if you’re going to have people in the water, or if it’s just someone whose engine failed.”

Chances are, calls made to the Point Carrew will be more mundane than those made to cutters in other parts of the country, White said.

Todd Venero, 24, has served six years in the Coast Guard. He ran more than 400 search and rescue missions a year when he was based in Florida. This year in Oxnard, he probably won’t run more than 30.

“In Florida we dealt with drugs, with sinkers, fires, on the rocks, all the good stuff,” said Venero, whose bravado landed him a job in charge of the vessel’s weapons.

About the most excitement Venero said he has had in California occurred when he appeared in an episode of the television program “Bay Watch.”

“It’s not that I don’t like it here,” Venero said, grinning in a way that suggested he was fudging. “Of course, I would like to go back to Florida.”

White said the activity in Florida, which is primarily drug-related, has changed the Coast Guard.

Today, the Oxnard-based cutter is outfitted with two mounted machine guns and several rifles. Each member of a boarding party wears a bullet-proof vest and carries a 9-millimeter pistol.

“We never used to carry weapons or feel threatened boarding a vessel. The beauty of joining the Coast Guard was that it was unlike the Army or Navy in that your job was saving lives, not killing people.”

And, while White said the Coast Guard has not made a drug bust in Oxnard since 1984, he added that he was “not naive enough to believe that we don’t need the kind of equipment we have now. It’s for our own safety.”

Guns and law enforcement had little to do with Marty Lafolette’s decision to join the Coast Guard at age 17.

“I grew up surfing in Maui,” said Lafolette, who shares a house on Silver Strand with three friends. “I never wanted to be far from the water. Here was a job where I could help people and work on the ocean every day.”

Lafolette, at 19, is the youngest member of the crew. He calls himself a “nature man” and seems incredibly at ease sitting on the railing of the cutter as it tosses about in the waves.

Lafolette often brings a surfboard with him on longer missions to try the waves at exotic ports of call.

While the Point Carrew’s home is in Oxnard, White said the cutter makes several trips to other Coast Guard stations during the year “just to battle the monotony.”

Most recently, the crew traveled to waters near Mexico to assist with the transfer of a boatload of illegal Chinese immigrants attempting to enter the United States.

“We see a lot of the world,” Lafolette said. “I still plan to go to college, but I’ve learned a lot here.”

Just off the coast of Santa Cruz Island, White instructed his crew members that they would be conducting surprise safety reviews of some of the pleasure craft in the area.

They lowered a small inflatable boat into the water to carry four men to a nearby 44-foot sailboat.

As Venero and Seaman Dan Nieman check off safety equipment, the sailboat’s owner, Larry Fusch, said the boarding was nothing like the horror stories he had heard in his home port of San Francisco.

“I’ve heard stories about the Coast Guard boarding people with their guns drawn and stuff. This is nothing like what I expected,” Fusch said.

After a half hour, Venero and Nieman have checked every inch of the boat, from the engine room to the bathroom. When the two return to the Point Carrew, they tell the rest of the crew about the beautifully equipped sailboat.

“They had twice as much safety equipment as they needed,” Venero said. He then described the variety of top flight navigation devices on the boat.

“Some of these guys have better equipment then we do,” White said, “which is disgusting.”

By late afternoon, the crew had not found any other vessels to board and had received no calls.

On the bridge, the men exchanged war stories, laughed and joked. Quam sat alone, watching the water as the sun began to set. In a few months, he will leave the Coast Guard to work for his uncle, who is a sheriff in a small Texas county.

“It’s tough to leave,” Quam said. “This job has had so much variety to it. One day I’m up all night fixing the engines, the next day I’m out on a rescue, and the next I’m doing a safety check on a sailboat. There really is no other job in the world quite like it.”