R.T. Cook 3/2008 MLB 44-334

This is how I found her in March 2008. Just sitting in a cold and lonely field waiting for orders. Notice the wind off Lake Eire blowing the lines from the boat.

Front View MLB 44-334

Real Cold...32* wind chill -2

Stern View MLB 44-334

Nice straight lettering....

Helm MLB 44-334

Cold dark waiting for summer....calling out help me.

Vomit Closet....MLB-44-334

Nick Name the Vomit Closet. People saved from ships put in a closed room handed a bucket, real cold, wet, rough seas.....yuck!

Mast resting until it's next adventure.

One again she will be flying proud colors....

The Ohio Naval Militia 2005

Working at Camp Perry in 2005

This is how it's going to look in about 2 months from now.

Ken Bennett supplied me with a picture of the 44359 and I might have photo shopped the picture a little....notice the number might have changed to 44334.

Name Plate of the RT Cook.

Total Fuel measuring chart

Normal Temps for the engines

She made it in the water on 4/10/2008. And she looks great and the Detroit Diesel's run great too!

While I worked on the vessel a MayDay came in and the Coast Guard responds with a chopper...

I moved her to the City Docks in Port Clinton Ohio. She is almost ready to leave. It was raining, snowing, wind out of the northwest at 35mph.

This picture is for my daughter Sara. She loves Pirate Flags

This is the flags that she will fly most of the time.

Front Cover of the Decommissioning Ceremony Program

Program

Decommissioning Crew

History Of the Name

Start Of the Ceremony All Aboard, at their Posts

Commandant Ozvat Starting the Ceremony

Myself giving a short speech.

Ruth Cook widow of Robert Thomas Cook receiving the ships flag.

Fredia Herman, Flotilla Commander 09W-20-08. Note the plastic tarp duct taped to the helm area of MLB 44334. Just in case it rains, gets cold....

Norm Herman with his usual smile...

Saying Goodbye to Lake Erie..For over 40 years of service

My Brother Johnny Driving Lake Erie...Sunny 70 degrees Calm Lake

Norm and Fredia Herman having lunch and happy to be finally be on the trip after weeks of planning...

Johnny enjoying lunch....enjoy it the real nice weather is on it's way... 18 degrees and snow.....

Mast Flags....Proud Flags!

Honda Generator...would prove to be a life saver...in a few days snow, frezzing rain, but the genset kept the heaters working, and the crew warm.

End Of Lake Erie..... Detroit River light....what a wonderful sight. 44334 is gone....

River Traffic... Cuyahoga

The Detroit version of the Boy Scouts on the water...Sea Scouts. They Saluted us on the turn. We maned the rails and saluted them in turn...

The Pere Marquette Number 41. This use to be the Pere Marquette Car Ferry from the Port of Ludington MI. She has a drop off or pickup somewhere...

44' & 41' waiting for duty! Station Belle Isle was sure nice to us....

44' & 25' at Station Belle Isle. Late in the afternoon.

Station Belle Isle. 25 foot, 44 foot, 41 foot...

Downtown Detroit

Black River Marina in Port Huron. Station Port Huron was being dredged....I ran up the pirate flag for my daughter Sara....Arrrrrrrr

Lake Huron 06:00hrs flat calm.... wonderful day forcast.

Weather was so good and we had enough fuel we decided to go for St Igance. We are passing station Harbor Beach to our left..

Harrisville Marina..7-9 foot out of the northeast while we are making the jump 35 miles off shore no land in sight. Oh and add freezing rain and snow.

The 47 and 25 at St Ignace...what a group!

St Ignace and Chief Mallory at 6am...He ran this boat for 10 years at Station Marblehead in Ohio...He was really excided to see his old boat again...

Biscayne Bay in St Ignace.Me coming in here at night with all of the crew watching me dock, and then told just swing it around and back it in....ahhh

Passing under the Mackinaw Bridge at 08:00 hrs from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan...On the down hill slide now..

Well Lake Michigan forcast of 1-2 foot with wind from the east...south west at 25mph 5-9 foot

Stern view notice the large swells going by and the angle of the bow going for the clouds in the sky...She just said Ok...wee this is fun.

Ok now it's getting worse and the waves are coming over the bow...She loves it and is right at home...we were all wishing that we were also, at home.

Not very happy faces in 10 foot seas...Lets head for North Port and wait for the wind to change...

Safe and calm NorthPort Harbor....lets get some dinner and wait for the wind shift.

06:30hrs 5/1/2008 Manistee Harbor...64.5 hrs run time, 500 miles and a tired crew of John Church, William Church, Norm and Fredia Herman. Great Job!

Kelsey found the flag kit my brother donated...she is having fun...

Station Manistee 47' MLB Open House weekend. A fun time for all.

Basket Operations with the 47 and the Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City.

Basket on Board

HH-65 Dolphin is a twin-engined helicopter from Air Station Traverse City. Giving a show in the river...Swimmer in the door.

Up close in the Door! Ready to jump!

Swimmer Away!

Rescue Swimmer in the water and OK!

Recovering Rescue swimmer...

They got so close I got water on the camera lens....

Some of the work done this weekend. Power Pannel Rats Nest, all redone, and the 12volt also redone. It's now a nice clean area.

I mounted the air horn works in the Head...

The new Chart Table.Works Great!, and makes a great table for making lunch underway.

The Floors Repainted and the Cabin Clean. The ensolite is next!.

Charles "Eddie" Warlitner saying goodbye to 22 years of service in the Coast Guard. He made most get the vapors....

Eddie and his wife get a bag full of Pennies from the Kids at the station as a farewell gift to help with the fuel cost for the trip home.

Finally over and all smiles...Good Luck and a Job Well Done...

The look in Eddie's eyes says it all, "my god I'm done." Chief Mallory is retirement is at the end of the month. One Gone, one next month....

The Boat is on land in Manistee awaiting orders....

After grinding for most of the day, again I need a sandblaster!

Removed the rub rails...more rust and nasty tore up 40+ years rails....

New rub rails, and we found all of the stripe lines for the old paint job. Measured and made a blueprint.

We even found the red and blue stripe measurements....

Norm Herman chasing all of the the treads for the studs to hold on the new rubber bumpers.

Len and Norm drilling the new bumpers, and getting a pattern...

Sunday morning awaiting the monday sandblaster....From the blue stripe down...bare metal.

The Lady is sporting some new primer paint....06/07/2008

Also we welded 6 new studs to hold the rub rails in palce to replace the ones that broke off.

Port Side...a few history lessons on the bow.....

Port side stern....not to bad looking after 40+ years

Starbord side stern...

Starboard side...85-90 hot muggy day. Burned my eye lids from painting in the sun all day.

We ran out of white primer...so close....next time it's 5 coats non-stop...special epoxy 2 part paint...

Epoxy Bottom Paint mid afternoon...waiting 4 hrs between coats.

First coat of primer on the Vomit Closet while waiting between coats of bottom paint.

Len sanding the bow getting ready for primer. Great Job Len....

On goes the black anti fowl paint..Greg is doing a gereat job. Someone has to take the pictures....

First coat of black bottom paint done. One more coat more and this bottom is done.

End of the first big day of painting. Looking like a lady again. We are really sore and tired. 6:30am to 9pm...not bad for the first day.

End of day two of the big paint. The bottom is done with 6 coats of epoxy paint and over 70 hrs of labor buy 10 people.

Boy do those numbers look great on the stern...Thanks Brace Industries for helping us and the US Coast Guard! Good Job!

3pm Saturday we have run out of paint. Over $2000.00 dollars in paint and 3 gals short. The rub rails are starting to go back on...getting close.

6/27 Len and Roger putting on the last piece of rubber rub railing. Job well done boys!

6/28 She is finally Done! Small stuff to finish up but the major painting is done!

Stern view of the compleated vessel. 28 days from start to finish.....Ahhhhhhhh

When you see this coming to greet you, it screems, "Help is here, and we will save you!"

The helm area is all hospital white. Just looks like I need something to save....

Can't wait for monday morning...launch date, 30 days from hitting the ground. Close to 500+ hr's of labor, thousands of dollars of effort, ready....

Hard to believe from 5/28 this is where we started.

To the finished product 6/28...she is Beautiful!

Moving day. Finally it's going in the water. Many people expressed doubt that we would be finished before July 4th weekend...

Getting her loaded.

We are under way..She can smell the water. Movers comented that if she falls off the trailer it will right itself and jump back on in 30 seconds...

It's finally come to leaving the lot. We are really glad to see her go...she needs water...

Making the turn into the Marina

Getting loaded on the Boat Hoist. Final adjustments and in she goes.....

This is John. And you will never guess the reason he is holding his head....He was moving forward with the straps and smacked his head on the lift..

Going in the water.....notice John controling the bleeding. He needed stiches....

In she goes...What a relief..she even started right up and strutted her stuff to the marina. The station personal came out and gave her a thumbs up...

Finally at her slip....Smiles all around. Other boat owners came over and expressed a job well done, and a party was held that evening...she loved it.

Ken Williams Driving the 44' on the way to Luningtons Fireworks. Calm day sunny 75....

The other part of the crew, Norm & Fredia Herman enjoying the wonderful weather and the tirp down to Station Ludington

The Badger Coming out of Ludington Harbor on the 4th of July.

As the Badger goes by the Captain looked like he was going to fall out of the window looking at us. I'm sure he thought he was seeing a Ghost!

4th of July Fireworks, Ludington Michigan. What a great night. Over 100 boats watched the sight.

More from the 4th. No problems helped look for an overdue vessel on the way home. Docked at 2:17am...

A little tired the next day...

New Tachs installed and replaced all of the warning lights...New glass on the cover..

All working and new tach's working great!

This is were Jack who hates when I leave him home sits. He keeps and eye on me and greets everyone that stops by to chat....

Say can you find my daughter in this picture. She was helping, then she was gone. Notice the flip-flops on the floor...

Just made the turn to Grand Haven 2/26/08. In town for the Coast Guard Festival...

Grand Haven Coast Guard Station from the river..Large Boat Basin...

We are docked and the station is in a cleaning mode getting ready for Higher Up's to show up for the Festival....

359 & 334 tied up and awaiting orders....

This is a rare picture...One that will never be seen again. Two 44' and Two 47' vessels awaiting orders...Wonderful Day!

Knot Handi Work in Grand Haven

Leaving Grand Haven...44359 and 44334 headed out for patrol. Nice picture by Don Geske...

44334 moving toward Lake Michigan. Saying good bye to Grand Haven. Thanks Don...

Wonderful Picture Don of the 44334 headed toward the Lake. Don was on another AUX vessel taking these pictures.

Another view of the 44334...she sure does look great...she ran perfect, handled the weather like a pro, and brought us home...

359 making her way down the river to the cutters....

44359 underway with the Grand Haven Coast line in the distance...Going out to meet the Cutters and escort them into the river...

Joe's Aux Vessel, Grand Haven going out to meet the Cutters...

Another Aux Vessel cutting between the 44's....showoff...

Here is an Action Shot of 44359 crossing the wake of 44334....he looks mean, and nasty...

Cutter Biscayne Bay from St. Ignace starting her run for the river....

Cutter Mackinaw starting her run for the river for the Parade and Festival of Ships...

Started our trip home and we were stopped by Station Muskegon 30' MLB...wondered if we were under arrest...Nahhhh, they just needed to tow a vessel..

Station Muskegon 304445 throwing the heaving line...They needed to meet there end of the month quals...and to just have fun towing a bigger vessel...

So were hooked up and...Say do you guy's want to tow us home..we are really tired and need to take a nap.. They towed us for a while and waved goodby.

On the way home, and on the way there the weather man lied. Calm winds, flat seas were no where to be found. Mostly 2-4's and straight on the nose....

Len Mitchell driving us home...between the three of us in three days we traveled 182nm and 22.7 hours of run time. What and adventure...

While we were helping Station Ludington on the way home near the Clay Banks looking for a jet ski, a 1938 DC3 kept flying overhead...it was beautiful.

This is the Main Battery Mess. Going to fix it very soon. Easy fix, and then two systems, two battery banks....A bigger safety margin...

Standing by to recieve tow line from MLB 47284. Nice sunny day with seas building....

Take the shot! Tow line on it's way....

Sir hold the orange ball...barking orders...no question on what to do...a reason for everything.

Hooking up the tow line..this could be really fun in a very heavy sea..

Paying out the tow line...notice the swells starting to get to the 47

Towing us home to the harbor....the checkride being given was going great until the harbor....

Say Dad look at all of these boats on the water...This guy here has a great spot...sure is a long way to carry fish

This guy was looking at the north light house at night...headed straight for it. Station got the call a little after 2300 hrs...

The boats stern drive is really broken, but the hull looks intact, and no one was hurt....except there pride and wallet..

We recovered a 38' vessel and put it in a side tow. We towed him to the gas dock. We did alot right, and alot wrong in this tow. A learning experince.

The towed vessel parked at the gas dock..He contuined on to Grand Haven...

Finally looking down the channel were the 44 sleeps, it always welcomes us home...Get her cleaned up, ship shape and ready for the next adventure...

New Coat of deck Paint....

Deck Paint....needs touch up here and there...