Seven floor up
What room is big, open, and surrounded by windows? The bridge! The bridge is the brain of the ship. Just like a brain, the bridge performs many duties. The three people on bridge watch are in charge of piloting the ship, monitoring the water and ice conditions, and monitoring the radar. Information about all operations on the ship is reported to the bridge. Decisions, permissions, and announcements are made from the bridge.
Radar showing floating ice-
Screens on the Bridge
Master Chief Sullivan gave me a tour of the bridge. He showed me how to read the directional instruments at the helm. After a brief lesson, he handed the wheel over to me. I piloted the largest ship in the Coast Guard, the USCGC Healy, around a large piece of ice and then straight to open water.
Look whose driving the ship!
BM1 Caddell adjusts the direction of the ship while on autopilot
Look at the tiny wheel
Master Chief Sullivan in his Navigator's Office
Meet Christian Johnson
Christian washing mud out of the Van Veen grab with Dr. Jackie Grebmeier
Christian works as a biologist at the Chesapeake Bay Laboratory in Solomons, Maryland. He has spent most of his summer in Alaska working on research from sampling worms to walrus tagging, He is an avid scuba diver, fisherman, coral cultivator, Arctic cod otolith (ear bone) researcher, and an aquatic life support technician which means he can keep anything alive that lives in water.
From his first visit to aquarium, he was hooked on marine biology. On his off time you can find him in a boat, fishing the Chesapeake, eating fish, or playing some funky jazz on his saxophone.
Christian Johnson is walrus tagging in the Chukchi Sea