May There Be No Sadness

This just in from the NYTimes.  Click here for the rest of the story.  Here’s my tribute to Don.

The title comes from the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem:

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,    When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,    Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep      Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,    And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,    When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place    The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face    When I have crossed the bar.

I was blessed to have met you, Don.

Kojima Training

Kojima, PL 21, a 377′ loa Japan Coast Guard vessel is training where?

New York?  Actually, she’s cruising around the world for this training.  Click here.  Charles D. McAllister assists with departure.

She heads for sea after a week or so in the sixth boro.

Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, is home to the Japan Coast Guard Academy.

A loud horn blast and down the Buttermilk Channel they went.

Click here for general info about the Japan Coast Guard, founded in 1948.  It makes me wonder about things like . . . who ran the lighthouses there before 1948?  Were there surfmen?  How long have women served in the JCG and what percentage of personnel do they make up?  What would happen if PL 21 and Steve Irwin cross paths in the Mediterranean?    Click here for JCG v. Chinese survey vessels face-off.

All fotos yesterday by Will Van Dorp.