| | |  Vallarta Living | June 2009 
COMREL with El Tiburon Blanco
 Bill Semeyn - PVNN
June 25, 2009
| | The Puerto Vallarta Navy League meets at 11 am on the first Tuesday of every month at the Marriott Casa Magna Resort in Marina Vallarta. For more information, visit VallartaNavyLeague.org. | |
A recent visit to Puerto Vallarta by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast provided a wonderful opportunity for the mariners to spruce up Asociación Femenil Vallartense (AFV). Among other things, AFV provides training for abused women and girls. It was a wonderful experience for all.
Only a skeleton crew of navy leaguers and the Commander of the local American legion post 14 were mustered to hastily put together a COMREL (Community related work project of volunteer sailors) at the request of the Commander of the WMEC-623 USCG STEADFAST, a medium sized cutter of the U.S. Coast Guard.
I had the pleasure of meeting Commander Jose Jimenez on an earlier occasion when he was here as the Executive Officer of the USCG MELLON. At that time, he volunteered himself and crew to do another work project with the Puerto Vallarta Navy League. Now as the commander of the Tiburon Blanco he was enthusiastic about doing another COMREL - and with a few summer survivors of the PVNL we managed to pull it off.
You may wonder at how come the CGC STEADFAST came by the moniker of El Tiburon Blanco so here’s some history:
The United States Coast Guard Cutter STEADFAST (WMEC 623) has proudly served the people of the United States for over 30 years. Commissioned in 1968, STEADFAST was home ported in St. Petersburg, Florida for her first 24 years of service.
In 1992, she was decommissioned for Major Maintenance Availability (MMA) to extend her service another 25 years. Following MMA in February 1994, STEADFAST was re-commissioned and home ported in Astoria, Oregon.
STEADFAST has an illustrious record. Since commissioning in 1968, STEADFAST has completed over 330 Search and Rescue cases, interdicted over 1.6 million pounds of marijuana and 27,700 pounds of cocaine, seized over 65 vessels, and stopped over 3500 undocumented migrants on the high seas from entering the United States.
The USCG STEADFAST was the first, and is one of only two cutters awarded the gold marijuana leaf, symbolizing one million pounds of marijuana seized. Legend holds STEADFAST was named El Tiburon Blanco (Spanish for "The White Shark") by Colombian drug smugglers in the 1970's for being such a nemesis to their illegal drug operations. To this day the crew uses the symbol of "El Tiburon Blanco" as one of their logos to epitomize STEADFAST's aggressive law enforcement posture.
Mr. Bill Clark, who is tireless in organizing these COMRELS, has been absent from Puerto Vallarta for several months with family business up North, so via emails and telcon’s we determined that there was sufficient work to accomplish at the Association Femenil Vallartense. This included painting several rooms and cleaning up a yard and scraping graffitti and painting an outside wall.
Commander Jimenez alluded to 22 volunteers being available for Wednesday and we swung into action in spite of the rain, which fortunately let up and allowed us to accomplish even the outside wall and yard work with only half the number of volunteers mustering. This is testimonial to the other Vallartenses having done their job in making sure the sailors had fun the previous night albeit perhaps with hangovers.
Several old hands of the Navy League remarked on this being one of the most efficiently conducted COMRELS ever. Certainly this remark was conveyed verbally to the Commander and his also present XO, Eric German, along with the crew during our gathering for a group photo
With the cleanup conducted, and the above photo taken it was time to wave good-bye to Sandra the custodian secretary of the Association Femenil Vallartense and repair to Jose Alfredo’s LA NORIA for a well earned repast and many cuartos de Coronas.
STEADFAST was scheduled to depart early on the morning of June 19th, but weather outside of the bay was almost gale force. Cabo Corrientes was reporting 70km/hr winds and building, and the Captain of the port cancelled all small craft sorties, much to the chagrin of the famished port sailors who depend on the earnings from the few tourists who are out and about.
As a result the crew got another day in Vallarta's port. Many of them made for the PV Beach Club to take advantage of the free Internet (they have email aboard but band width via satellite is limited,) and of course free phone calls to loved ones back home in Astoria Oregon or elsewhere.
Ironically, at the PV Beach Club I met Jay, a chief, whom I noticed had a particular penchant for tequila at La Noria. Upon further chatting I learned that his wife is cousin to Larry Visscher, a long time snowbird resident of Vallarta and a crew mate of mine in the many regattas going back several years. What a small world.
At any rate, it is gratifying to see such a wonderful group of men and women riding the high seas and safeguarding our lifestyle in this most beautiful of ports, Puerto Vallarta. Thank you to the crew of El Tiberon Blanco, we love you.
The Puerto Vallarta Navy League provides an opportunity to socialize as well as “give back” to our local community. For more information, visit VallartaNavyLeague.org, or send an email to pvnlac(at)comcast.net. |
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