Excuse me while I’m over here breathing into a paper bag. And even more important: PW didn’t give anything away, so safe to read. Signed hardcover edition Kindle US Kindle UK iBook Nook Kobo
Read more First time I’ve ever been compared to Elmore Leonard.
[Luncheon speech for the Poisoned Pen Conference, July 13, 2012] Sometimes research is easy. When I lived in Anchorage my house was right under the traffic pattern to the seaplane base of Lake Hood. One day my father was helping me with something in my back yard and a Cessna 206 was taking off with…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, first posted February 19, 2004] Today I took my leave of the USCGC Alex Haley and her crew. I know that for the past two weeks I’ve been writing what amounts to a recruiting poster. All I can tell you is that I wrote what I saw. Was I able to…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, first posted February 18, 2004] What a difference a day makes. Yesterday we worked with another cutter, testing an electronic positioning system that will help the Coast Guard prove cases in court, which required ten hours of steaming back and forth, pinging the other ship on radar and recording both positions…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, first posted February 17, 2004] So I got to do a courtesy call on another Coast Guard cutter. Which means I got suited up like the BTMs and took a boat ride. I can’t tell you how hard it has been NOT to beg, plead, whine and cry to do this.…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, first posted February 16, 2004] The Captain scrubbed a boarding due to heavy seas. The bosun’s mate, the person who drives the boarding party over to the fishing vessel in the small boat, came to the bridge afterward, and the Captain explained the reasons why he’d scrubbed the launch. “Agreed,” said…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, first posted February 15, 2004] About seasickness, since almost every single non-Coastie person who has emailed me has asked if I’m seasick. Yes, once, the first full day of patrol. I woke up, sat up, and threw up. Later that same day I walked into the wardroom pantry and the seaman…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, first posted February 14, 2004] Two poems I found posted by the mid-watch on yellow sticky notes on a bridge window. I added the titles. Night Watch Cold wind blowin’ On the sea tonight One screw turning’ One screw tight Box steaming In the lee tonight Cold wind blowin’ On the…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, first posted February 13, 2004] We did a safety boarding on an opilio crabber. I tried to talk the boarding team into bringing back some crab but they wouldn’t go for it. Then I tried to talk Ops into swinging the boat hoist over to pick one of the pots as…
[from the stabenow.com vaults, first posted February 12, 2004] Some word pictures of life underway: One of the bridge windows has been invaded by a mysterious dark green microbial growth. Members of the watch have been known to embellish it with a Marks-a-lot. This morning Seaman Oliver has replaced the previous dragon illustration with a…