JUNEAU, Alaska – Crew members aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Elderberry, a 65-foot inland buoy tender homeported in Petersburg, Alaska, placed 18 buoys in the Gastineau channel which runs through the Mendenhall Bar Wednesday.
The Juneau Coast Guard Auxiliary flotilla assisted by towing buoys via personnel water craft along with a small boat crew from the Elderberry which carried the 75 pound chain. Volunteers from the auxiliary towed the buoys due to the Elderberry having too deep of a draft to navigate safely through the channel.
The operation of setting the buoys in place takes one to two tide cycles to be set in their approximate location. The tidal change during the operation was 16 feet.
