Coast Guard Cutter Venturous Returns Home after Five-Week Patrol
U. S. Coast Guard
February 01, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Venturous will be returning home at 10:00 a.m. today after a five-week patrol in the Caribbean Sea.
While on patrol, the crew primarily focused on alien migrant interdiction, interdicting 175 Haitian and 14 Cuban migrants attempting to reach the shores of the Bahamas and Puerto Rico.
The largest group of migrants consisted of 82 Haitians on board a 36-foot sail freighter. The migrant vessel was disabled due to a broken mast and the migrants were interdicted and later transferred to Bahamian immigration officials.
The crew of the Venturous also interdicted four Cuban migrants on board a disabled 20-foot fishing vessel in international waters north of Haiti. Also, on the cutter's return trip to St. Petersburg, the crew interdicted an additional 10 Cuban migrants who had been disabled and adrift for several days on board their 15-foot rudimentary fiberglass boat in the Florida Straits.
In addition to conducting the migrant interdictions, the crew of the Venturous conducted a significant number of training evolutions with Coast Guard helicopter pilots and provided support to the U.S. Navy's Oceanographic office by partnering with a team of embarked oceanographers to conduct bottom surveys in a Haitian port for potential future military relief operations there.
During the patrol the crew also enjoyed a well-earned break in Montego Bay, Jamaica, where one-third of the cutter's crew paid a visit to the "Home of Charlotte's Children," a local orphanage overlooking one of the community's toughest and most impoverished neighborhoods. The Venturous crew toured the facilities, assisted in painting the exterior of the building and participated in a friendly international soccer match. Summing up the experience at the orphanage, Petty Officer Jeremiah Gard, a Venturous crewmember, said, "It was truly rewarding to help these needy young children in one of the many communities the Coast Guard visits during our port calls; and one of my most rewarding personal experiences since joining the service."
Family and friends will welcome home their Venturous sailors, who will be enjoying some well-deserved rest and relaxation before commencing an intensive multi-week dockside maintanence period on Feb. 7.
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