Standing Watch
" PAN-PAN PAN-PAN PAN-PAN. This is sailing vessel SERENE HORIZON. I am taking on water about five miles outside Two Harbors and might need assistance." I barely had time to settle into my desk chair at United States Coast Guard Station Los Angeles/Long Beach. The latte that I grabbed on the way at Common Room Roasters is still nearly full. The scratch paper that I'll be taking notes on doesn't yet have a mark on it—at least not on the side that I'll be using. I'm using a couple of repurposed log sheets that I took to Dockweiler State Beach on my most recent Parks on the Air activation for scratch paper. The flip side of each sheet contains the call signs of twenty or so amateur radio stations that I worked the previous weekend. "Vessel in distress, this is COAST GUARD SECTOR LOS ANGELES. Say again your vessel name and the nature of your distress." I'm getting it all down—more neatly than I usually do—on an otherwise pristine sheet of scratch pa