DANGEROUS ALASKA —As we sailed along the York River past the Yorktown Coast Guard Training Center, I asked Rob Faucett of Ocean View, Delaware, what it was like to serve in the US Coast Guard in the Gulf of Alaska and Bearing Sea. “I think we took as high as 27-foot seas, which was okay on a 180-foot buoy tender. But we couldn’t take the waves to the side of the boat because the hull was shaped like a football to rise up and break ice. It was pretty rolly in a storm.” With the added dimension of cold winds and water during winter, he added, “Nobody went out on deck in a situation like that.”  We sailed on peacefully in one-foot seas.