US COAST GUARD Standing lookout

PACIFIC OCEAN - Seamen Apprentice Venus Bush, stationed on the CGC Sherman, sights a sailing vessel through the 'big eyes' binoculars Oct. 22, 2008, while standing lookout on the fly bridge here. The watch takes place during the Sherman's two-month long Alaska Patrol where Sherman crewmember's will conduct fisheries enforcement, law enforcement, and search and rescue, if necessary, in the Bering Sea.
Junior members of the deck department, called seamen, maintain a 24-hour helm and lookout watch from the bridge and fly bridge of the Sherman. The watches are broken into four-hour rotations, two seamen per watch switching between helm and lookout normally once an hour. Although, because of the cold weather conditions in the North Pacific Ocean, the switch between helm and lookout is made every 40-minutes. Lookouts stay warm by wearing 'mustangs,' anti-exposure coveralls. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Erik Swanson)