Annual buoy tender roundup standardizes training across the fleet

Culinary arts competitions and relearning the lost art of tower building

The heat-and-beat competition took place on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, at U.S. Coast Guard Station Juneau. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District)

By Jasz Garrett

Juneau Independent

The buoy tender roundup is a week-long training event held at U.S. Coast Guard Station Juneau for units spanning across Alaska.

This year, it brought together buoy tenders Kukui, Cypress, Fir, Aspen, Anthony Petite, and Elderberry. Sitka and Kodiak Aids to Navigation teams also participated in the training opportunity.

"We're reaching members from every single buoy tender or Aids to Navigation team across Alaska, which is a great opportunity for us to provide training and standardized training across the fleet," said Coast Guard Arctic District Lt. Megan Grimes.

The Buoy Tender Roundup Olympics is a skills competition where members showcase their underway operations in a friendly competition, and "get to flex those muscles and show each other their best practices and compete in a friendly nature."

The tug-of-war competition during the U.S. Coast Guard Buoy Tender Roundup Olympics is meant to represent heaving on mooring lines. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District)

A new training portion of the roundup was introduced for building Fixed Aids to Navigation towers. Grimes said building towers is needed in areas that are difficult to access or have infrastructure so old it requires full replacement.

The towers, which help guide vessels to safety, need to be built from scratch. Each local unit is also rebuilding its tools and skills to do so. Grimes said this training is required across the fleet, but it is a particular challenge in Alaska.

"We don't have the same resources and ability to promulgate standardized training in all of the remote home ports, and so we brought people together this year to learn this new skill that has kind of been a lost art for the last several years in the Coast Guard," Grimes said.

For Grimes' first time at the Buoy Tender Roundup Olympics, she joined Ensign Camden Martin and Rear Adm. Bob Little, the Arctic District's new commander, in forming a district staff team.

The olympics featured a chain pull, line toss, boom spot, tug-of-war, and the finale: a heat-and-beat, which the district staff competed in.

"It was a great opportunity for us to put in the work that the cutters do and also show off that we're here to support our units," Grimes said.

"My takeaway from that is how much hard work the crews put into it," she said. "It's very labor-intensive work, working on a buoy tender and working Aids to Navigation, servicing those aids and making sure that our waterways are safe."

Grimes said the heat-and-beat gave her a "taste for the labor-intensive work" that takes place on a buoy tender and afterward, culinary specialists came together to serve lunch to all of the crews. A biscuit and gravy competition took place earlier this week and a burger contest was set for Thursday.

"The culinary specialists really showcase their expertise and their amazing, delicious skills, and creating just really creative and delicious meals for our crews," she said. "It's a great way to incorporate them and continue to provide them with professional development because we also bring in subject matter experts for their field as well, and allow professional development opportunities throughout the week."

• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.