My first solo book was on the US Coast Guard. The book, and all of the sixty-five other books of mine that followed, were the result of yet another happy accident in my life, an invitation to spend weeks aboard a large USCG cutter patrolling the Bering Sea and North Pacific way out past the Aleutian Islands. I was allowed full run of the ship and got to tag along on law-enforcement boardings of Russian, Korean, and ships from other nations. I had a still camera but covered the experience in documentary-film style. Previous to this time I was making films for Exxon and other clients but gradually shifted from film production to writing and illustrating books and continued doing so until recently. Most of the photographs in this gallery are from that first adventure way back in 1983.