renovation cycle. They sailed the ship back to Sundew's old homeport, Charlevoix, Michigan. The juggling of ships and crews continued in 1978 as the Coast Guards buoy tender renovation program progressed. USCGC Woodrush was due for renovation, so her crew was swapped with Mesquite's. Mesquite sailed for Duluth to replace Woodrush. In June 1980 Mesquite was ordered back to Charlevoix, and traded crews with Sundew which was home-ported in Duluth. This was Mesquite's last change of home ports. In 1984, in cooperation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatcheries and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Mesquite released 210,000 lake trout fingerlings on offshore reefs in Lake Michigan. It was hoped that fish released in the middle of the lake would have a higher survival rate than those released along the shore. In another cooperative venture, Mesquite set and retrieved weather buoys for NOAA. On November 26, 1984 Mesquite sailed from Charlevoix bound for Grenada. Operation Urgent Fury, the United States invasion of Grenada had been launched the previous month. She reached Grenada on December 25, 1984 via Halifax, Bermuda, and San Juan. Her primary mission was law enforcement patrols, but it became clear her services were not needed in Grenada. She headed back to Miami about February 1, 1985. She participated in a number of drug seizures and humanitarian missions while in Florida waters. She met USCGC Gallatin towing a fishing boat loaded with of marijuana, which she had seized. Mesquite took up the tow, and turned the contraband and the six-man crew over to law enforcement authorities in Miami. She returned to Charlevoix on April 7, 1985, just in time to begin her usual task of resetting buoys in the spring. The ship also deployed to Florida waters during the winter of 19881989 for law enforcement duties. She boarded twenty vessels while on patrol. She arrived back in Charlevoix on April 5, 1989, in time to replace her buoys. Loss of Mesquite By the late 1980s the World War II-vintage buoy tender fleet on the Great Lakes had become mechanically unreliable. Coast Guard budget constraints sometimes slowed or deferred needed maintenance. It became common for ships to service not only their own fleet of buoys, but those of broken-down buoy tenders as well. At various times Mesquite was assigned to take care of buoys for Acacia, Bramble, and Sundew. Commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral Paul A. Yost,