Spend a week on a boat with a group and you’re bound to leave with one…

A nickname!

As we set sail for our final two days, we realized that everyone on our boat was slowly earning one!

There were two who came with nicknames already…

“Kimo”, which means Jim, was earned while on a vacation to Hawaii by you guessed it, Jim. There was “Moi”, which I was told means “nap”. The person who earned that moniker had the ability to take a nap on a moment’s notice and as we found out, pretty much any spot on the boat!

There was also “Rainman”, not only because this scout had “aced” his recent ACT test (yes, that’s true), but more importantly, in the event of rain, he carefully wrapped himself in protective gear before going to sleep on the deck of the boat, hence, the name!

We also had “Shark Bait” and “Tubes”, which were handed out based on the love of fishing for sharks by the former (maybe his height played a role too) and the ability to stay on a tube while being pulled by a high-powered boat and driven by a counselor determined to toss him by the latter!

There was “Dumps”, which was richly earned following a late evening encounter with a troublesome toilet. (An event that is second only to the sinking of the Titantic, in terms of maritime disasters!)

“Ox”, John Candy’s character from the movie, “Stripes” was given to a young man that will anchor our football line this coming fall. “Win A Dream Date With Ox” from the closing moments of the movie was something that we must have repeated a thousand times and for some strange reason, never got old!

That leaves yours truly!

For my ability to get our boat moving faster than anyone else on our return trip from Marathon, I earned the nickname, “Knots”!

7.6 knots to exact!

All of those names were a direct result of the fun we were having on this trip!

It was the type of trip where you forget what day and time it was!

Even more importantly, you could care less!

We saved the best snorkel dives for the last two days.

We hit a couple of coral reefs on the ocean and they were simply beautiful! Dispite a close encounter with an errant speed boat that buzzed us at one spot, the dives were fantastic! The beauty of the reefs and the fish really put into perspective the ongoing battle with the oil spill.

For our last night on the water, we tied up to another of our troop’s boats to enjoy their company and swap stories for a couple of hours. Around 10:00 PM, we untied and anchored a short distance away from their boat. The following morning, our captain broke out the water guns for our guys and we did a “sneak” attack on the other boat before we sailed off!

On the way back to Sea Base, we anchored and swam to an island, rich with area history, for a self-guided tour.

Following lunch, we made the final leg of the trip and were back at the dock by 2:00 PM.

Time to unload and clean the boat!

Unfortunately for us, it was also the hottest weather we had experienced since we had arrived! There was very little cloud cover or breeze and the temps were well into the nineties! Within a half hour, we removed all of our gear from the boat and cleaned the boat from bow to stern and inside and out!

We were the perfect example of teamwork!

Then it was time for a shower!

I don’t think a cold shower has ever felt better! I didn’t even mind that it seemed that the shower stall was moving from side to side!

There was a “luau” for our final evening at camp. We wore matching Hawaiian shirts, did the limbo, performed a skit, which we came up with that morning and had a very nice meal.

There was one last chance to spend some money in the trading post on some souvenirs, then it was “lights out” in the bunkhouse style room we all stayed in.

Morning came and we found ourselves back where we had started…

Waiting for a late bus, which was to take us to the Miami airport!

Good news for us…

Our driver wasn’t “Tony”!

The bus was about an hour and a half late, but we still had plenty of time to make our flight. Following some anxious moments with luggage, a name foul-up and a scout attempting to take liquid thru security, we were on the plane and headed back to Minneapolis!

We arrived home safe and sound along with memories of a trip of a lifetime!

As my son enters his senior year of high school and soon begins a new chapter in his life, it will be a trip that I will always cherish!

But wait!

My summer of high adventure continues!

I am leaving this weekend for another Boy Scout trip with my other son to Wyoming. We will be backpacking in the Big Horn Mountains and if all goes as planned, making it to the top of Cloud Peak, which is slightly over 13,000 feet!

Our troop is also taking part in an evening ceremony at Mount Rushmore on our return trip.

Stay tuned!

“Things I Learned While At Sea”…

*Going to the bathroom on a boat can be a great workout! (Just ask my son)

*If you are going to spend a week on crowded boat, get a “colorful” and very caring captain. Thanks Captain Gerard!

*Oh those sailing terms! Okay, I already knew bow and stern, but I could never keep straight “port”, which means left and “starboard”, which means right, I do now! I also learned about “apparent wind”, “true wind” and “leeway”. There was, “jib’, “jibe”, “tack” and “trim” and of course the “mainsail”! I also had a geat refresher course in tying a “clove hitch” knot!

*Hold onto BOTH ends of the dive flag rope when securing it! I learned this one the good, old fashioned way, by experience! On the bright side, a scout got the opportunity to go up the mast in a hoist and retrieve my mistake. Thanks again, Shark Bait!

Within moments upon setting foot on the “Island Rose” we knew we had them…

Options!

Captain Gerard made that clear!

If we were cooking a meal, we knew we weren’t limited to only a single choice! We had ham, we had turkey, we had steaks, we had burgers, we had cheese for those burgers, of course lettuce and tomato, we had mustard, we had relish, there were onions, if we chose to slice them and of course there were options as to which utensil we could use to slice that onion! We could have brats, there were supplies to make pancakes, which came with the option of putting chocolate chips in them and of course, butter and syrup for them!

You get the idea!

Our captain liked to point out our options, so we could make an informed decision. So it came as no surprise following a morning snorkel drive near our previous night’s anchor spot, that we had options for setting our course for our next two days of sailing!

The plan for our first day out was to sail about 30 miles down the Keys to Marathon.

Sounded simple enough, but…

The ocean side was feeling the effects of hurricane Alex, which had passed well to the south, but was kicking up some pretty good sized waves. We could sail down on the ocean side or we could stay on the gulf side. The latter meant it would be calmer, but not much fun in terms of actual sailing!

As I mentioned, our captain also liked to show-off just a little, along with a touch of brag and with his salty voice announced…

“All of the other Sea Base boats are staying on the gulf side, we’re sailors, let’s head out on the ocean!”

That’s right, I’ve been a sailor for about 13 hours now, what was I thinking? Let’s go!

But hitting the ocean also meant it was unlikely we would be doing any snorkeling that day due to the high waves, BUT, we could hit a spot that might have a shipwreak to explore that we could swim and walk to!

There were ALWAYS options!

On this day we also found out that everyone on our boat would take a turn or turns at the helm! The captain would set a timer for 15 minutes and following a schedule set-up by our crew leader, we would take turns guiding our boat. It didn’t matter if we were passing under a bridge or in big waves, when your time came, you were at the controls. (The captain was sitting in a chair behind and above us, just in case!)

The waves were about four feet that day and as our captain pointed out, it’s not the size of the wave, but more the time in between waves that make it rough.

Kind of like, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity!

You could soon tell a difference from the gulf side of the Keys and the ocean side when the boat started rocking from side to side and just moving about the boat became a challenge! We were sailing with our “jib” deployed and we were doing about seven and a half to eight knots.

Well past something called, “hull speed”!

Anyway you look at it, we were hauling!

When it came time for my turn at the wheel, I learned how to find the “groove” with the boat. The sweetspot! The spot where the line from the movie, “Top Gun” popped into my head…

“I feel the need, the need for speed!”

Okay, it wasn’t like we were in danger of getting a speeding ticket, but in terms of a sailboat, we were moving!

Then the effects of being on the ocean and getting rocked back and forth started to set in!

I am happy to report, none of our crew got sick to the point of losing one’s stomach contents overboard!

Getting very queasy, now that’s a different matter!

With boat going strong back and forth, going down below deck for more than minute became difficult! It posed a challenge when it came time to prepare lunch!

Following a listing of all available options for our mid-day meal, it was decided that brats sounded best.

“Just fire up the grill on the stern and make sure you slice the brats so they don’t roll off,” declared our captain!

Gotcha!

Well, that grill was now going up and down like a bobber in the water! Also, just keeping the thing lit proved to be a challenge. (That situation was helped by placing tin foil in the vents of the grill.)

I don’t think a brat was the best choice for yours truly!

By the time our late lunch was ready I was really feeling the effects of being on the ocean for a couple of hours! I spent more than a few moments staring at the horizon in an attempt to help my growing headache!

I managed to consume my meal. (I went with the onion, relish and ketchup on a bun option!) It wasn’t the best tasting meal I’ve ever had but I was very happy to be able to keep it down!

We continued to make our way to Marathon and we did decide to stop and “explore” the spot with the shipwreck. The one problem…

It was low tide and the plan was to swim with sandals on our feet, then walk the rest of the way in shallow water.

But…

When it came time to walk, everyone was sinking up to thier knees and beyond in muck! (A note, I’m being kind by using the word, “muck” here!)

I was bringing up the rear of our exploration party to make sure everyone was accounted for when my son brought to my attention that he was having difficulty keeping his sandals on his feet. His feet were sinking and his sandals were coming off! (I was having trouble too!) With us getting farther and farther away from our anchored boat and the whole experience losing it’s appeal, my son and I decided to “abort” and head back to the boat and observe from that vantage point. Upon the return of the rest of our crew and the sharing of their “experience”, it was decided we made a very wise choice!

Our crew unofficially named the spot, “Bird Cr*p Island”!

Needless to say, everyone spent a fair amount of time rinsing off from that swim/walk!

So much for that option!

We pulled our anchor and headed into Marathon for the night. Following a stop for ice cream at a dockside store, we toured the harbor and found an anchor spot for the night.

The next morning we headed back up the gulf side, stopping from time to time for a snorkel drive. We saw another boat from our troop, which gave us the opportunity to display our pirate garb as we sailed past them!

We were making our way back up near Sea Base, where we would anchor for the night. The following day was spent back at Sea Base, where we enjoyed a day of beach volleyball, sailing small sailboats, kayaking and tubing. We ate our evening meal at the base dining hall, but we slept on our boat.

We would be headed back out the next day!

Day Two picked up with the familiar theme from Day One…

Waiting for a bus and it’s driver, I refer to as, “Tony”!

There was a bright side…

It gave me and a few other caffine lovers plenty of time to consume large quantities of our favorite morning beverage…coffee! I located a “supplier” a few blocks down from our hotel and I got the chance to enjoy a beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean on the walk there!

Not a bad way to begin one’s day!

(Except for the bus part!)

As was the case the day before, the excuses were already flowing! We had all of our gear stacked outside the front of the hotel waiting for the double honk of the horn that would signal the arrival of our transportation to Sea Base, which was about a two hour drive away.

We were ready to go, but we waited!

We waited in the cramped lobby of our hotel along with another troop that was waiting for it’s ride to the airport.

The wait provided one last chance to purchase something in the gift shop.

We had time for a very nice conversation with the manager of the hotel regarding the adventures of spring breakers over the years and how things have changed for the better in Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale has gotten tough on under age drinkers and also she was telling us that kids now go where MTV sets up shop.

We were still waiting when suddenly a young man came running through the lobby and out the front door.

Something was up!

Soon the Fort Lauderdale Police had the young man spread out, up against a cadillac, who’s owner, I might add, paid extra for that prime spot the previous night!

The handcuffs went on and the young man was led to a police car.

Seems the lad had just attempted to rob the hotel restaurant and wasn’t able to make it very far!

So that excitement helped pass the time and of course it was a great lesson to our boys about the virtures of a life of crime!

Soon thereafter, we received word that “Tony” was mere moments away!

Are you sure?

Yup!

The bus finally did arrive and following a very quick and orderly loading of the bus we were on our way to Sea Base!

Sea Base is located in Islamorada, in the Florida Keys.

There is one way in and one way out, U.S. Highway 1.

I can noiw understand why the always evacuate the Keys early when there is even a possibilty of a hurricane since it would take a very long time to get eveyone out! The road is two lanes, but a good stretch of it is under construction to make it four lanes. The bridges that connect the Keys are still two lanes, but have been widen.

And they are long! When we arrived in Islamorada, we were still one hundred miles from Key West.

There’s nothing like arriving at a Boy Scout Camp!

The bus pulled in, we were met by our “First Mates”, which were counselors assigned to each of our three crews. While the necessary paperwork was being completed by our assigned adult leader, the rest of us were being herded with our gear to a shaded location (Did I mention it was very hot and humid?) to begin the process of packing for the boat, which we would be leaving on later that evening. The nice thing about this trip was the ease of packing for it! A couple of pair of swim trunks, a few t-shirts, a hat and some sunscreen and that’s all we needed!

Oh, almost forgot, the most essential item for any scout outing…a cribbage board!

Check!

How could we have been expected to survive at sea for five days without our cribbage board?

So we hurriedly packed for the boat! Everything we needed or wanted for three days (we were coming back to Sea Base at mid-week) had to fit in a small duffle sack for the boat. Everything else we brought would be locked up for us in a crew locker.

With the completion of packing, it was time for us to take our gear to the dock and meet our new floating home and the skipper of that home!

Out crew was assigned to the boat, “Island Rose” and the Captain of that boat was a man by the name of Gerard.

You could tell right away that this wasn’t Captain Gerard’s “first rodeo”! He had the arrival of a fresh crew drill down!

He knew exactly what needed to be done and in what order!

Stow the gear here…ice goes here…followed by a week’s worth of food!

He broke us into two groups and began to give a tour of the boat to those of us left behind. Top deck, below deck and everything in between! He showed us where things were located, the galley, storage, bunks and the head!

Oh, the head!

Now there’s some comedic gold in itself!

There was a definite procedure that needed to be followed when “duty” called!

Pump this, turn this, pump some more!

You were hoping you remembered all of this since the last thing you wanted was to sink the ship because you forgot how to run the toilet!

Following our tour, it was time to take the dreaded BSA swim test!

Okay, it’s not so bad, but us older guys often joke about the struggles we face when we are tested!

In order to pass, us “older” scouts needed to swim 75 yards three times using a front stroke of our choosing, followed back another 75 yards using the backstroke and finally a few seconds of floating on our backs.

It was suggested that this be completed in STRONG manner!

Okay, sure, just as long as that “strong manner” lets me use the side stroke from time to time! Which, I have found out through my years of attending BSA camps is permissible! You see, there’s the reason I’ll never do a triathlon, the swimming! Oh, I can swim, but nobody will ever mistake me for Michael Phelps!

Myself and another adult were the last two to go!

Everyone else had safely completed and passed the test.

Oh, the pressure!

I started out strong, but quickly switched to my beloved friend, the side stroke! I knew I was home free when I got to the backstroke. You see, I could probably backstroke for a good mile, I just might not know where I’ll end up!

I passed!

Time for the snorkel test!

Huh?

Yes, we would be doing a lot of snorkel drives on this trip so the counselors needed to make sure we knew what to do and when to do it!

After a few awkward moments with my flippers, it was back into the water and breathing thru a plastic tube!

Following a “deflation” of my lifevest and a dive to the bottom to grab a handful of mud to signal I knew how to go under water, the snorkel test was complete!

We were ready to go!

Almost…

It was time to finish loading the boat and get final instructions from our captain. We completed those tasks and following an evening meal at camp, it was time to head out!

It was also the first time we noticed our captain likes to be different than the other Sea Base captains!

Gerard has been in the charter business for twenty four years and this was his third year at Sea Base, he knew how to operate a sailboat and he liked to “show off” just a little!

“We don’t motor off the dock, we sail off!” he proclaimed!

Okay!

So with the sun setting and a very “green” crew, up went our jib and we were sailing off the dock!

The captain blew some kind of shell to signal our departure!

Off we went and we actually looked like we knew what we were doing, when in reality, we didn’t have a clue!

We weren’t going very far the first night. Just a little way from Sea Base on the gulf side to a point where we would anchor for the night. But soon after we left the channel out of Sea Base, our first “trouble”…

MAN OVERBOARD!

Well, not exactly, more like a seat cushion overboard, but Captain Gerard used it as a practice drill for a “man overboard”!

You should have seen us!

Turn this, pull this, drop this, come about, get the hook ready!

Following a few tense moments, we “rescued” the seat cushion and we were back on our way to our anchor point.

Lights out came about an hour later as we were all looking forward to the next day’s adventure!

Check back on Monday to see what happened when we were the only Sea Base boat to head out on the ocean the next day!

Happy Weekend!

As I mentioned last week, I recently returned from a week of sailing with my son and his Boy Scout Troop at Sea Base, which is a camp operated by the Boy Scouts of America. Sea Base is located about 75 miles from Miami on the Florida Keys (Islamorada, to be exact).

This was my oldest son’s last “high adventure” trip as a scout. He turns 18 in December and then will age out. A “high adventure” trip is a trip where the boys are participating in activities that they wouldn’t normally do on our monthly weekend outings. The trips are usually a week or more in length and as was in this case, a pretty hefty distance from home.

My son has gone on previous trips to Wyoming, where the troop backpacked for a week in the Big Horns Mountains, Phlimont, which is another BSA run camp in New Mexico, a “Sea To Sky” trip to Oregon and now, Sea Base.

I have never traveled with him on one of these trips.

One of my regrets.

Oh, I’ve done many weekend trips and even spent a week with my boys at a scout camp, which I enjoyed very much, but never one like this. And this was my last chance with my oldest!

One last chance to create a wonderful memory and the chance to spend a week with my son learning how to sail and being part of a crew on a sailboat!

The trip started very early for us, 5:00 AM was the meeting time for the group of 16 scouts and 8 adults who signed up well over a year ago for this trip. We met at a local school, in a driving rain, to quickly get a headcount, meet our drivers (who volunteered to take us to the airport at that early hour), load our gear and be on our way to the Minneapolis airport to catch our 7:30 AM flight to Miami.

The flight was uneventful, which is the best kind, and we landed in Miami on time.

The adult leader in charge of this journey soon found out that the bus company that was supposed to pick us up and take us to our Fort Lauderdale hotel was running just a “tad” late.

My definition of “tad” has always been, “small amount”, like, “be there in a couple of minutes”, apparently though, in south Florida it has a totally different meaning!

Oh, it started out as “Be there soon!”, but we quickly found out we had PLENTY of time to pay for & consume very overpriced airport food!

It became comical!

Every now and then we would receive word the bus was actually in transit but was encountering tremendous amounts of obstacles en route to Miami International Airport!

The excuses started to flow…

Another bus in the fleet had broken down.

Traffic was a mess.

Bad traffic on a bridge!

Road construction!

We were waiting for, “My dog ate my bus!” when we finally heard he was pulling in to pick us up!

Except…

Not on our level, which was currently the “baggage” level!

(The level most people use following arrival at an airport!)

No he needed to pick us up on the “departure” level since the designers of “MIA” must have not envisioned tour buses when they figured out the clearance needed for vehicles on the baggage level!

So, like the theme song from the TV show, “The Jefferson’s”, we were…

“Movin’ on up!”

Moving on up to the departure level!

That’s when we met him!

For the sake of protecting his identity, for whatever noble reason, I’ll call him, “Tony”! (Actually, he looked and acted much more like a “Tony” and I really believe his parents messed up on this one!)

A “northeasterner” transplant to the sunshine state!

You know how you can pretty well size someone up in a split second? Someone you’ve never met before in your whole life, but you instantly know what that person’s personality will be!

That was our “Tony”!

None of that sappy, “Sorry for the delay and I’ll do my very best to make it up to you guys!” for “Tony”!

Nope, he was instantly complaining about the speed to which our guys were loading their bags under the bus, which by the way, wasn’t slow at all! (It took about one minute to load our bags!)

It was almost like he was blaming us for his troubles!

Just a hunch, I don’t think “Tony” moonlights for Disney in his spare time!

But okay, relax, we’re finally on the bus, we’re in Florida, life is good! We’ll be at our hotel in no time and relaxing on the beach…

One slight problem…

We need to pick-up another troop at some “gatorland” place (which just happens to be halfway in between someplace and nowhere) and take them to the Fort Lauderdale airport!

You see, “Tony” was the kind of bus driver who liked to disclose his schedule on a “need-to-know” basis and that moment was pretty much when we were pulling into “Gatorland”!

We pulled into “Gatorland”, our boy honked twice and the troop came running! (They must have encountered “Tony” before!) One problem, they were a scout short! This didn’t make “Mr. Efficient” very happy! It seems the scout had briefly stopped off to use the restroom since he probably didn’t know if the bus ride would last 20 minutes or 20 hours!

“Hey, before I drop you guys off, I need to pick-up another group in Orlando!”

I must say, the Fort Lauderdale airport looked nice!

A rather clean, efficient looking airport!

Good news…

The bus was able to fit on the appropriate level!

We dropped off the troop, which was heading home to Wisconsin, and more importantly, we didn’t pick-up anyone else! We were finally on our way to our hotel!

Following a lot of “honking” by “Tony” at passing vehicles, he dropped us off at the “Bahia Cabana” in Fort Lauderdale around 4:00. (Two hours later than planned.) The scouts still had time to enjoy the beach and get their first taste of salt water!

The good news…

“Tony” was assigned to take us to Sea Base the following morning…

To Be Continued…

“Things I Learned This Week”…

I’ll cover a whole list of things I learned on the trip later next week, but I couldn’t pass up this one…

*We actually have a LEAGUE in this country for eating contests!

It’s called, “Major League Eating” and apparently the league was in a dispute with “star” eater, Takeru Kobayashi, which kept him from participating in Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island this past Sunday!

You know the contest…

Always on the Fourth of July…

The one where contestants see how many hot dogs and buns they can shove into their face in ten minutes and win, oh I don’t know, a t-shirt?

Who knew we actually had a league for this?

Who knew there was more than one of these contests a year?

Anyway, Joey Chestnut won the thing by “eating” 54 dogs in ten minutes!

Kobayashi tried to “crash” the event and won an all-inclusive stay at the county jail!

Happy Weekend!

Check out the following link…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUlxtozrtTU