Scout Articles & Pictures
(Editor’s
note: These articles are as
presented by the scouts and should not be construed in anyway as an endorsement
or factual account until verified to its authenticity with one of the
participating adult leaders who has fully recovered from this adventure.)
Sea Base 2002 Article
By: David Munoz
When I first signed up for Sea Base in early
November, I thought it would be a peaceful vacation in Florida where I would
enjoy the warm April breeze and gaze at my reflection on the small waves passing
by. There would be good food and beds for everyone, and it would be a perfect
Boy Scout trip. Alas, I could never be so mistaken.
Sea Base is a High Adventure trip, trips that
require more physical activity than normal camping trips. Our troop offers
Philmont, which is a 40+ hike in New Mexico, Northern Tier, which is a canoeing
trip up in Northern Minnesota and Canada, and Sea Base.
This was my first High Adventure trip, and I
learned that sailing is a lot harder than it seems. You have to know your knots
inside out, know how to use a compass, know first aid, and many other scout
skills. After a while though, you got the hang of it.
If the sea didn’t cause problems, like the 10
feet waves that stopped our journey to the coral reefs we were planning to sail
to, or the boat, which had its engine broke down, which made us come back early
from the sea, then some crew member was causing a commotion. We had a special
crew all right, which included Tyler Colopy, Adam Norris, Greg Melton, Pete
Knoetgen, Scott Gale, Mr. Colopy and Mr. Gale, and myself. Tyler and Greg were
sea sick for part of the trip and couldn’t go down to the lower level. Greg
played his Britney Spears and Jock Jams CD’s at the highest level, which
annoyed our perky captain, Captain Craig, and came back by playing his favorite
Jimmy Buffett and Dave Matthews CD’s. Adam and I ‘terrorized’ the crew and
Key West, along with some hobos, with our bandanas and sunglasses. Pete and
Scott acted normal for most of the trip, but unleashed their energy at Key West,
the highlight of our trip, where we spent a day window shopping and getting
crazy ‘hair cuts’, along with souvenirs and caricatures.
If you are 13 years of age or older, I highly
recommend this as your first High Adventure trip to prepare you for Northern
Tier and Philmont.
By:
Pat O'Brien
First
we went to Islands of Adventure then sea base, then sailing, then Key West then
sailing, then Sea Base, then Busch Gardens then home.
Liked the food, sailing and Key West, disliked the camping, concrete
under the volleyball pit and snorkeling and would change snorkeling, longer stay
in Key West and not having to write an evaluation.
By:
Jared Walker
Wow,
where do I start, Sea Base kicked. When
we first started out I had no idea what to expect.
On the road trip down we went to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure.
It was great. I like the
Hulk roller coaster the best. After we arrived at Sea Base we played
volleyball and had a religious service and played some more volleyball.
After dinner we went to meet our captain.
My captain was Captain Tom and his boat was the Rosa del Mar.
Captain Tom is pretty cool, he was very laid back and was also extremely
knowledgeable about boats, even though he was from Nebraska.
We
got up early the next day and loaded his boat with all of our gear and supplies,
then we headed out. After a
few hours we went snorkeling. The fish were magnificent and there were so
many of them. When we got to Key
West, we cleaned the boat and then we split up in-groups and went on our own.
We all had a day filled with fun and adventure and ended it in the hot
tub at a resort at Key West. When
we got back to Sea Base we cleaned the boat, took showers and left.
Now I'm sitting in the car reflecting back on the trip.
We did so well and had so much fun. If you ever get the opportunity to
go, I highly recommend it.
By
Michael Benjamin
Sea
Base Trip - I had a lot of fun.
Awesome things to do. I
didn't like sailing often enough, having a lot of bad luck and the captain.
Lots of fishing, caught some sharks, I saw Ripley's Believe It or Not and
I got a real cool tattoo. I would
change to have a pool at Sea Base, bigger head (toilet on boat) and bigger boat.
I encourage others to go on this trip.
I had a lot of fun and I know they will too.
I¹m so glad I could go to Sea Base and I hopefully will go again.
By
Drew Cattell
We
left slightly late from Mt. Pisgah and drove until Gainesville, where we stayed
in a motel. In the morning we went
to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure which was great fun despite the rain.
We then stayed at a motel close by.
The next morning we drove to Miami, picked up the Greims and drove to Sea
Base in the keys. The next morning
we went on the sailboats for four days and then back to Sea Base for a quick
clean up of the boast. After that
we dropped off the Greims and headed towards Tampa. We camped, which was
horrible, and then woke up and went to Busch Gardens for a day.
That night we stayed in a motel then woke up and drove back to Atlanta.
Good things include Captain Tom, food and participants, bad things not
enough sailing, camping and class B and I would change time spent sailing, have
all hotels and no class A or B (plain clothes).
By
Alex Templeman
What
I liked the best of things about Sea Base was the naked lady we saw, sailing the
keys and snorkeling the awesome reefs. What
wasn't so good was that we needed to do more sailing and less water boating and
have better bathrooms. We could
have had better food on the base. Change for better boats and to do more
sailing. Overall it was a pretty awesome trip.
By
John Vournakis
Overall
sea base was a great trip. Captain Tom was a good captain and the whole time on
the boat was fun. Key West and
theme parks were the best parts. The only really bad part was when we camped.
The packing list was a problem too.
There were things we needed that weren't on there.
We should get a crew to there again next year.
It was worth the money and is not something I will soon forget.
I liked the snorkeling, Key West and theme parks, and disliked the
camping crappy motels and food. I
would change the
By
Adam Greim
Things
I like about Sea Base were less work was needed than expected, decent food on
board, and great fishing with pretty good snorkeling.
I disliked that we didn¹t do more sailing, more diving and we shouldn't
have spent a whole day in Key West. I
would change the strictness of the schedule, to have more diving and fix the
head restrictions. One of the more
memorable experiences would have been the snorkeling.
We usually went in groups of four and I went accidentally in another
direction as we proceeded to swim away from the boat seeing all that we could be
seen from the surface of the water. I dove deep down to immerse in the visual
splendor of being close up. As I
neared the bottom, my mask began to leak. I
naturally started back up suddenly I saw a blur figure less than a foot from my
face. Thinking that this was one of
my companions I waved my hand indicating that I wanted to go back to the boat as
I drifted towards him I realized for an instant as he swan away that I had been
attempting to communicate with a 4 1/2 foot barracuda.
As he swan away I was in mild shock and somewhat amused at my experience.
This undoubtedly was most memorable experience.
By
Roger Dalton
I
liked the sailing, snorkeling and fishing.
I disliked having not enough time on the boat, not enough at the parks,
and blisters on the way home. and would change more time on the boat, more time
at the parks and no camping. Sea Base was great.
I will definitely go back next time the troop goes.
On the way down we stopped at Universal Studios Island of Adventure.
It was awesome. The best
ride was dueling dragons. When we
got to Sea Base we took our swim test.
That night we met our captain. Mine
was Captain Joe. He was really
cool. The next day we shoved off.
We spent the next few days fishing, snorkeling, sailing and in Andy's
case sleeping. We got to Key West
and they turned us loose. We walked
in a large circle for an hour before we found a map and went to the Ripley¹s
Believe It or Not Museum. It was
very interesting. Then when we were
just walking around we met the nomad. He
was a 62-year-old man who had hiked from Canada all the way to the most southern
point. We walked the last few
blocks with him. When we left
Key West we started back to Sea Base. On
the way back I caught a barracuda and a blue fish.
We got back to Sea Base and left for home.
We stopped at Busch Gardens. It was a lot of fun.
The whole trip was fun. I
would love to go back.
By
Doug Mitchell
I
liked that the fish we caught were of various species, going to Key West and the
captain. The food, lack of spending
money and crowded theme parks was not good.
On our way down we went to Universal Studios and it was fun.
We went on a lot of roller coasters.
Then we got to Sea Base we had a swim test and a snorkeling test.
We slept in a dorm that night and went out the next morning.
We went to dive sites and there was a lot of fish and the coral was
beautiful. We did not have to do
anchor watch that night. The next
day we sailed to Key West. I caught
5 pinfish. The next morning we ate
breakfast and then we docked at Key West and we spent the rest of the day there.
The next day we sailed to Blue Key.
We did not go snorkeling though. The
next day returned to Sea Base and cleaned the boat. Afterwards we drove to a
campground and slept the night. The
next day we went to Busch Gardens and went on a couple of roller coasters.
By
Andy Collier
30S21S18S6S3.2.
is what I heard everyday before I had my breakfast. Our Captain Joe was a scary
guy. He told us if we were not out
of bed by the time he reaches 1 he¹d blow the air horn in our ears.
My crew, which had Billy, Adam, Roger, and Mike, we would get out of bed
so fast every morning that we did not have enough time to put any clothes on.
After breakfast we would sail. There
was nothing much on the boat to do except sleep or fish.
So I slept and slept. We
were on the boat for about 60.34 hours and I slept for a good 58 hours of that
time. Yeah,
you guys are probably thinking 'Why would you sleep so much?
Well the reason I slept so long was I am writing a book.
Mr. Hudalla one of the adult leaders told me the title should be "52
Ways to Sleep on a Boat". So,
when my book comes out I'll let you guys know.
When I was awake I always saw Mr. Greim at the back of the boat.
This guy is a very nice man but has no luck in fishing.
He was probably in the back of the boat trying to fish as much as I was
sleeping. The biggest fish he caught was about the palm of my hand.
When we got to Key West it was Mike, Billy and I as a group.
So the 3 immature males wandered through Key West.
Talk about the babes. Babes
heaven. No, but not really enough.
The most entertaining thing at Key West would have to be tattoos.
Billy and Mike decided to get tattoos.
Mike decides to get a big dragon on his back, nice thing.
Billy got the dark wire thing on his upper arm.
We were all done after 30 minutes waiting for both of them.
We were all expecting each tattoo to cost 10 dollars.
Wrong! Mike's ended up being
60 bucks. Billy¹s 25.
So we were thinking OK Mike has the money.
He has 18 bucks. So we told
the lady we didn¹t have money. So she took down the price to 50 bucks.
Still not enough money. Then
here comes "super Hudalla". Stops
and sees Mike is in trouble so he starts talking to the lady.
The lady is scared so the lady gets the man who does not speak english.
They start talking. Yelling
occurs then silence. Mike, Billy
and I are all scared we did not want our supper here so we watched some more.
The man grabs Mike, takes him to the store.
Mike gives him his 18 bucks and said thank you and ran out.
Ran so fast the man did not have enough time to give him his receipt so I
picked it up from the man and walked calmly out of the store.
Then for the next two days we were out on sea and I slept.
Mr. Greim fishing. Captain
telling sappy stories and the rest of them just sitting there.
Flight
of Fancy" or " A [Sea] Base Act"
by
one Greg Mitchell (a.k.a. Spring Break)
During
the first week of April 2001, 12 scouts and 4 adults from Boy Scout Troop 629
paid a visit to what many consider to be a discrepancy in the fundamental nature
of the universe: Florida!
But this trip was no attempted insight into the mind of a giant cartoon
mouse who mercilessly euthenizes feature length animal movies with incessant
sequels and pukes up exorbitantly priced souvenirs, nor was it an
intoxicant-laced adolescent folly that leveled itself entirely to the
production of a chemically induced euphoria.
It was one of those few activities that can still be labeled "good
clean fun", a weeklong sailing venture in the Florida Keys aboard two
40-foot vessels. The scouts and
leaders alike engaged in countless other noteworthy activities, such as
snorkeling among enchanting coral reefs, trolling for game fish and taking
overly long naps on the abundant pink vinyl cushions.
After sailing for 2 days the grouped stopped at Key West, where many an
obscure, profane T-shirt was sold. Everyone
then departed for two more days of sailing on their return to Islamorada¹s Sea
Base. In another crazy mess up by
Mr. Gillis and the heartbreakers, the transport to and from Sea Baser was
actually exciting and eventful, with scouts appearing in both Universal Studios
Island of Adventure and Tampa¹s Busch Gardens.
Overall, the trip was crazy-wacked and Mr. Gillis effectively neutralized
his arch nemesis, the crafty and elusive highwayman Black Scarlet. What
is a Wencil anyway?
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