From July 18th to July 24th, six scouts and two adults were in Florida for Sea Base. The list of scouts is as follows, Sahil Chatwal, Mason Holzer, Clayton Seeger, Josh King, Ben King, Zachary Barrett. The parents accompanying them were Mrs. Barrett and Mr. Holzer. On Saturday the 18th, the scouts got up early, at 3:30-4:00 in the morning. They had Saturday to explore Miami, since the boat would not set sail until Sunday.
Josh King writes about the experience below:
“The storm disrupted our plans to go kayaking the next day too. On Sunday, after we ate lunch at another seafood restaurant by the beach, we drove to Sea Base. When we got to Sea Base, they had us put all of our stuff on picnic tables, our guide Danny told us what would be happening that week. We put the things that we would need on the boat in mesh bags and the things that we don’t in the van so that our bags could fit in the boat. We also got another mesh bag that would hold our snorkeling equipment. After that, we went to put our bags on the 40-foot sailboat and to meet the captain. The captain told us the things that Danny didn’t, like the procedures on his boat. When the captain was finished talking to us, we ate dinner at the tables that we put our bags on earlier. After dinner, we got on the boat and took off first. We filled up on fuel for when we would not be sailing. We didn’t go very far at all, not even out of sight of Sea Base. Ben, our crew leader, filled out a duty roster list for who would be doing anchor watch (staying up and making sure that the boat does not move while the others are sleeping.) and who would be cooking and cleaning for each day of the week. The only thing really to do was talk to each other until we went to bed.
The next morning, we woke up and the first group tasked with cooking breakfast started work almost immediately. We ate then lifted the anchor and we started going to our first snorkeling spot of the day. We were boating for about 1.5-2 hours before we reached our snorkeling spot. The water was very murky and the only interesting thing that we found in the hour we were there was a few crabs. After a while, we all decided that we would go back to the boat. We dried off and ate sandwiches and chips for lunch before we went to the second snorkeling spot of the day. The second spot was much better, clearer water, more fish and some coral, overall more enjoyable than the first spot. After we were all finished with snorkeling we went back on the boat and dried off before the two scouts cooked dinner. After dinner, we sat around the boat talking because there wasn’t really anything else to do. The morning of the next day was really a repeat of the day before, wake up, have the cooks cook breakfast, pull up the anchor, go to the snorkeling spot, snorkel, eat lunch. However, today we didn’t snorkel twice, we spent the afternoon sailing until we anchored and ate dinner. We docked in a manmade channel and started fishing. While fishing, a competition started mainly between Sahil and Mason to see who could catch the most fish before the end of the trip. Tomorrow would be midweek where we docked at a marina for the day and we could shower or buy snacks at the store. The next morning we again, woke up, had the cooks cook breakfast, and pulled up the anchor. We started sailing over to the marathon marina. We got there around noon and so we ate lunch while the other boat that we were partnered with took showers. We stayed in the harbor the whole day, and to our surprise, the captain brought out a tv and played movies for us if we wanted to watch them. The next morning was the same as all the others. Once we were far enough away from the marina, we started to sail. We sailed all morning, had lunch, and then snorkeled, started sailing again, and then ate dinner then went to bed. Tomorrow was our last day on the boat, we would get off the boat and sleep in the dorms that Sea Base had back on land. That next day, we left Sea Base and went to explore Miami before our flight. We went on an airboat ride in a different part of the everglades than we were before we were sailing. After that, we went and walked on the beach for a short amount of time. We were getting hungry so we decided to look for a restaurant, so we ended up choosing a Mexican restaurant. After we all ate, we went to the airport to go back to St. Louis. Overall, the experience was very enjoyable and I would recommend scouts to go when the next Sea Base trip will be.”
Troop 344 