Blog

Oct 03, 2023

Sea Base is some adventure

By Brenda Erdahl Thirteen Maple Lake Scouts got their sea legs at the Boy Scouts

By Brenda Erdahl

Thirteen Maple Lake Scouts got their sea legs at the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) High Adventure Sea Base in the Florida Keys earlier this spring.

On April 30, troop 219 left for a five-day stay aboard a 75- foot, two-masted schooner called the "Bloody Pirate" where they learned to hoist the sails, chart a course, and whip a rope – plus some other fun things like fishing, snorkeling, and free diving.

It was the adventure of a lifetime for the scouts who said they got their sea legs after about a day on the water and experienced minimal sea sickness.

In all, the scouts sailed about 120 miles from Key Largo, Florida to Key West then out towards the Dry Tortugas which are a small archipelago of coral islands about 70 miles west of Key West. At night they slept on the deck and were fortunate to experience only one rainy morning that put an end to their breakfast plans because they cooked and ate their meals on the deck too. That same morning, the rain brought out a mother dolphin and her calf who the scouts watched play in the wake of their boat for a while.

Much of their time was spent snorkeling in the ocean where they saw a variety of marine life including sting rays, tarpons, groupers, octopuses, and sharks. The scouts said the sharks didn't make them nervous because they stayed on the bottom of the ocean and mostly ignored the swimmers. Once when sailing, they said they saw a Hammerhead floating on the surface.

The first fish the scouts caught was a 40-pound barracuda. They also caught a number of jacks and mackerel. They learned that barracuda is poisonous to eat, but they cleaned and ate some of the other fish, scouts said.

Like true sailors the scouts had to earn their keep. The crew kept a duty roster and every day the scouts had a list of chores that mostly included cleaning the boat, swabbing the deck, making meals and cleaning up after meals. They also helped to raise the sails, tie knots and earned their Citizenship of the World badge, an Eagle Scout requirement.

They learned that sea legs are a real thing and seemed to affect them more when they got off the boat. One scout reportedly was so wobbly on solid land after days on the rolling ocean that he tripped in the hotel they were staying at, fell into the fire alarm and set it off.

"It was really disorienting when you got back on land," Scout Master Chris Borgert said.

Maple Lake Boy Scouts Troop 219 just returned from a High Adventure Sea Base camp in the Florida Keys where they served as crewmen aboard the "Bloody Pirate."

To see more photos from the Boy Scouts adventure subscribe today.