1) Sea Base has a coin-op laundry.
You can take fewer clothes knowing this.
2) Most of the captains want your crew to bring cassettes & CD's to
listen to. Not ALL captains allow you to bring them on board, but MOST
encourage you to supplement their own collections (they get tired of
listening to the same old stuff). Just be sure to emphasize to your crew
that the captain makes all decisions on what gets played, when, and,
considering that he can keel-haul you, there's NO arguing with him.
3) Try to avoid having more than half of your crew made of up 13 year
olds for the Coral Sailing adventure. That's straight from our captain's mouth. Our crew was evenly made up
of 13, 14 & 15 year olds. You might not be able to do anything about
crew composition at this point; we were told crews of 13-year-olds don't
cope with the ship's demands very well and need older Scouts' support.
Captain said crews with mostly 13 year olds in it have a good time, but they
need a LOT of supervision from the adults, which works against forging
strong teamwork.
4) The provisions list provided by Sea Base had way too much on it for
our cruise. We were there in the heat of summer, so keep that in mind in
your clothing choices. Here's what I actually USED aboard (and I wish I'd
left EVERYTHING else back at Sea Base and too, remember this is an adult’s
list): 2 swimsuits (one wet or drying, one dry) & 1 pair of lightweight
shorts for when I wasn't in a swim suit (late afternoons & evenings)...
several boys did great with just 3 swimsuits & no underwear; 3 t-shirts
(one for in the water if you are really sunburned, 1 dry shirt for on the
boat, and 1 to wear at night); 1 pair of boxer shorts to wear at night; 1
pillow; 1 sheet; 1 ThermaRest pad; 2 regular underwear; a lightweight
Columbia swamp hat with 3" brim; 1 pair of deck shoes; sunglasses with
strap; toiletry kit; a lightweight rain jacket (no pants); 2 towels;, 16 oz
of sun block; a canteen. Key West clothes: 1 pair of shorts, pullover
lightweight polo shirt; 1 pair underwear, 1 pair socks, comfortable walking
shoes (my deck shoes doubled as my walking shoes in Key West). That's it.
Leave the rest in storage at Sea Base. From the time we went aboard until we
got back to base, we were in shorts (swim or otherwise), a hat and nothing
else (no shoes, no shirt). Well, there were times some of us had to put a
t-shirt on because we were starting to get burned.
5) Pack EVERYTHING Sea Base recommends for the crew
kit. One thing they
don't list that we recommend you add to your first aid kit is a disposable
breathing barrier in case you have to do CPR (Resusci Face Barrier available
from the American Red Cross is good). They're cheap and take up almost no
room.
6) You'll be drinking LOTS of water. Several of us bought 1-liter bottles
with the Sea Base logo on them at the ship's store, but we could have just
as easily brought canteens from home. Those that brought unbreakable mugs
did just fine; they just made more trips to the water jug.
7) A self-inflating pad (like a ThermaRest) is worth the money. Two of
our Scouts brought foam pads and said they just didn't work very well on the
deck. Where a self-inflating pad will soften a hinge or other deck
irregularity, the foam pads didn't do a very good job. In plain English,
one Scout described his foam pad as "like sleeping on a
marble slab in a morgue."
8) A couple of us took swimmer's squee-gees (made by Speedo) with us and
used them to dry off after snorkeling. They were great and are highly
recommended, but they are somewhat expensive. If you don't
know what one is or balk at the price, don't worry about it! Regular towels
work well. The squee-gee just works great. If you take regular
cotton towels, take two and keep one clean & dry in a
zip-lock bag until you get to Key West and the fresh water showers.
9) Speaking of Key West, you'll have access to a
fresh-water pool,
Jacuzzi, showers and bathrooms at the marina. You may want to
surprise your Scouts and not tell them about it until you are in
harbor. It's a great incentive to get the boat cleaned quickly! We hit the pool first and then staged our crew into the
showers (3 stalls) as they become available. Remember, there will be 2
other crews vying for shower time, too.
10) Each of our Scouts spent about $40 in Key
West. We ate lunch &
dinner in town and everybody bought stuff to take home to family members.
Adults might want to consider shipping gifts home to avoid having to carry
it.
11) Adults … it's a decent walk to 713 Duval Street, but the Wyland
Gallery is there and has some great sculpture and art and is worth the walk
if you haven’t been to one of his other galleries.
12) About Key West’s alternative lifestyles. Our crew's parents placed
the responsibility on our shoulders to determine if Key West was 'safe' for
the boys to be unescorted in town. Being from Oklahoma, the ‘buckle’ of
the Bible Belt, we were all more than a little concerned about those 'loose'
lifestyles we'd heard so much about. Once there, we felt entirely confident
letting the boys go in groups (ours took off in groups of three).
There's really nothing for anyone to be worried about in Key West! We set two
check-in times (4 pm and 7 pm) at the Burger King so we could count noses
and make sure everyone was okay. We wished we'd taken our FRS radios (for
convenience),
but chose at the last minute to not take them on the boat. We asked our guys
to not go very
far down Duval Street simply because there really isn't much that will
interest them. We chose to
not wear any Scouting related clothing in town and that was a good decision
as the Scouts could just "be some guys" vacationing & that
made THEM less self-conscious.
13) You won’t need flashlights on deck if the stars are out. (And boy,
are you gonna love the stars ... even if the constellations are in kinda
funny positions. Have your Scouts try and locate Polaris on your first night
out … you might want to locate it first.) Still ... have a
flashlight available.
14) Make sure your crew is aware that they may need to stand anchor watch
one, two or maybe every night while you're aboard. You'll be anchoring in
somewhat protected waters, but an anchor watch may be necessary depending on
weather, tides and anchorage. Anchor watch is divided into 2-hour periods
(10-12 MN, 12-2, 2-4 & 4-6am). Have a strong flashlight available for
the watch crew for signaling, and be sure a wristwatch is handy so each
team can wake the next.
15) Your crew chief needs to be the Scout best capable of delegating
authority and following up on assignments and we strongly encourage
you to play a major role in who is selected as crew chief. Your crew
chief will make a huge difference in how much you all enjoy the trip, and it
is worth it to have one who is focused. He shouldn't be timid in giving
adults direction, either.
16) You'll hear this again when you get there, but the adults need to
start thinking about this now: once you board the boat, be a crewmember.
Throw away your need, or desire, to be a leader (except for being on watch
for safety issues). Let your captain and crew chief run the show.
17) Even if you aren't bringing your own snorkeling gear (we all did),
you might want to bring your own defogging agent for the dive masks. Spit
works okay for some, sometimes, but doesn't work for everyone all the time
(something to do with a person’s enzymes). All but two of our crew is
scuba certified and from past experience, we've found it most reliable to
use a defogging agent. We make our own (if you're a scuba diver you probably
know this): buy the cheapest "No Tears" baby shampoo you can find
and mix it 50-50 with water. We put it in empty saline bottles (contact lens
users often have a few of these around) and label it with Magic Marker: 'DFOG'.
To use it, put a drop or two on the glass inside the mask and spread the
soap solution over glass surfaces. Rinse the mask once before putting it on
(some don't rinse it at all). This defogger costs about $1 for 32 oz.,
compared to the $3 for 3 oz. at a dive shop.
18) Be sure to bring eardrops and insist that everyone use them every
time they get out of the water. Again, we make our own ... another saline
bottle with isopropyl alcohol in it, labeled 'EARS'. Costs about 29 cents.
19) The crew chief kept the DFOG and EARS bottles in his dive bag at
first, but the captain had a bucket on deck that he let us keep them in so
they were easy to get to and everyone knew where they were.
20) The storage lockers at Sea Base are bigger than you might imagine
from their description. We got a "double" because we had so much
gear (we’d been scuba diving before getting to Sea Base, so we had a bunch
of stuff). Ours was 4'x4'x6' and held everything with ease. We didn't know
they had double lockers and were more than a little worried about how we
were going to stuff everything into the 2'x2'x4' space their literature
refers to. Remember that 'doubles' aren't guaranteed, however.
21) You'll get a better choice of bunks in the Sea Base dormitory if you
check in right at 2 pm. Remember that when you return from
your cruise, too.
22) You can enhance your snorkel dives by getting a book or two from the
library on tropical fish indigenous to the area and having the Scouts review
them. We saw southern stingrays, a manta ray, a HUGE moray eel, nurse
sharks, puffer fish, lots of barracuda (some up close & personal),
yellow tail snapper, dolphin (both the fish & porpoise), French angel
fish, queen angel fish, lobster, octopus, parrot fish, and oh, about a
jillion others. We wish we’d studied more before going.
23) You can further enlighten your crew if you'll learn about the state
of the U.S. coral reefs before you go. From our first scuba dive outside
Islamorada all the way down to Key West, we paid attention to the state of
the coral. If you learn what to look for in living coral, you'll see the
degradation that's happening and it is a very personal way to communicate a
conservation message to the Scouts. If you don't have the time or
opportunity to learn about it before you go, ask your captain to educate you
while on board.
24) SPF 15 was just about right for 85% of the
time and everyone should have their own 16-32oz bottle. One bottle of
SPF 30
in the crew kit for everyone to share on those afternoons when folks are starting to burn would
be a good idea. Pay close
attention to the crew on the first day out and have the crew chief make them keep putting on the
lotion. Every time they get wet, have a lotion party. Remind them to take
care of each other’s backs! And remind them again and again. Unless
you already have a good tan, you'll find that about 3 pm, you should either be putting on
shirts or a stronger sun block lotion. The other days aren't as critical.
25) Bring lots of Bonine, but don’t bring a bunch of other products.
You should plan on 1 table per person, per day, just in case you run into
nasty weather and everyone needs it. Although I have good sea legs and knew
I wouldn’t need anything to prevent seasickness, I took Bonine along with
everyone else the first doses so the Scouts didn’t feel they needed to be
‘macho’. The BEST way to use Bonine is to start the night before getting
on the boat. Have the entire crew take ½ tablet before going to bed.
The crew takes another ½ tablet first thing next morning, before breakfast.
That dosage should be good for 12-24 hours. I then chose to not re-dose
anyone until those that were going to have a problem started showing
symptoms. If someone starts to get queasy, get them dosed right away.
Those individuals then received ½ tablet dosages right away and then each
night and each morning for the remainder of the trip. As it turned out, only
two Scouts needed the medication on a daily basis. But then, the Atlantic
was ridiculously calm during our trip. The biggest swell we saw, once, was
when we were 10 miles out into the blue water and they were only 3 feet
high.
26) Rashes, bumps and blistering – some algae and larvae are irritants
to human flesh. After exposure, a rash develops. We had plenty of guys with
open skin areas affected, like the forearms and elbows. It can take a couple
days for the bumps to form. We didn’t know what it was or how to treat it
until we got home. It looks like poison ivy, but doesn’t itch as badly.
These are most prevalent during summer months.
So
you’ll have the information up front, here are the facts straight from the
Diver’s Alert Network with suggestions on treatment that could
affect your crew first aid kit:
"Seaweed dermatitis: There are more than 3,000
species of algae, which range in size from 1 micron to 100 meters in length.
The blue-green algae, Microcoleus lyngbyaceus, is a fine, hairlike plant
that gets inside the bathing suit of the unwary aquanaut in Hawaii and
Florida waters, particularly during the summer months. (SCOUTERS NOTE: IT
WILL ALSO ATTACK OTHER AREAS). Usually, skin under the suit remains in moist
contact with the algae (the other skin dries or is rinsed off), and becomes
red and itchy, with occasional blistering and / or weeping. The reaction may
start a few minutes to a few hours after the victim leaves the water.
Treatment consists of a vigorous soap-and-water scrub, followed by a
rinse with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. Apply 1 percent hydrocortisone
lotion twice a day. If the reaction is severe, oral prednisone may be
administered.
Sea bather's eruption Often misnamed "sea lice" (which are
true crustacean parasites of fish, and which inflict miniscule bites), sea
bather's eruption occurs in sea water and involves predominately bathing
suit-covered areas of the skin, rather than exposed areas. The skin rash
distribution is very similar to that from seaweed dermatitis, but no seaweed
is found on the skin. The cause is stings from the nematocysts (stinging
cells) of the larval forms of certain anemones, such as Linuche unguiculata,
and thimble jellyfishes. The injured person may notice a tingling sensation
under the bathing suit (breasts, groin, cuffs of wetsuits) while still in
the water, which is made much worse if he/she takes a freshwater rinse
(shower) while still wearing the suit. The rash usually consists of red
bumps, which may become dense and confluent (i.e., run together in a mass).
Itching is severe and may become painful.
Treatment consists of immediate (for decontamination) application of
vinegar or rubbing alcohol, followed by hydrocortisone lotion 1 percent
twice a day. Topical calamine lotion with 1 percent menthol may be
soothing."
 |
For more diving medical
information, click here to connect to the Divers Alert Network |
That's all we can think of, but for one additional comment:
Be prepared to have a really good time.
