Team 448 recently took a trip to the Florida Keys to visit the Florida Sea Base. All twelve of us woke up bright and early on Thursday, June 7, to catch the flight from Austin to Houston, and from Houston to Ft. Lauderdale. We landed in Florida at about 12:30, and were happy to see several other Troops at the airport, all headed to the same place. We loaded our bags into a van, and rode to our hotel, right on the beach, to enjoy the rest of the day before heading to Sea Base on Friday. The boys spent hours on the beach, swimming, splashing, and burying each other in the sand. That evening, the two groups retired to their rooms to order pizza and relax before the long drive the next day.
Friday: After an early breakfast from the hotel with our server, Donny, we loaded up in a us for the two hour drive down to Islamorada. Once there, we had lunch at a nearby Cuban restaurant, in which Carlos wanted "dolphin," before checking-in at Sea Base. As Mr. Reyes and Mr. McDonald checked us in, a young man asked if the rest of us were troop 448. This man was Bryce, who was assigned to be our "mate" for the week. For those who have experienced Philmont, the mate is very similar to a Philmont ranger, in that they are both assigned to work with the treks to teach them everything they need to know about the High Adventure Program. The biggest difference is that the mate stays with the crew for the entire week. Bryce went through everything with us almost immediately, including the swim test, snorkel gear check-out and testing, and most importantly, provisioning. Provisioning is the process through which both of the crews checked to make sure that we had all of the food items necessary for the week. Once these items were accounted for, we began loading gear onto the two boats, the
Morning Dance and the
Island Dreamer. It was at this point that we met Captain Dana and Captain Margie, the captains of the two boats, respectively. We all ate dinner at Sea Base, where we go to learn a bit more about the captains and our trek, before setting off for the evening.
We dropped anchor near the lower Matacumbe Key, and the boys spent the first
night on the deck of the boat. Pablo, Carlos, Curtis, and myself, John Michael,
were on Morning Dance with Mr. Faulkner and Mr. Reyes, while Matt,
Brian, Sean, and Kyle, along with Mr. McDonald and Mr. Mohondro were on the Island
Dreamer.
Saturday: All of the boys were woken up at about 1:20 in the early morning, thanks to a storm that rolled in. The winds reached about 45 knots, which is gale-force speed. We all moved inside, where we continued to sleep until 7:00 AM. Soon after breakfast, the Island Dreamer rafted, or attached, to the Morning Dance for a kayaking trip through the Matacumbe mangroves. In the mangroves, Bryce taught us of the area's function as a nursery to adolescent fish, as well as about several unique species, such as the fire-sponge and the osprey. The area was very hot and humid, but we were lucky to not find many mosquitoes. After we returned to the boat, we sailed towards Grassy Key, where we had our first snorkeling opportunity. On the way, I got to raise the sails for the first time with Mr. Faulkner, while Mr. Reyes got his first shot at trolling with the fishing lines. There was very poor visibility while snorkeling, but it was still nice to cool off a bit in the water. Later in the evening, the two crews came together to share our cards, which were index cards with information on one thing that we were interested in that day. This days cards included the cormorant, the fire sponge, the mangroves, barnacles, and the osprey.
Sunday: In the morning, we rafted together and began another kayak trip. From the boats, we moved to the shore of Grassy Key, where we visited the Dolphin Research Center. Carlos was excited to see all of the dolphins that he'd been talking about for quite some time now. At the DRC, we got the chance to see several performances from the dolphins, including Jax, a dolphin that was rescued from a shark attack. After a snack, we departed the DRC to return to the boats. Another sail and trolling session led us to "The Cut," a shallow area with a deep drop, featuring a large amount of spiny lobsters. The guys from Morning Dance also got to see a baby nurse shark towards the end. After the snorkel we moved towards the west edge of Marathon Key and the 7-Mile Bridge.
Monday: This was our first day to leave the bay-side of the Keys. We sailed under the 7-Mile Bridge and entered the Atlantic. After doing some more complicated maneuvers, the jib, or the front sail, ripped on the crossbeams of the mast. shortly after this accident, we reach the Sombrero lighthouse, which is surrounded by a large coral reef. The reef was filled with plenty of colorful fish, as well as several barracudas. The
Island Dreamer crew sighted several more nurse sharks as well. After this snorkel, the crews moved back towards Marathon, and stopped for lunch in a mangrove channel. After lunch, we docked at Burdine's where we met Captain Harold. Harold is the father of Dana and husband of Margie, and met with us to allow Dana to return to the boat that she normally captains. We got the torn sail off of he boat, and loaded it up into the captain's car. Once everyone was showered and settled, the captains and Bryce left to take Captain Dana to Key West, and send the sail to be repaired. The rest of us enjoyed a meal at Burdine's Restaurant, and turned in early in the air-conditioned hull.
Tuesday: In the morning, before leaving the docks, we met with the local lobster fishermen, who explained all of the prep work that they do before the start of their season in August. In the meantime, the jib was repaired, and we were ready to set sail for Marker 48. At Marker 48, we snorkeled a bit, seeing much of the same fish at Sombrero, as well as three spotted rays. We then sailed to a beautiful, deep reef known as Coffin's Patch, where we saw several grouper, colorful fish, and even a set of squid. However, on the way to the snorkel site, we once again ripped our jib sail. Afterwards, we motored for a long while back to the bay side, where we anchored and had a steak dinner. Once we all finished eating, we got dive lights and began a night snorkel. At night, we were able to see many more lobster and crab, all of which were roaming around on the sea floor. We were also able to see a few jellyfish, which began to sting a few of us. We soon retreated back to our boats to spend our final night at sea.
Wednesday: In the morning, we rafted up to the
Island Dreamer for breakfast and our last set of cards. Afterwards, we set out to our last snorkel spot, The Quarry, before heading back to Sea Base. At The Quarry, we got to see several Cormorants nesting, as well as some interesting fish and sunken objects behind a large sea-wall. After a quick lunch, we made our way back to the docks. Once at the docks, the work began, refueling and cleaning the two boats. The boys were hard at work sorting out gear, unloading and cleaning the boat, and getting things prepared in the bunkhouse for the night. We were soon dismissed for the remainder of the day. In the evening, we had our Luau, where all the crews that had just returned to the docks gathered for dinner. We all shared our skits, and played a bit of Polynesian Tug-of-War before dinner. Our skit was a take of Igor, but replacing Igor with "Gilligan," and dedicating it to Bryce. This skit also featured Carlos with some "interesting" pants. During Tug-of-War, both Curtis and Pablo held out for a long amount of time as the champion. Dinner consisted of fish crab, pork and vegetables, and was followed by a game of Limbo. Many of us were out pretty quickly, but Brian, myself and Carlos, with his magic pants, made it close to the end. We were then free for the rest of our last night at Sea Base.
Thursday: We decided to wake up bright and early to attend morning service before breakfast. We then spent the rest of the morning in the bunkhouse before returning to the Cuban restaurant for lunch. The bus came to pick us up soon after, leaving troop 505 at Sea Base at the same time. We took a stop at the Everglades, taking a ride on the air-boats and seeing some interesting wildlife, including a few alligators. We watched a brief show about the alligators before getting back on the road to Fort Lauderdale. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in our rooms, and ordered pizza again.
Friday: We met with Donny at breakfast, again. We spent the morning relaxing, and left at 1:30 to go to the airport. Our flight left at about 4:30 Eastern Time, and we returned to Austin at about 8:30 Central Time. The boys had a
fantastic time, and were thankful to have this experience.
More pictures can be found here!
This court of honor was the last event for John Michael R. as the Team 448 Captain. After a year's service as the Team Captain, the flag has been passed to Grayson B. Grayson takes over as the Team 448 Captain on January 1, 2013. Curtis F. is the Team's Co-Captain.
