sailingpj

You know, I bet I could actually sell dehydrated water. All you have to do is crush up some Alka Seltzer and say it is dehydrated Pelligrino or something. I know people who would by it. Thunderbolt, I didn't know you could sell that stuff. Maybe I should suggest that as a new fundraiser for my ship.

Where on the river are you planning on going? I'm just curious because there is no swimming allowed in many Florida State parks this time of year. That is for the protection of the manatees.

Well, though this is not serious, it is definitely contentious. I just put it in I&P because I didn't think it merited being put anywhere else. Why is April Fools day the one day a year we can try to put a smile on people's faces?

I figured that this would be more fun to send scouts out after than a snipe.

Have any of you up in the Northwest seen this thing on your camping trips? It sounds really cool. I would love to see one before they become extinct. The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water. An intelligent and inquisitive being (it has the largest brain-to-body ratio for any mollusk), the tree octopus explores its arboreal world by both touch and sight. Adaptations its ancestors originally evolved in the three dimensional environment of the sea have been put to good use in the spatially complex maze of the coniferous Olympic rainforests. The challenges and richness of this environment (and the intimate way in which it interacts with it,) may account for the tree octopus's advanced behavioral development. (Some evolutionary theorists suppose that "arboreal adaptation" is what laid the groundwork in primates for the evolution of the human mind.) Reaching out with one of her eight arms, each covered in sensitive suckers, a tree octopus might grab a branch to pull herself along in a form of locomotion called tentaculation; or she might be preparing to strike at an insect or small vertebrate, such as a frog or rodent, or steal an egg from a bird's nest; or she might even be examining some object that caught her fancy, instinctively desiring to manipulate it with her dexterous limbs (really deserving the title "sensory organs" more than mere "limbs",) in order to better know it. Although the tree octopus is not officially listed on the Endangered Species List, we feel that it should be added since its numbers are at a critically low level for its breeding needs. The reasons for this dire situation include: decimation of habitat by logging and suburban encroachment; building of roads that cut off access to the water which it needs for spawning; predation by foreign species such as house cats; and booming populations of its natural predators, including the bald eagle and sasquatch. What few that make it to the Canal are further hampered in their reproduction by the growing problem of pollution from farming and residential run-off. Unless immediate action is taken to protect this species and its habitat, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus will be but a memory.

There is this thing called Abulita. Apparently it is mexican hot chocolate. It is very good. You just heat some milk and put this chuck of cocoa/sugar into the milk. Wisk and add heat until all of the cocoa bar thing is dissolved. Pour into a mug and serve. This is the best.

There is a strong likelihood that your son's phone would just use up all it's battery searching for a signal before he gets a chance to use it.

Engineer, thank you. I just realized that your comments on this subject are exactly what Mrs. X would say, and has said. You are raising many of the objections that are likely to be raised. That is very helpful. They way I shall reduce those objections when they come up is by reminding them that they will have a chance to comment on our plans before we execute them. I will also remind them that most of the crew is trained in first aide, we have a couple lifeguards, and there are always at least two officers on the boat when we take it out anyway. qwazse, I like your idea, I think I will give that a shot also.

Thank you everyone for you advice. It has given me a lot to think about. I'm going to share it with the other members of the quarterdeck. Hopefully we can get this resolved here soon. Engineer61, I believe that I and the other members of the quarterdeck do have the necessary abilities to put together a plan, then execute it. As Eagle said I did staff Jambo. I have also done several deliveries of sailboats. Actually, just a month or two ago my Boatswain and I took a 41' trimaran from Key West too Miami. The owner of the boat brought along a few friends, all of whom knew nothing about sailing. My boatswain and I got the boat to Miami without breaking anything, or losing anyone. This past summer I crewed on a Stephens 47 sailboat on a trip from Miami to Newport RI. For most of the trip I was one of three people on the boat. About 1/3rd of the time on that trip I was the only one awake. Neither of the captains hired for that trip knew how to use our computer navigation software, so I was the one who planned out our courses, then I input all the waypoints into the GPSes that we had by the steering console. We followed that planed course to the letter. I predicted when we would arrive two days out, and was only off by 2 hours because when we were entering Long Island Sound We had to go by a place called the Race at max ebb. For a time we were making 11 knot through the water, but the GPS said we were only making 1.2 knots over the ground. A few years ago I was asked to help deliver a Morgan 41 from Huatulco, Mexico to San Francisco. We only made it as far as Puerto Vallarta due to a blown head gasket. The captain, and owner, taught me a how to plot courses on a chart, and some other stuff about navigation. He then had me plan out our projected route for the trip. I did that, and we followed that route with unerring accuracy. I have taken a couple of leadership trainings put on by various Sea Scout ships, I attended the National Young Leaders State Conference a few years ago. I not only know that I have the ability to plan and execute an event. I also have proved it time and time again. Now maybe the rest of the quarterdeck is lacking in some of my seamanship skills, but all of them have the necessary abilities, and most important, they have the desire. They all want to take on more responsibility within the ship.

Currently in my ship there is a group of 5, sometimes 6, or us that are really trying to step up and take charge. The problem is that a couple of the adults block it every chance they can get. They don't seem to think we are capable of planning anything, or executing said plan. Take this last couple of weeks. The group of us was trying to get together to put together the first draft of an annual calender. The first problem we encountered was one of the parents/leaders finding a reason why we couldn't meet for the next month and a half. We turned to skype, and Google, and had a very successful meeting. We had already agreed with the adults to cruise on a certain weekend later this month; so we made that our first priority. The first thing we decided was that we needed to spend a day working on the boat before we cruised. Next we got a very nice plan together for a cruise that weekend. All that was left to be planned was the food. We informed the adults what we would like to do, and said that we would give them the specifics at our next ship meeting a couple days later. Before we even get the chance to present or plan we are informed that a different cruise is going to happen, and that the ship is going to do regatta practice the day that we wanted to work on the boat. Most of the communication between the quarterdeck and the adults to this point has been via email and phone. When we asked what the cruise is going to be at the next meeting we found out that the adults really didn't have a plan at all. They are now scrambling to figure something out for the cruise in 8 days. This happens on a regular basis. Pretty much every week. It is not originating from our skipper though. It is coming from two parents. One is on the committee, and the other is one of the mates. Our Skipper is very busy, so he relies very heavily on Mr. and Mrs. X. For the most part the Skipper is very supportive of us stepping up and planning the ships activities, but Mr. and Mrs. X keep manoeuvrings to take the wind from our sails. I don't think they mean to do it, but Mrs. X has a very controlling personality, and Mr. X just goes along with it. Do any of you have any suggestions for how we can work our way around this obstacle.

One big thing you need to get help on when starting up is membership. I have been a part of a couple ships that always had problems because of a lack of membership, both youth and adult. It is probably a good idea to get a few youth interested before you actually submit the charter paperwork or make any commitments to boats. Especially boats. No matter how small, they are expensive to maintain, and a pain to store. Don't let that scare you off though; just keep that in the back of your head. I know a guy who started a ship up with no members except himself last september or october. As far as I know he still doesn't have any youth or other adults involved in his ship; so do make sure that the interest is there before you get started. If you pm me I can put you in contact with a couple of people who love to give advice to people starting ships up. As what kind of boats, like people said, you can go from no boat to multiple huge boats. I was part of a ship that just borrowed the council Hobie and Zumas a couple times a month. Between that, the diving, and sailing with other ships we didn't have a free weekend from September to Christmas. The ship I am part of now has a 42' ex-Army Corp of Engineers survey boat. Most ships in San Francisco bay have old Navy or Coast guard boats. There are a couple 85 and 95 footers that cruise the bay on a regular basis. Even though they have really cool boats, I wouldn't say that they have any more or less of a successful program than any other ship that works at it. The big draw of having a big boat like that is the cool factor.

"And sailingpj - while I understand what you are saying, there are those adult volunteers who have offered to help with the web site designs and layouts for the older Scouting programs, and we are told "No, a youth needs to do it." " Really? The three people who are listed as keeping the site up to date are all adults. http://www.seascout.org/team.html#TEAM I know because I emailed them with a couple links that were broken. They got fixed very quickly too which was nice. Eagle92, You are right about that, though I have never found the search function very useful. Maybe it is just because I am usually searching for obscure things.

Be glad you aren't Sea Scouts, at least scouting.org looks kinda pleasing to the eyes.

Thanks moosetracker, you made my point better than I did.

You know, I have been riding a bike around the SF bay area for at least five years now. Done plenty of riding in the city too. For a while I rode my bike 7 miles each way to school. 14 miles a day, and half of was up hill. I even commuted to the 8th grade across the Golden Gate bridge on my bike. The only time I ever got hit by a car was when I was making a left turn. I had to cross a lane of traffic, looked, saw a break, signaled, and started crossing. The person driving the car behind me was distracted and didn't notice I was there until I heard her squealing behind me. I got a couple scrapes and had to buy a new wheel for my bike. I attribute my lack of injuries to all the practice I have in falling. You see, when you fall a lot you tend to learn how to not hurt yourself. I have been falling off bikes, masts, booms, and anything else I could climb all my life. Without all that practice I might have gotten seriously hurt when that car hit me. My point is that despite all that riding on some dangerous roads (anybody who has lived near the city knows how busy Geary street is, and there are a lot of bad drivers in Marin too) I only got hit once. I'm not one of those people who rides on the sidewalk either. My main complaint about the drivers are the ones who smoke weed with their windows open while passing me on a hill. That really makes the hill hard.

Yup.

He is aware of the problem and approval has been given for the Sea Scout icon to be added to the be a scout site, but he does not know when that will happen.

"when you call, ask if there's a way you can be part of the solution." Actually, I am considering putting in an application to be the National Boatswain for 2011-2012. I don't know much about web development, but I am a pretty good speaker. That would be one way to help out and play to my strengths.

Well, that list is still not good. They show no ships in the South Florida council. That is most definitely completely wrong. I am in one ship there, and have seen 3 others. Gulf Stream council only shows 2 out of the 5 ships.

That is one of the better lists I have seen. Only a couple of inaccuracies that I know of. The biggest problem that I see is that they only list the council contact info, and at least for the councils in the San Francisco area there is no mention of Sea Scouting on there websites. It is even hard to find info about Venturing on some of the sites. How do you get to this page from www.scouting.org? I looked a little but in 10 minutes I was unable to find a pathway there. If I, even knowing exactly what page I am looking for, can't find this then how is the general public going to find it?

Yeah, I met him twice now, that is why I know he is the person to talk to. I have his card, so I have his his email and phone number and I can find the address online. If you think he will respond to an email then that is what I will send.

Oh yeah, I am not just ranting here, I plan on sending a letter to Keith Christopher, National Director, Sea Scouts, BSA. What do you think though? Should it be an actual letter in the mail, an email, or a phone call?

So I was just looking and saw that Sea Scouts are not recognized on the beascout.scouting.org site. I cannot find Sea Scouts ships there. Not the ship I am a part of in the South Florida Council. Not the ship I was a part of in the Gulf Stream council. Not any of the ships we have done things with. None of the ships I know in California. This is crazy. On the scouting.org site there is three sentences about Sea Scouts, and a link the the seascout.org website. I could go on about that, but that is a different topic. How are people suppose to find out how to join a ship? How are people going to find a ship to join? We are not represented on the national website, and the sea scouts ship listing on the seascout.org site is horrendously out of date. Most of the ship on there either don't exist, or have wrong info. Many ships aren't even listed on that site at all. This is not right.

"We sometimes institute a "cook" rule and need to define cooking as the combination of at least two ingredients (not including water) and the application of heat." acco40: Do you really have scouts so uninterested in cooking that you have to define cooking? What do they try to do? And how do you cook oatmeal if you don't count water as an ingredient? All you do there is boil some water and pour the oats in. That is only one ingredient. As for banning things, none of the ships I have been in have had a ban on anything that wasn't illegal for people under 21. We had one person who was over 18 and smoked cigarettes, but the rules were the same for him as the rest of the adults, out of sight and downwind.

Yeah, if you are driving east from San Francisco you are very likely to see wind farms and cows sharing the land. The thing that bothers me is that in the dozens of times that I have gone by the wind farms most of the windmill are not turning. You will normally see only 2-3 out every 10 windmill spinning. That is definitely not due to a lack of wind. The beautiful golden grass is normally bent over almost to the ground due to the wind, and the windmills that are spinning are going quite rapidly. If you drive around Marin (a county just north of San Francisco) you are very likely to see plenty of solar panels on the roofs of houses and businesses. They really don't look bad.