Adventures Aboard Ship 378, The Dawn Treader

2013 Activity Log

What makes a small, inland Sea Scout Ship worthy of recognition in the National Flagship Fleet?

A well organized program focused on Sea Scouting’s 4 S’s: Scouting, Seamanship, Service, and Social.

We value the production of Quartermasters and Eagle Scouts.

Our advancement program is not for the faint at heart, but “if it ain’t fun, we ain’t don’ it!!!

Behold! Our Adventures!!!

2013-01/05: Sailboats from Legos

By the time the calendar year starts, we’re lookin’ forward to Sea Scout Academy over Martin Luther King Birthday. By the time January gets here, we’ve covered almost all the Apprentice and Ordinary requirements—leaving the bilge-water knowledge until last. One of those is knowing the difference between types of sailboats.

What else is there to do on a cold, January afternoon besides dumping out crates of Legos to build cat boats, sloops, cutters, ketches, yawls, and schooners? By the time we’re done buildin’ the boats, we remember what they are!

2013-01/12: Sea Scout Academy Preparation

Sea Scout Academy is a week away and Skipper determined to get us ready, leaving only the creation of decklogs remaining. After this meeting is over, we’re headed to the Atlanta Boat Show!

What a Way to Tie the Marlin Hitch

2013-01/12: Atlanta Boat Show

Every year, the Boat Show comes to town. The organizers want to show off their goods and services. We’re game. We’ll play their games, watch their movies, and handle their wares. But, little did we know that we’d be getting all kinds of ideas for Chattahoochee Council’s 2013 Scout Expo. We found an air swimming shark and figured out a fish-toss game liked by kids of all ages—including teenagers.

2013-01/19: 1st Annual Sea Scout Academy: Mobile Bay

We look forward to Sea Scout Academy! Only this year, we got it with a twist. We we’re signed up to go to Texas, but at the last minute they told us their program capacity was suddenly limited: We had 10 days to create our own academy for our Ship and Ship 1, The Beehive, in Mobile Bay.We had a blast, alright. Before getting there Friday night, our sailboat decided it needed a tire rub. The white smoke was impressive!

On Saturday morning, we endured Skipper’s decklog training. Hey, why do we need it? We sail on a lake it’s impossible to get lost on! Something about training like we’re at sea . . . Okay, Skipper, but we’re looking forward to riding the police boat, shrimp boat, and two 30’ sailboats this afternoon.

On the police boat, the first thing that happened is that officer took us on a boat ride faster than anything we’ve done before. It was cool seeing the RADAR overlaying charts we were introduced to only this morning!

While we we’re doing that, the other half the academy was anchoring and hooking up to a mooring ball in muddy Mobile Bay. Mooring ball? What’s a mooring ball? Oh, those SEAL candidates out of Long Beach hook up to them around Catalina Island. We use piers and slips, thanks. But then, we just beach the boat!!!

On Saturday night, we got special permission, apparently to burn the marina’s small boat rack down. First we had to get permission from the Coast Guard to light up all manner of pyrotechnics used for distress signals. Though we shot over the bay at the shoreline, one rocket decided it was a guided missile, making a 60-g turn toward the only sawgrass in miles around. Get someone to tell you the story about how we got it out.

On Sunday, we just switched classes. After figuring out ground tackle, we got to play with fire and their extinguishers.

So Monday morning, Skipper put us to sleep with a bed-time story: Rules of the Road. The COLREGs. Or just plain, The Rules. He did manage to try to keep it interesting with animated software and ridiculous teaching methods. Sorry, Skipper, we’re just too tired after hangin’ out with our new friends all night.

2013-01/26 & 02/02: Modifying a Boat Trailer

The next exciting thing to do on our schedule is Spring Break long cruise, but it’s weeks away. Time to get the boats ready. We just got our second sailboat last October, just before the 36-Hour Cruise (Ask us about our worst best-day of Sea Scouting.)

The boat trailer needed a lot of work, including submersible lights. However, we needed to extend the trailer so the boat could be moved further forward on the trailer. It was always filling backward. So, our Chief Engineer got out his cutting torch and went to work.

2013-02/09: Scouting for Food

When Skipper was a Cubmaster, while we were all still in elementary school, he became ran into this lady who liked helping us build pinewood derby cars. Well, for the last 14 years, she’s been doin’ something else too: Scouting for Food.

Skipper! We’d rather be sailing today!!! Okay, we’ll join our family’s troop or pack and help them collect food. But don’t forget, you promised us a pizza party!

2013-02/09: Signal Flags

After spending the morning and mid-day collecting food, we started our meeting around 1600, with pizza, of course! Skipper must’ve thought we wanted to play games too because he brought in 4 decks of signal flag flash cards and through them all over the room and told us to put them in order, each in their own deck. Wait, Skipper, how do you use substitute flags to spell my name?

2013-02/14-19: Seabadge Underway

Skipper decided he needed to leave town for Valentine’s Day. He said he needed to chase dolphins and pretend like he was picking up MOBs by collecting heart-shaped mylar balloons that lost their helium between Long Beach and Catalina Island.

Boy, we’re we sorry he came back! Now creates, and makes us practice 12 types of emergency drills. If that’s not enough, sometimes he makes us do 2-3 at a time. He definitely creates chaos where chaos does not exist!

2012-02/16: Modifying a Boat Trailer

You go right ahead, Skipper. Chase those valentines all over the bay. We’ll be right here getting the boat trailer ready so we can go sailing again!

When you put this on, you won’t see nuttin’

2013-03/02: Fish Attractors

One our values helping Boy Scouts complete Eagle. By the time they come to us, they have about 5 merit badges and an Eagle Scout Servant-Leadership Project to do.

By the time Skipper is starts with one of these guys, he gets them to agree to apply all the pressure our ship can bring to bear to help them finish. Our Boatswain was the only one force-able enough to get this latest one through Swimming merit badge.

In the mean time, we got to learn about making and placing fish attractors for the fishermen on West Point Lake.

2013-03/09: Wilderness First Aid: Classroom

Our Ship is focused on high-adventure. Every skipper should know first aid. So, our Skipper puts everyone through Wilderness First Aid as part of our Ranger requirements and for BSA Lifeguard. We’re lucky enough to have an EMT as a Committee Chairman.

By the time the classroom portion is over, you understand BUFF means big, ugly, fat, & fluffy for applying splints. You should see some of the contraptions we got into!

2013-03/16: Practical Weather

It took us a while to get to the weather station. We had to wait until the weather forecaster who was also a sailor to be on duty on a Saturday morning so we could learn what we needed to for Quartermaster. Skipper wants us ready to get up on the hour ever hour for two days to see how well the weather forecast was.

We learned the only thing we have to know about weather forecasting is how to read the 48 Hour, Hourly Weather Forecast at www.Weather.gov. To keep track of what is happening with the weather, we learned how to use a Kestrel (hand-held weather station) and how to keep a weather log.

2013-03/16: Sailboat Upgrades

Now that the boat trailer is ready, it’s time to make the boat ready for Long Cruise. We found out on the 36-Hour Cruise that the cabin of this boat is no place to sleep unless it’s storming outside. So, we made a bed across the cockpit.

After making some other significant repairs, including some with fiberglass, we’re ready to go.

2013-03/21: Flag Ceremony: Golden Eagle Dinner

Somebody though we really needed to do flag ceremonies at the Council level to help promote our Ship and with points toward Journey for Excellence. Skipper thought we needed to do this Sea Scout style by using a Boatswain’s pipe to call the commands. So, we did. The first one was for the Coweta District Gold Eagle Dinner.

Here’s where we showed off our New Century Uniforms for the first time. We really like it a whole lot better than the Navy dress uniforms. We routinely use it for our on and off-water activities too.

2013-03/30: Shakedown for Long Cruise

We finally got a motor to use for our sailboats for Long Cruise. One of the upgrades was rebuilding the transom pad for the Seahorse 18. We were really lucky to borrow one. (Ask us why Skipper burned up the first motor we ever had!) We were so excited about having the motor, that somehow we left the sails at home. So, we turned the sailboat into a motorboat—without sailing rigging.

2013-04/01-06: Spring Break 2013 Long Cruise!

Going on Long Cruise is a scheduling challenge for our ship because we span two councils, two states, and two time zones. By the time we serve as summer camp counselors at summer camp, most of the summer is gone. This year, everyone managed to have the same spring break—a rarity!

Skipper says we train like were on the ocean, so we went to Mobile Bay. After 7 hours, we finally arrived and went immediately to West Marine for fenders and dock lines. When we got out a squall came through, so we went to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. On return, we spent some time helping remove downed tree limbs.

We got on the ocean with sailboats, while using our motor to tow us out. Nobody told us the propeller has to stay in the water at all times. We figured the engine porpoiseing in and out of the water was to be expected. We had a fun rodeo chasing ring buoys thrown overboard by our chaos creator.

The next morning, two things happened. We recognized that it’s not a good thing for the gunwales of our boat to scrape a pier piling. Skipper didn’t know anything about fender boards at the time. The other was that our new sailboat sunk because the drain plug came out. Who knew you had to look for bait tank plugs to get the right size drain plug for the boat? We spent a year trying to figure that one out.

One night, we went sailing. It was our best time on the water. We sailed. Skipper laid on the deck watching the stars.

Strong wind and currents in a channel for a marina is not something we worry about on our lake. When we headed out to sea, our motor started smoking just is we got into the channel. To tow the other sail boat, we decided leaving the keel up was the right thing to do. We couldn’t get both boats to the pier so the one towed was set free.

That boat was blown up Dog River. We fought for control for about 20 minutes. When we were 10’ from running aground, we realized the keel wasn’t down. Then we got blown into an area where no boat should go—into the muck. The swim team girls drug the boat to deeper water, where a good Samaritan towed our boat back to the pier.

So we spent the rest of the year, including next year’s Sea Scout Academy learning how to dock, use docking lines, making fender boards, getting right-sized motors, and we’re still learning how to use motors on the sea—if Skipper will ever learn enough to let us try again!

Before leaving, we helped teach Quarterdeck Training (aka Introduction to Leadership Skills for Sea Scouts) to Ship 1. In turn, they took us sailing again!

2013-04/11: Flag Ceremony: Distinguished Citizens Dinner

For the next month, we tried a lot of things for recruiting. We created a summer program to teach a different aquatics merit badge each weekend and then went to four district roundtables to let Scoutmasters know. Our presentation was good, but did you know many Scoutmasters don’t go to Roundtable?

This time of year, several fund-raising dinners are held, so we did the flag ceremony for the Saugatachee District’s Distinguished Citizens Dinner.

2013-04/13-14: Wilderness First Aid: Field

After finishing the classroom room instruction for Wilderness First Aid, we needed to finish the course in the field. We learned a lot about what to do in the woods, but Skipper kept on asking, “How do we do this on a boat?” Have you ever tried doing CPR in the water after abandoning ship? It can be done!

2013-04/20: Day Sailing

While we were on Long Cruise, Skipper figured out how we ought to abandon ship. So he created our abandon ship gear out of floating line and a 5-gallon water tank. Then he started making us put our personal stuff in dry-bags. Now when we do the drill, we tie the water cooler to a transom cleat, and jump in the water with our dry-bags for additional floatation and swim to the cooler.

2013-04/25: Sailboat Parts

We were asked by Troop 2193 to help them get ready to take the Small Boat Sailing merit badge course. So, went to their troop meeting and rigged our 22’ sailboat on the trailer. Then, by patrol, we showed them the parts of our sailboat.

2013-05/11: 2013 Scout Expo

We can’t wait until Scout Expo is over each year because Skipper doesn’t make us spend so much time on recruiting until next spring. This year, our air swimmer immediately flew away, so we got some remote-control motor boats the Scouts could drive in the fountain. To be able to play, they were first asked to create their name with signal flags. The fish toss game was hit!

2013-05/23: Boatswain's Eagle Court of Honor

Our Boatswain graduated from High School this year. Though he earned Eagle three years ago, his court of honor was held when his family came out for his graduation. We decided it was a landship ceremony, complete with a court of honor for Troop 2193.

2013-05/25-06/01: Summer Camp Staff Week

This year, we finally figured out the best time to complete BSA Lifeguard: Staff Week, just before summer camp. They don’t mind us helping setting the water front and other parts of camp in exchange for the opportunity to be trained. Every year, all the water front merit badge counselors take BSA Lifeguard. Since we serve by providing merit badge counselors for Summer Camp, we finish this Quartermaster requirement.

2013-06/01: Summer Program: Rowing Merit Badge

We offered our first summer program merit badge, and nobody outside our Ship came. So, we completed the Ordinary requirement for rowing boats and played at the water front for the rest of the day.

2013-06/08: Summer Program: Motor Boating Merit Badge

Even fewer people came to our second summer program merit badge: Motorboating. So we spent the day learning better ways to land the boat in a dock than crashing the pier. We also had a lot of fun practicing our sound signals for crossing, passing, and overtaking. Then we played at the water front for the rest of the day.

2013-06/15: Day Sailing

We didn’t bother showing up for own summer program the next week, so we went sailing instead! We helped our Boatswain’s Mate, who was moving away, finish Ordinary. In the process, she brought a friend from Summer Camp who became our new Boatswain!

2013-06/17-21: 2013 Cub Scout Day Camp

It’s no secret Cub Scouts are the future of the BSA program. In fact, we have more Cub Scouts who want to become Sea Scouts than Boy Scouts. So, part of what we do is assist at Cub Scout Day Camp. It’s great fun running around on a golf cart delivering water coolers.

2013-06/22: Summer Program: Small Boat Sailing Merit Badge

The best day of our summer program by far was the day we helped teach Small Boat Sailing merit badge at Camp Allatoona Aquatics Base. Many of the Scouts from Troop 2193 came, who also brought their mom or dad. The kids are hooked and will probably join us when they finally graduate the 8th grade. Their parents seem to be excited too!

2013-07/15-24: Sea Scouts at 2013 National Jamboree

Two of our Sea Scouts went to the 2013 National Scout Jamboree at The Summit. This was the first time the event was held at Scouting’s newest high-adventure base. It is the permanent location for future Jamborees.

2013-07/14: Sailing w/ Ship 1, The Beehive

After dropping off a Scout to go to Jamboree in Mobile Bay, those of us who stayed behind went sailing with Ship 1 in Mobile Bay. It’s good to spend time with friends!

2013-07/20: Summer Program: Kayaking Merit Badge

Summer Camp ended and we figured out we had an Able requirement to become proficient in a kayak. So we offered the Kayaking merit badge. Skipper decided he would test our orienteering skills on the water. That was a disaster because we didn’t believe our lake charts and chased islands a long way off. It’s amazing how land features change when they keep raising and lowering water in the dam!

2013-07/27: Webelos Campout: Camp Red Moon

We had a lot of fun helping Webelos with their requirements to go camping for their Outdoorsman award and eventually, Arrow of Light. Each Scout went to “Red Moon Island” for the night by taking their gear across the lake in a canoe after winding through the woods while “backpacking”. While waiting for travelers, we had a lot of fun playing with the boats at the waterfront.

9 on a String

2013-08/03: Summer Program: Whitewater Merit Badge

Once the Kayaking or Canoeing merit badge is earned, the Whitewater merit badge can be earned. A requirement is to take a trip on Class I or Class II water. Where’s the adventure in that? At least we didn’t have to have guides or wear helmets. While kayaking down the Chattahoochee River, from the power plants in Whitesburg, GA to Georgia’s new state park, Chattahoochee Bend State Park, we picked up tires.

2013-08/10: Water Mania

Every once in a while, Skipper seems to thing we need one of those abominable business meetings to discuss what we’re going to do for the year to meet our goals of completing Ordinary and Venturing Awards.

This year, BSA decided to redo the Venturing program, so we eliminated everything from our program related to it to focus on completing both Ordinary and Able in one year. Some of our Scouts are heading to colleges and on mission trips next year.

Who wants death by business meeting rather than play on sailboards and stand-up paddleboats—the latest editions to Camp Lumpkin’s waterfront

2013-08/24: Sea Scout is SCUBA Certified

One of our opportunities this year was SCUBA certification. Though we received scholarships to learn how, many of us were still unable to come up with the money to take the class. However, our Boatswain’s Mate did! And, she got certified!

2013-08/24: Program Year Phase II Kicks Off

There’s still a lot of summer left when after we go back to school about the first week in August. So we tend to start the second part of our program year after school starts: working on Ordinary requirements.

One of the things we learned in Wilderness First Aid training was the need for better personal first aid and survival kits. In our case, they have to serve us on the water. So, we tried get everything in one nalgene water bottle, but discovered we need two. Skipper makes us carry these in our dry bags.

2013-08/24: Scout Camp Beaver Day

Just as it takes Staff Week to get Summer Camp set up, it takes a lot of work to put everything away for next year. So, when we can, be help with Beaver Days—Saturdays Venture Scouts come to camp to work. Our waterfront director likes that!

Wimachtendienk, Wingolauchsik, Witahemui(Brotherhood, Cheerfulness, Service)

2013-08/29-09/01: Pirate Days

Normally, our Ship does not meet on National holiday weekends so families can spend time together. This Labor Day was no exception. However, we were invited to join several local area Ships in Kentucky and Tennessee for Pirate Days at Camp Roy C Manchester, on Kentucky Lake. Skipper and his son went though, and came back with motors for our sailboats!

2013-09/07: Boat Motors Stand

Once you take the boating safety course, you really don’t want to do it again. So, while several Scouts and leaders were taking the course, the rest of us built a portable motor stand.

2013-09/07: Sunset Sailing after Class

By the time the motor stand was built and everyone died taking the boating safety course, it was time to go sunset sailing. The sun goes down pretty late this time of year, so we spent the evening playing with our LifeSling to learn what it really takes to get an MOB out of the water and back on deck. Pick me! I want to be the MOB because the water is warm!

2013-09/14: In-the-Water Ordinary Drills

We learn a lot by practicing drills. We didn’t do so well while sunset sailing, so Skipper had us practice better methods next week. Finally! We finished the Ordinary Man Overboard, Abandon Ship, and Fire Drills. Someday, we might finish Ordinary, like we were supposed to by Long Cruise last spring.

Abandon Ship

2013-09/20-22: Commodore's Cup

We look forward to the annual Atlanta Area Council Commodore’s Cup sailboat regatta. For the past two years, we won the out-of-council trophy—in part because there weren’t many other qualifying ships. This year we lost it, but we had great fun—especially sailing at night!

2013-09/22: Sea Sprout Sailing

For us, Sea Scouts is for our families, for a variety of reasons. So we have several younger siblings (Sea Sprouts) that come to our meetings. So, after Skipper get us started, he works with the Sea Sprouts. On young man, we taught to sail. However, because he’s not old enough to participate in the Commodore’s cup, he took Skipper sailing while we were racing.

2013-09/28: West Point Lake Cleanup

The West Point Lake Coalition, our sponsor, coordinates with the Army Corps of Engineers to do shore clean up once a year. You’ve never seen a lake with so many tennis balls on it. They’re everywhere. We often throw them at each other’s boats. They’re used to maintain the water and sewer treatment plant lines up river. Why they don’t capture their own balls, we’ll never know.

2013-09/28: Camp Thunder Beaver Day

After spending the morning cleaning up West Point Lake, we go back to Lake Ini-To at Camp Thunder to continue putting things away after summer camp. This is our second Beaver Day this year.

2013-10/05: Keel Repair

When we got our sailboat, the keel cable was already frayed. But we had no means of getting the boat off the trailer and out of the water to fix it—until our motors showed up. Well, it happened. The keel cable had one strand left, so we had to fix it. Skipper figured out a way to use our 55-gallon drums and winches to create a dry dock in his driveway. As we were lowering the keel, the cable snapped.

Literally Hanging by a Thread

2013-10/05: Routine Engine Maintenance

We’ve had nothing but trouble with motors, largely because Skipper doesn’t know anything about them either. Remember, when he started our Ship in July 2011, the only vessel he was good at was a canoe—any only how to use it on back country rivers and swamps—like Northern Tier. When we got the motors, we ordered the service and user manuals to go with them. The local marina shop owner brought his son, a new Boy Scout, over to show us how to do routine maintenance and tune up our motors. Thank you, Sewell Marine!!!

2013-10/12: New Boat: Trailer Prep

We built the dry dock to get our newly donated sailboat sea worthy again. It just came in handy for the keel repair. After hoisting the new boat off the trailer, we started work to refurbish the trailer. Once it was off, we spent the day scraping rust in a variety of ways. It wasn’t good enough, so now for grinders and sand blasters . . .

2013-10/19: 36-Hour Cruise

Another event we look forward to each year is the 36-Hour Cruise needed to complete Ordinary. This year we brought a ship in formation, Ship 444, The Rangnerok, from Athens, GA to come spend the weekend with us. This is the ship our Boatswain’s Mate went to. This year’s trip was quite pleasant because it didn’t have the additional drama created by Tropical Storm Sandy that we had off Georgia’s Atlantic seaboard and our lack of experience as a ship, like we did last year. We had fun playing with our new motors!

2013-10/26: Fall Camporee: Search & Rescue Merit Badge

We know that for us, we’re always in recruiting mode. We prefer to do it through service to Boy Scouts. So we participate in district camporees. This year we taught Scouts how to use UTM grids with their topographical maps as part of the new Search and Rescue merit badge.

013-11/02: Skipper Teaches Sustainability MB

Skipper is Boy Scout first. He’s a very good dirt Scout! Sometimes the Council needs him to teach merit badges. In July, the Eagle required Sustainability merit badge came out. Since this is what he does for a living, he left us to teach it.

22013-11/02: Trailer Prep (Continued)

While he was teaching, we spent the day at a Sea Scout’s home to work on Ordinary requirements and continue working on the trailer. The grinders weren’t working on the rust so well, so we left it to sand blast later. By the time Skipper got back after teaching, we completed several Ordinary requirements.

2013-11/05: Quarterdeck Training

Part of earning Ordinary is completing Quarterdeck Training. We pushed this off until two days before the Apprentice and Ordinary Bridge of Review to get it done. A lot of this stuff we learned in NYLT. I guess Skipper needs to remind us how we plan to go on outings once in a while.

EDGE Method Gone Wrong

2013-11/08-11/10: Instructor Training: Project COPE

Part of the Ranger Award program is helping teach Project COPE. This is very popular with our ship normally, but we weren’t sure there was going to be a Ranger Award we could complete, so we skipped the event as a Ship this year. However, one of our Scouts is trying to finish Outdoor Bronze and possibly Ranger before the deadline. So, she and her mom became COPE Instructors. We found out the Ranger Award survived the Venturing program reorganization unchanged New Year’s Eve. We look forward to doing this again next year!

2013-11/08-11/10: Skipper at Seabadge

Every Scout deserves a trained leader. So went sent Skipper to complete the last of his adult leader education as a Skipper by the Boy Scouts of America.

When he came back, he figured out his primary role is to be our mentor—to help us realize our dreams by creating goals and plans to get there. He learned that he just might have to use a directive leadership style (the kind we don’t like) to help us get there. It’s a good thing, because one of our Scouts needed it to complete applications to the Coast Guard Academy this year.

2013-11/16 & 12/07: Anchoring: This Time w/ Motors!

Anchoring is not new to us, but we haven’t done a lot with it because a lot of the guidance assumes we have a motor. Skipper took the time to give us a completely fresh look at how to do anchoring using our ground tackle. The difference is night and day!

2013-12/08: QM Project Begins: Build Osprey Nests

This year, one of our Scouts completed almost all the requirements for Quartermaster except the Servant-Leadership Project. Sometime in the last year, the requirements changed, such that the project had to be done similar to an Eagle project.

Since it also needed to be a conservation project for the Ranger Award, he decided to build four osprey nests on West Point Lake. He started work by calling on friends who started Cub Scouts with him but left the Boy Scout program a while ago.

2013-12/14: Sea Scout Marksmanship: Pistol Qualification

Back in August, when we planned the program year, the Sea Scout Marksmanship program did not exist, but came out in October. However, we decided we wanted to learn how to shoot pistols anyway. So we qualified, laughing the whole way because we’re now qualified to shoot flare guns.

2013-12/21: Sea Scout Academy Prep: Navigation

It’s time to get ready for Sea Scout Academy again and Skipper wants us to attempt to complete all the skill and knowledge requirements for Able before Summer Camp begins.

Earlier this year, we learned how to fill out a decklog. Skipper wants us to learn how to do fixes, set danger angles, and estimate position as part of Sea Scout Academy next month. Skipper knew we’d have trouble completing the decklog, so he held up a mirror by having us complete a version of the SEAL Navigation Test.

The test wasn’t much fun, but the Christmas season goodies were!

2013-21/31: Venturing Silver & The Southern Belle Drop

The last highlight of the year was the annual New Year’s Eve party we enjoy with many Venturers through the Venturing Officer Association. We call it “The Southern Belle Drop” because at midnight, one of the young ladies goes for a ride on the zip line. Then we spend until 0200 on the Giant’s Swing.

This year was special because two us earned the Venturing Silver Award—the first and last ones to make it in our ship. Next year we’ll be working on The Summit Award.

Advancement RecapWhen the year was through, though our Ship averages 5 Sea Scouts, we had a lot of fun and advanced well.

Apprentice: 2 Ordinary: 3 Able: 0 Quartermaster: 0

Long Cruise Award: 1

Outdoor Bronze: 2 Venturing Gold: 3 Venturing Silver: 2

Ranger: 0

BSA Lifeguard: 2 Wilderness First Aid: 3

Boating Safety Course: 4

Eagle: 3

SCUBA: 1

SEAL: 0

Ship 378 Motto

If it ain’t fun,we ain’t doin’ it(unless we have to)