Day 2 on the Island

So tents were hot. Eventually we all slept in hammocks under mangrove trees!

Tom and Alex cooked pancakes the first morning. We had time for a pretty relaxing breakfast. 

The chuck box was pretty well provisioned. We didn't need our mess kits - they provided pretty much everything! 

Here is Steve and Steve hanging out under our dishwashing station. Not a lot of fresh water and we had to guard our dish wash water from them!

Shark fishing. We waded out to a dock, Chummed the water. Caught a bonnet head shown here. Then hopped into the chummed water to wade back. Just don't think about it!

Wading back from shark fishing.

I think it's called a monkey tree.

Some team building games. Our mate, Dusty, is on the right. He was pretty awesome and a great role model. High spirits, positive attitude, very funny, capable. We all enjoyed his company. We normally would have had two mates, but end of summer caused many to have left for college. Dusty covered both crews without missing a beat.

Sunset from our camp.

We had a somewhat primeval bonfire that night. Yes, that is a whole tree going into the fire. SEVERAL whole trees. The boys enjoyed building the fire almost as much as the mates did!

And now we have a fire. What do we do now?

Dance. You can't tell, but this is a moment in the Boogaloo dance.

Dinner, swim test, happy birthday, equipment test, check in, etc.

We are doing important stuff like getting snorkel fitted and eating dinner and shopping at the ships store. 

And singing Happy Birthday to Miles Guth and giving him birthday beatings. 

Arriving on Big Munson Island

You have to be careful saying "Munson" around the boys. We were conditioned to respond by yelling "Munson" at the top of our lungs every time we heard it.

We waded ashore from the canoes. "Where are the canoes?" you say? They're out there. About 100+ yards from shore. It was too shallow to paddle all the way in. What you can't see is the smell. Big Munson is a barrier island and the seaweed washes up on shore aaaannnnd rots. That's why we didn't need a change of clothes, deodorant or soap. No point.

Schlepping our gear ashore.

That's Steve. He's a key deer. There are only two on the whole island. You may THINK you see forty or so, but Steve is just fast.

View from Camp Site 6 on the "Backyard." The boys are wading out to docks to pick up our food and water. Oh, and yes, it's shark infested. Nurse sharks, lemon sharks, bonnet head sharks to name a few. You have to use the "Munson Shuffle" wading out to avoid tripping or stepping on rays and sharks. That's why it's called "High Adventure"

 As soon as we got to camp, Steve came by to see what goodies we had. The box on the right is our "chuck box." Pots and pans and our food went in there to be locked down from Steve, Rice Rats, and Vacacoons. Stuart's crew took on the "Chuck Box Challenge." More on that later.

Steve making sure we hung our wet bags and suits up correctly. Steve is full grown. Maybe 30 pounds? 

This was under our chuck box. That's a spider. Carnivorous. Venomous. We reached detante with her. 

Our first dinner. At our campsite, we ate on the beach for ambiance and to avoid bugs. What a hardship.

Sunset exploring. The rock is caprock - ancient coral from the last ice age. Slippery as can be.  End of Day 1

Catching up

When we started getting ready to depart for Big Munson Island from Sea Base on Summerland Key, we were told we couldn't bring: a watch, a phone, anything digital except a camera, soap, deodorant, a fan, well you get the picture.

As a result, the Blog got way behind.

I will post pictures from my camera over the next couple days that I took starting the morning of departure.

I think that was Saturday?

This is a picture of what Sea Base on Summeraland Key looks like. Kinda run down and dismal, don't you think?

The boys loaded our food into these garbage cans - after bleaching them out. Each of our two crews filled 12 five-gallon water jugs for our adventure.

Here is one of our crews loaded up on the docks ready to depart!

 The paddle out to Big Munson Island was 5.5 miles. This was our first rest stop. We hopped out into waist deep water. Frigid, 85 degree water.

Another shot of our rest break.

And another.

At our second rest break, we stopped to snorkel!

Some coral and sea urchins.

A jelly fish photo bombing. Oh, and that's a moon jelly (stinging).

 Some scouts doing the snorkel thing.

Oh, just another "harmless jelly"

Last night of AC for a while

We had a great briefing on ecolology and the dreaded Night Heron. Miles G got to participate in a demonstration of how the ecolology came about. He played the part of "water"

We are prepping our gear and getting ready for bed. Breakfast, flags, pictures, packing coolers and Polynesian War Canoes await first thing in the morning. 

We will make a last update in the morning before paddling out. Then it's no phones until September or October. 

Check in

So we're at Sea Base

Our guide, Dusty, just briefed us on the three S's of Safety:

S - sunscreen 

S - shoes

S - swater

Because that sounds better than the two S's and one W of safety. 

Our crew leads read U.S. rules of Sea Base. The first is to look good. If you ignore all of them and die, you must refer to the first to look good dead. 

Looks to be a fun week!

Off to the keys

This morning, our young men looked like they'd had a bender the night before. I think getting up early on summer vacation has the same effect. 

We ate the hotel buffet of waffles and bacon and other good American staples and have boarded the bus. Headed to Sea Base!

The excitement is palpable. Just look.