Florida Sea Base News

LOCAL SERVICE

Cheerful service is a big part of Scouting.  The Florida Sea Base serves the local area in many ways.  Yesterday the Florida Sea Base had the privilege of taking about 60  fourth grade students, parents and teachers to Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park and Indian Key Historical State Park.  Both of these sites are islands or keys and only accessible by boat.  Captain Ed Miller and First Mates Tyler Giblin and Phillip Ferrier took half of the group aboard BSA Explorer.  First Mates Will Morris and Brenda Mallory and I took the other half aboard BSA Adventure.

WEATHER

Warm, windy and potentially wet pretty much sums up our situation.  For the coming week we are looking at highs of 85°F, lows of 79ºF, east winds 10-15 knots, and 20%-30% chance of rain every day.

STAFF

Here they come!  The trickle of staff arrivals has become a flow.  Today will be a big arrival day and Saturday all but a handful will be on site.  Yahoo!!!

CAPTAINS

The captains and Coral Reef Sailing vessels are also arriving daily.  As a matter of fact, we are very close to having every slip filled and Sailing Director Captain Luke Knuttel has started looking at options to raft boats up until the season begins so that some of the boats are always at sea.  (I wonder if Captain Rich is chuckling right now.)

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape

The 29th Annual Florida Sea Base Invitational Tarpon Tournament concluded after lunch Friday.  Here are the results:

Wednesday 21 tarpon were caught and released.
Thursday 15 tarpon were caught and released.
Friday 21 tarpon were caught and released.
57 total tarpon caught and released.

The first tarpon of the tournament was caught by William Wallace.

First place angler was Ken Hyatt with 5 releases.
Second place was Andy Little with 4 releases and a tie breaker fish.
Third place was Mike Yoh with 4 releases.

First place guide was Captain Mark Cockerham with 12 tarpons released.
Second place was Captain Frank Ortiz with 7 releases.
Third place was a tie between Captain Mark Gillman and Captain Rich Burson with 6 releases each.
The only female guide is Captain Barry Vieh with a respectable 4 releases.

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape

TARPON TOURNAMENT

Wednesday was opening day of the 29th Annual Florida Sea Base Invitational Tarpon Tournament. It was a long day, but nothing like Thursday will be.  We started with a staff meeting at 06:30 and finished the day around 17:30 (5:30pm).  The weather was GREAT; calm winds, sunny, but not as hot as expected.  Thursday likewise starts at 06:30, but we won’t wrap up until after midnight.  Friday also starts at 06:30 but the fishing ends at noon, with lunch, clean-up and a Florida Sea Base Committee Meeting occupying the afternoon.  There will be some residual clean-up on Saturday.

I failed to get the exact number of tarpon caught (and released) Wednesday, but the number was likely in the 20 range.  This is not the best day ever, but it is far from the worst.

BSA SEA SCOUT

The fifth Newton Dive Special to become part of the Florida Sea Base scuba fleet should arrive around 01:00 Thursday.  I am going to get laid down as soon as I post this (around 21:30) so I can assist with securing the new boat when it arrives.  Captains Dennis Wyatt, Christy Clemenson and Jon Strydom have made excellent time and delivered the vessel in record time!

Going to bed.

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape

BSA SEA SCOUT

The Florida Sea Base delivery team, Captain Dennis Wyatt, Captain Christy Clemenson and Captain Jon Strydom, have arrived in Slidell, LA to take posses of the newest addition to our dive boat fleet.  The delivery was originally scheduled for 15 March.  The manufacturer says the build has been repeatedly delayed by weather.  The boat is still not ready for delivery, but MAY be ready by Saturday morning.

CONFERENCE

As I mentioned previously, Appleseed Expeditions is at the Florida Sea Base with 160 participants.  They went snorkeling at Alligator Reef today.

S/V ESCAPE

I am still working in the boatyard daily on my personal boat.  In all honesty, I mostly try to stay out of the way while Captain Mike Lucivero does the work.  I do get an opportunity to contribute tomorrow by sanding an painting over some blistered areas of the hull and assisting with the installation of two new thru-hulls and seacocks.

Old engine:

Click to enlarge.

New engine:

Click to enlarge.

Captain Mike is VERY determined to finish all of the yard work tomorrow so Escape can be splashed Saturday morning.  We need a break in the rain for this to happen.  Hope for the best!

TARPON TOURNAMENT

The Florida Sea Base Invitational Tarpon Tournament is less than a week away.  The base looks great and all preparations are proceeding nicely.

SUMMER

Summer staff training starts in just 17 days.  How time flies!

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Surviving in Annex Room 9

FOREWARNED

The spring season at the Florida Sea Base is slowing down and the staff is thinning out.  I will be assisting as needed with a Scuba Certification crew of 13 divers this week.  I will make every effort to post daily, but they posts may be short and I could even miss a post.

SAILING

Two Coral Reef Sailing and one Sea Exploring crew arrived Sunday.  The were no crews on shore leave and no crews returning to base at their adventure’s end.

SCUBA

A Scuba Liveaboard crew, a double Scuba Certification crew and three Scuba Adventure crews checked in Sunday.  The Scuba Certification crew is being led by Scuba Instructor/Captain Alex Bergstedt and Scuba Instructor David Kirkenir with Divemaster Paul Mangone and yours truly assisting.  The Scuba Adventure crews are being led by Captain Sargon Smith, Divemaster Brenda Mallory, and Scuba Instructor Steven Raymond.  The Scuba Liveaboard crew will spend the week with Scuba Instructor Dave Ball and Divemaster Jenna Burton.

WEATHER

According to the National Weather Service the wind will not be kind to the scuba crews this week.  Bonine® for everyone!

Today: East to southeast winds near 15 knots and gusty. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Nearshore waters a moderate chop to choppy. Isolated showers.
Tonight And Tuesday: East winds near 15 knots and gusty. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Nearshore waters a moderate chop to choppy. Isolated showers.
Tuesday Night And Wednesday: East to southeast winds 15 to 20 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Nearshore waters choppy. Isolated showers.
Wednesday Night And Thursday: Southeast winds 15 to 20 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Nearshore waters choppy. Isolated showers.
Thursday Night: Southeast to south winds 15 to 20 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Nearshore waters choppy. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms.
Friday And Friday Night: Southeast to south winds near 15 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Nearshore waters a moderate chop. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms.

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape

SEA BASE ALUMNI AND FRIENDS ASSOCIATION

Dan Gill, President of the SBAFA, recently sent an email announcing the 2013 association officers.

President – Dan Gill
Vice President – Roger Turbin
Secretary – Michael Johnson
Treasurer – Amy Mitchell
Vice President of Membership – Shea Kelley
Vice President of Communications – Ben Andrews
Newsletter Chairman – Suzanne Tiernan
Scholarship Chairman – Chrystene Speed

Current FSB Liaison – Nancy Wells

You can support the Florida Sea Base by joining the SBAFA.

READER NEWS

Back when I was whining about the freezing 50° temperatures at the Florida Sea Base, Tim Gaffron was kind enough to share a photo to brighten up my outlook.  I did not have the means to post it during the appropriate time, but it’s still cute.

Click to enlarge.

 WEATHER

The weather at the Florida Sea Base was GORGEOUS yesterday.  We are expecting more of the same today.

ADMIN

Forget Captain Steve, Course Director Steve, and any other titles except paper-pusher Steve.  I have a ton of paperwork to catch up with now that we have computer access again.  BUT – if everything goes well, I will get to take a crew again next week.

Paper-Pusher Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape

LATE

I apologize for today’s late posting.  Despite being exhausted (or maybe because of it) I had a fit getting to sleep last night.  So I slept in this morning (until 07:02) and skipped the morning staff meeting.  I honestly don’t remember the last morning meeting I missed.  I do remember taking a couple of hours off last Saturday (9 days ago).  This is meant to be informational, not as a complaint.  I am going to need some time off in a couple of weeks when my wife visits, so the long days now are worth it.

CONNECTED

We are back online.  Who knows for how long, but Sunday afternoon we had connectivity in the program office.  Now we have two weeks worth of emails and invoices to catch up with.  Hope for the best!

ARRIVALS

As previously noted, Sunday was a big arrival day for Florida Sea Base crews.  Arrival for some of the crews were delayed due to a traffic accident about 12 miles north of the base.  When planning your arrival time, remember that the last 30+ miles of your drive will be mostly on a two lane road with little opportunity for passing and a 45 mile-per-hour speed limit.  If their is an injury or fatality accident, it is common for the road to be completely shut down, sometimes for hours.

WEATHER

Our weather was delightful Sunday and the National Weather Service says it should be pretty nice for the remainder of the week.

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape

CONNECTIVITY

We were “this close”.  The computer gurus finally had the resolution to our internet/email/server connectivity woes; the fiber optic cables had gotten dirty during the remodeling of the Galley.  Fiber optic specialists were called to the Florida Sea Base from the megatropolis of Miami.  They planned, executed and voila – still no connectivity.  They said they would come back today and try again.

SAILING / SCUBA

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Saturday was a day of participant transition at the Florida Sea Base.  We had a huge luau last night.  Despite the minimal staffing, everything went great and the participants experienced another magical evening.  To top it all off, the sunset was spectacular.

Photo by Capt. Steve Willis

WEATHER

The coming week should be much more seasonal than last week.  We should have lows in the low 70s and highs in the low 80s.  We have a 10% chance of showers daily.  Winds should be 10 to 15 knots.

Enjoy your day.

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape

SCUBA

The Florida Sea Base staff members get tired of me constantly commenting about good v bad.  Our weather improved yet again yesterday (good).  But the wind clocked more to the east (bad).  The Scuba Certification crew enjoyed two great dives yesterday.  The surface conditions were a little lumpy, and the water temperature had dropped about 2 degrees, but the visibility was great at Davis Ledge and Davie-Crocker Reef.

Click to enlarge.

I took video and some still shoots during the dives.  This pair of French Angelfish were found on Davie-Crocker Reef.  You can see the Scouts diving about 60′ away in the background.

SAILING

I did not cross paths with anyone from the sailing side of our business yesterday afternoon.  They had two crews in for shore leave.  They must have had an awesome day or I would have heard otherwise.

NEW ROTATION

Today will be a very busy day for Office Manager Susan Mahoney.  Five Coral Reef Sailing crews, one Scuba Liveaboard crew, and one Sea Exploring crew will be checking in today.  Another set of five Coral Reef Sailing crews, one Scuba Liveaboard crew, and one Sea Exploring crew will be checking out today and preparing for tomorrow’s return home.

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape

The primary post for today is below this one but I forgot to mention that we are having yet ANOTHER computer crisis at the Florida Sea Base.  The side of the property that houses the Program Offices does not have connectivity to the internet, email or the BSA network.  Captain Luke Knuttel, Sailing Director, and I are trying to stay caught up by using our cell phones.  Office Manager Susan Mahoney and Food and Conference Director Tim Standfill have to go to the Admin Building to conduct any business.  It is very difficult for us to access any computer data as everything is stored on the FSB server, not on our individual hard drives.  We do not have access to the server.

The General Manager, Director of Program, Administrative Assistant, Financial Assistant, Facilities Director, and Registrar are housed in the Admin Building and have no issues.

This problem is recurring quite frequently on the program side of the base.  It usually takes several days (sometimes weeks) to get it resolved because we have no in-house IT person at our facility.  Who knows, it may be fixed today.  I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, Captain Luke and I will have issues with communications and hiring people, so please try to be patient.  I will move as much of my operation as I can to Escape.  My air card works reasonably well on the boat on my MacBook Pro but it does not work in the office (due to the concrete walls and metal roof I assume).  I can answer emails and check the internet from here.  I even have limited access to the FSB server.  But accessing the BSA email and FSB server remotely are challenging and much slower.  The email system frequently times out faster than I can type my responses.  When that happens the full message is lost and I have to start anew.

Please be patient.  General Manager Captain Paul Beal is very sensitive for our predicament and is doing all he can to get this problem resolved.  He is very empathetic and understanding of our dependence on connectivity to conduct business.  He will do all he can to see that we are back online as quickly as possible.

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape