Florida Sea Base News

The best news from yesterday was that computer access was restored to the Program Office and Commissioner’s Office.

The worst news from yesterday was that I spent most of the morning notifying applicants who were not hired for this summer.  I returned about 20 applications to Admin for notification and sent out about 6 personal notifications.  This is a tough part of my job.  I wish I could hire every applicant.

I was pretty bummed out by my morning so Capt. Dennis Wyatt offered to run some errands with me.  I appreciate his concern and his friendship.  Ellen Wyatt did her normally excellent job of checking in a rush of arriving crews (5 Scuba Adventure, 4 Coral Reef, 1 Sea Exploring).  Laura Kuras lead the scuba staff through their first arrivals of the spring.  Stephanie Eilas lead the sailing staff through what is becoming a routine day for them.

Our forecast through next Sunday calls for lows of 68, highs of 81 and mostly sunny skies with east winds near 15 knots.  This is better than I expected.

I was asleep but was awakened when I received an emergency text message from our drug consortium.  I’ve been up 2 or 3 hours now so I’m headed back to bed (3 hours ’til reveille).

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

Our meeting yesterday morning with the BSA Purchasing Department representatives was not a TOTAL waste of time.  I promise that I went into the meeting with an open mind.  I may have the opportunity for a two-on-one meeting with them sometime today.  The objective of this exercise is to try to reduce spending.  No one can argue with that.  However, it appears that what seems like a good deal to one person may not make the best sense to someone else.  It is going to be a real challenge to get the National Office, three High Adventure Bases and 300 local Council Offices to agree on what toilet paper they prefer.

I have completed one of my 2011 BSA Smart Goals.  I turned in all of my paperwork to become certified by the Divers Alert Network as a Diving Emergency Management Program instructor.  Now I only have 5 or 6 more goals to satisfy.  We used to call Smart Goals Critical Achievements.  A rose by any other name…….  This was not a Smart Goal for Capt. Rich, but he completed the program with me.

Divemasters Mike Roesel and Jim Funnell arrived yesterday.  Capt. Scott Costa arrived Tuesday but I didn’t see him until lunch yesterday.  I think two more DMs are scheduled to arrive today.  Megan Ware and Sargon Smith with be transferring from the Conference staff to the Scuba staff on Saturday.

We have a pretty good chance of rain today.  The front is in Tampa, Florida right now, but is sliding our direction.

Starting tomorrow (once the front has passed) it should be a little more like spring than summer.  Our forecast, courtesy of the National Weather Service…

Thursday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 83. South wind 10 to 15 mph becoming west. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Thursday Night: A slight chance of showers before 1am. Mostly cloudy during the early evening, then gradual clearing, with a low around 60. Breezy, with a north wind between 15 and 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 69. Breezy, with a north wind around 20 mph.
Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 57. Northeast wind around 15 mph.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 73.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 63.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 66.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 66.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 79.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 67.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80.

I may take Capt. Dennis to the Fort Lauderdale or Miami Airport tomorrow so he can validate the travel instructions he submitted in yesterday’s post.  He is an adventurist.

The computers for the program, conference, galley and retail departments will be off line today.  Ellen is taking the day off. Capt. Rich and I will out of service, unable to access email, the internet or the server.  All of our work documents are saved to the server, not to our hard drives.

Capt. Steve
Aboard S/V Escape

The weather was overcast but almost windless today.  The computer guys from Dallas, Ray and Scott, put in a full day.  The new server is up and running; Capt. Rich and I have new computers; and I think all of the other computers associated with the Program Department (Office Manager’s computer, Scuba Commissioner’s computer and at least three laptops used for scuba and sailing training programs) were all refurbished.

No new crews arrived today but we did have Coral Reef Sailing crews return from their week of sailing.  Several of us are going to the Upper Keys Rotary Club 15th Annual Gigantic Nautical Flea Market tomorrow to look for “deals”.  (Paul Beal, our General Manager and local Rotarian, will be there flipping burgers all day.)  My personal quest is for halyards and a water maker; but part of the fun of a flea market is you never know what you’re going to find.  I could use a ship’s clock and maybe some fishing gear too.  We will see.

It’s developing into another wonderful weather day at the Florida Sea Base.  We started out at about 54 degrees this morning with a bit of wind.  The wind is dying down and the temperature should make it to at least 65 with clear skies.

The first four Coral Reef Sailing crews that started their adventure on Saturday will be returning to the dock at about 1400 (2 p.m.).  They will move from their boat to the dorms, clean the boats for the next crews, prepare a skit for tonight’s luau and begin their packing and other preparations to head home.  Some won’t want to go home.  So I always tell them they don’t have to go HOME, but they can’t stay here.  Our third set of Coral Reef crews returned to the dock this morning for their “fun day” of small boat sailing, tubing, kayaking and volleyball.  We still haven’t had any scuba crews for the 2010 spring season, but they will start arriving in March.

Ray Macaluso and Scott Waters from the National ISD Office are working hard in the Florida Sea Base Admin building.  They are installing a new server which (hopefully) will help our connection speed on the internet as well as with email and local server access.

The Upper Keys Rotary Club 15th Annual Gigantic Nautical Flea Market (what a title) is being held in Islamorada this weekend; 0800 – 1700 Saturday and 0900 – 1500 Sunday.  I hope to attend on Saturday so I’ll report the details then.  For now I’ll just say that it’s always a huge success and all of the proceeds go to local youth for scholarships.

Despite the forecast, it has turned out to be another gorgeous day at the Florida Sea Base.  It is cloudless, bright sunshine, no rain within 100 miles on the radar, 60 degrees and climbing, and just enough wind for the sailors without there being choppy waters; absolutely idea for this time of year.

Two of the computer gurus from the National Office are here, Ray Macaluso and Scott Waters.  Most of the full time staff are getting new computers this week.  The best of our hand-me-downs will be moved to seasonal positions like the Office Manager, Scuba Commissioner, Marine Superintendent, and staff lounges.  We don’t have anyone on our full time staff that is IT qualified.  This makes it very difficult for us some times.  Ray and Scott usually come for one week once a year to try to fix a whole year’s worth of computer troubles.  If they don’t finish something in the time alloted, it pretty much gets shelved until the next year.  Sometimes we are allowed to hire a local technician if we have a significant problem that can’t be handled by phone.  But usually we just have to work around or tolerate the issue until Ray and Scott’s next visit.  We work in paradise, we have  a fantastic view of every sunrise and every sunset, we have the pleasure of providing high adventure opportunities to tomorrow’s leaders, but sometimes we suffer the day to day pains of any other business.

About 40 years ago I participated in an Order of the Arrow ceremony during which we were told the lesson of accepting the bitter with the sweet.  That had such an impact on me that to this day I rarely talk about an issue without seeing the good and the bad.  I think that makes me a “realist”.  But I have been labeled “Eeyore” (the donkey from Winnie- the-Pooh fame) by some staff members.  But I think that comes in part from trying to bring some realism to their sometimes blind optimism.  Sometimes, when someone says, “hey, watch this” someone with a little more life experience needs to step up and ask, “have you really considered the consequences of this action?”.  Now I believe in learning by experience and I am willing to give our staff plenty of rope with which to hang themselves, but sometimes you just have to step in and draw them a picture of what’s about to happen.

Rule #1 of the Florida Sea Base is “Don’t be Stupid”.  Some days that is a tough rule.