Florida Sea Base News

I wanted to take a minute to thank Capt. Rich for keeping the blog alive while I was away from internet access.  [I will write more about the trip soon.  It was good to be away from internet, email and even telephones for most of three weeks, but catching up is going to be tough - especially this week with the Tarpon Tournament (more on that in tomorrow's blog - or maybe later today) going on.]  I appreciate Capt. Rich finding the time to keep you guys informed on the happenings at the Florida Sea Base during my absence.  We stay pretty busy on a daily basis and finding time for “blogging” can be a chore some days.  I hope Capt. Rich will continue to post his ideas when he can make time.  It’s great to get news to everyone from different perspectives.

It’s 0515 and I’m awake doctoring one of the dozens of mosquito bites I got during my travels.  It seems they flare up one at a time.  Caladryl® is helping but all it takes is for me to drag my ankle across the sheets to get one of these bites itching like crazy.  I’m going to go lay down for another hour.  Today is going to be nuts.  Vacation over.

Capt. Steve Willis
Aboard S/V Escape

I had the pleasure of departing the Florida Sea Base around 0730 this morning on missions to Fort Lauderdale and Miami.  We were scheduled to leave at 0700 but the first Florida Sea Base van we loaded up (in the dark) had a flat tire.  So we had to unload, reload and then we were on our way.  ”We” included Capt. Rich Beliveau and Capt. Jeff Peacock and me.  Our first stop was Super Sailmakers in Fort Lauderdale.  Capt. Peacock dropped off the jib from one of the 33′ Morgans used in the Keys Adventure program for them to use as a pattern to make a new one.  To say the old one was worn out would be an understatement.

The next stop was to the boat yard in Fort Lauderdale where the BSA Scoutmaster was being repowered with twin Suzuki 300 horse power motors.  We were disappointed to learn that the vessel was not ready.  And even worse, at 10:30 in the morning the workers had not even showed up yet.  Blood pressure medicine all around, please.  Despite the condition of the vessel, I continued on with running errands while Captains Rich and Jeff waited for the mechanics.

My next stop was E-Marine Systems where I dropped off the wind generator from S/V Ciao Bella.  [Wind generators use the wind to generate DC power.  They do not actually make wind.]  Anyway, the nice man said it should be repaired in a week and that it would be shipped back to us at no cost.  Next was the West Marine store in Fort Lauderdale.  It is much larger and generally better stocked than the West Marine stores in the Keys.  I found all but one of the items I needed.  Next I made flank speed to the Miami International Airport to pick up our Director of Conferences and Food Services, Chrystene Matthews.  Chrystene was returning from a trade show in North Carolina.  Or was it South Carolina?  Sorry Chrystene, I have already forgotten.

From there we went to the Miami office of the Medical Doctor who serves as the Florida Sea Base Health Advisor.  I delivered a package to him and visited for just a few minutes.  Then it was onward to the Florida Sea Base.  Capt. Rich reported that he and Capt. Jeff had encouraged the mechanics to quit piddling and were actually on their way back via water with the boat.

I did office stuff for about an hour and finally gave up and came out to my boat, S/V Escape.  I worked on Escape for about an hour and now I’m writing this blog.  I have another hour’s worth of work in me and then I am calling it quits for the day.  The four hours of sleep I got last night are wearing off.

S/V Escape - Home Sweet Home

Many of us work seven days a week a the Florida Sea Base.  We take a day off when we can or when we have a specific need to go to the mainland (ike a doctor’s appointment).  One of the downsides to working every day is it’s hard to remember what day of the week it is.  So I bought a new clock for my office.  It doesn’t tell you the time of day, just the day of the week.  It’s GREAT!

Speaking of working seven days a week, Capt. Mike (the Boat Whisperer) and Capt. Rich Beliveau (wealthy retired underwear model) worked like dogs Saturday and Sunday installing a new motor and transmission in S/V Trade Wind.  They are mechanicing maniacs.

Some of our volunteers have left.  The landscaping looks beautiful and the remodeling of the side of the Annex facing the water is complete except for painting.  I want to mention everyone’s name again; Steve and Leah Martin, Warren and Carol Bacon, John and Marlene Reilly and Water and Maxine Frost.  What an incredible team.  Words cannot express the wonderful deeds these folks do for the Florida Sea Base.  Thank you so very much.

I noticed that Capt. Katie and Capt. Joey have gotten off the dock aboard S/V Calypso Poet for some sailing without participants.  Isn’t it cool to have a job that you enjoy so much that you do it for fun as well?  We may never be millionaires, but being boat captains, scuba instructors, ski & snowboard instructors, and the like has some enjoyable benefits.  And the view from the office is usually pretty nice as well.  I’m going to leave you with two photos.

Sunrise aboard S/V Escape.

Sunset aboard BSA Scoutmaster on a night dive.

Captain Richard T. Beliveau, FSB Program Director - Sailing

Capt. Rich is the Program Director for the sailing programs at the Florida Sea Base (Coral Reef Sailing, Sea Exploring and handles dockage and some other aspects of the Scuba Liveaboard Adventure).  The sailing programs represent about 60% of our annual participation.  When my son Aaron set up this blog site for me I hoped Capt. Rich would become a contributor.  Be watching for posts from him starting soon.

I want to tell you a little more about Capt. Rich because … well because he is one of my personal angels.  I am not a Bible scholar, but I have read the Bible cover to cover multiple times.  And I’ve done some other independent biblical studies as I’m sure many of you have.  Sometimes I wonder if Capt. Rich is the personification of the Archangel Michael (who is also referred to as St. Michael).  There is a movie called Michael with John Travolta playing the part of Michael.  Again, not being a biblical scholar, my impression is that Michael is God’s enforcer.  It appears that Michael has been on Earth several times (in the Old Testament) and has taken part in most (if not all) of God’s heavy work.  Some scholars believe that in some instances when it is thought that God came to Earth in the Old Testament that He may have actually sent Michael in His place to take care of business.  It’s a very interesting topic if you want to do some research.

Anyway, Capt. Rich and his wife Capt. Carol appeared at the Florida Sea Base in 2005 looking for work as boat captains.  They are a wonderful couple and I am sure Capt. Carol would agree with me saying that Capt. Rich is a very charismatic individual.  If you have meet Capt. Rich you really like him.  You just can’t help it.  So, needless to say I hired Capt. Rich and Capt. Carol.  They are both great people, have really big hearts, and seemed to like what the Florida Sea Base and scouting were trying to do for the youth of America.  So they were hooked on the Florida Sea Base and all of us were (and still are) hooked on them.

Capt. Rich seemed to recognize how overwhelmed I was as the Program Director for all of the Adventures being conducted at Sea Base.  And “overwhelmed” is a huge understatement.  My days started at 0730 and ended at 2100 (9 pm) or later seven days a week whenever program was running (7 1/2 months a year).  In a relatively short period of time we worked up a plan to sell upstream for Capt. Rich to become the Sailing Director.  Since everyone loves Capt. Rich it wasn’t hard at all to convince the bosses that Capt. Rich was the person to give me some relief.  So Capt. Rich stepped in and took over the lion’s share of many aspects of my job.  Now I only work from 0730 to 1900 hours six days a week during program seasons (plus a lot of hours between midnight and 0500 because I don’t sleep well many nights).

Capt. Rich’s presence has allowed me the time and opportunity to greatly increase the quality of the scuba programs while he has done likewise for the sailing programs.  The divers have better gear, better staff (thanks to the success of the annual Divemaster Academy), better boats, and soon – more dives per week.  I have become a member of the BSA Aquatics Task Force and a frequent guest of the BSA Health and Safety Committee.  Through these groups I have been able to participate in the revisions to some of the water safety policies of the BSA like Safety Afloat and Safe Swim Defense.   I was able to play a role in the recently released Scuba Diving merit badge book and I’ve spent countless hours researching scuba related medical issues and working with the Florida Sea Base doctor (and the Health and Safety Committee) to devise fair but safe medical policies for Scouts wishing to participate in scuba as part of a unit activity.  There have been several other projects.  I am not mentioning all of these to wave my own flag, but because all of these good works that have benefitted our youth happened because Capt. Rich’s success with the sailing programs allowed me the opportunities to work on all of these other issues.  Without him at the helm, I would still be struggling 14 hours a day, 7 days a week just to try to keep this place from imploding.

Capt. Rich, thank you – again – for saving my life, helping the Florida Sea Base grow into the highest quality of all of the national high adventure bases, and for having such a tremendous impact on the lives of our staff members and participants.  It will be great to read your posts.  If any of you have any questions regarding the Coral Reef Sailing Adventure, Eco Adventure or Sea Exploring, you can contact Capt. Rich at Rich.Beliveau@scouting.org.