Florida Sea Base News

VOLUNTEERS

The Florida Sea Base volunteers were hard at it yesterday.  Recently a section of the walkway adjacent to our sea-life habitat collapsed.  Steve Martin and Warren Bacon were busy making repairs.  They had to remove all of the decking to get to the rotted boards that had supported the structure.

PADI MEMBER FORUM

The Florida Sea Base hosted a session of the 2013 PADI Member Forum in the Matecumbe Rooms last night.  Member Forums are held in several locations annually to afford the PADI Regional Managers the opportunity to bring PADI members up to date on changes that have been made over the past year and tell us about pending changes.  Our local manager is Mike Kurczewski.  He always does and outstanding job and did not let us down last night.

Click to enlarge.

WEATHER

We are expecting the continued strong winds that started yesterday.  Otherwise, we have a very decent forecast from the National Weather Service for the second week of January.

Today: A slight chance of showers before 7am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 81.
Breezy, with a east wind 15 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 10%.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 72. Breezy, with a east wind 15 to 20 mph.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Breezy, with a east wind 15 to 20 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. East wind around 15 mph.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. East wind around 15 mph.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 70.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 70.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 70.
Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 80.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 71.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80.

The ocean side water temperature is holding at an amazing 77°F.

Our General Manager, Captain Paul Beal, is attending a meeting at Philmont Scout Ranch today.  The National Weather Service station in nearby Angel Fire, New Mexico reported a temperature of 1°F at 05:00 Eastern time.  At 05:30 the NWS report was updated to -1.5°F.

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

DO LIST

Help Emily Sepeta de-tune some other the overhauled regulators.
Help Emily locate scuba tanks needing hydrostatic testing for transport to Quiescence Diving Services.
Take air samples from the scuba compressors to send out for analysis.
Place an Aqua Lung order for Jenna Burton.
Select spring scuba staff and provide info to Cheryl Ferreri for Letters of Employment.
Make preparations for the upcoming PADI Member Forum.

VOLUNTEERS

Steve and Leah Martin and some of our other annual Florida Sea Base winter volunteers are back.  I will find out who else is here.  They always do such great work.  I do not know what’s on their list for this year, but I’m glad they’re back.

CONFERENCES

When I left for the Circle 10 University of Scouting, conference attendees from the BSA International Division had arrived.  They are still here and are reportedly anxious to return again next year.  Meanwhile, a second conference group has arrived.  On top of that, the Florida Sea Base will host the PADI Member Forum Wednesday evening.

I’m running late.

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

I hate when this happens, and it happens way too often.  I was asleep by 2200 (10 pm) last night.  Six hours later. I’m awake.  Not wide awake; still drowsy, groggy and wanting to go back to sleep, but after laying there for 30 minutes it’s obvious that sleep is not happening.  So here I am, 0435, writing a post, just for you.  Captain Dennis Wyatt is probably up.  David Ball will be up shortly.  I don’t have any appointments until noon, so MAYBE I will manage to lay back down and take a nap in a while.  And this may (in part) be payback.  Thursday night I fell asleep at a decent hour, sleep like a rock for 6 hours (almost to the minute), woke up, and went right back to sleep.  That doesn’t happen very often.  Okay.  Enough whining.  I’m up.  Here we go.

Friday was about volunteers.  Mr. Richard Goldman drove back down from Pompano Beach, Florida to provide volunteer scuba instruction to Florida Sea Base seasonal staff members.  And the 2012 Volunteer Development Conference concluded with a “luau” celebration.

The IDC candidates wrapped up their training at the Florida Keys Diver Center yesterday under the guidance of PADI Course Director Captain Bert Hubby (with a little help from me).  Friday evening they went to the Instructor Exam (IE) site in Key Largo for orientation.  Today they will take 3 hours of exams, make classroom teaching presentations and confined water teaching presentations.  Tomorrow they will perform rescue scenarios and open water teaching presentations.  I have an acupuncture appointment today but will attend the IE tomorrow to cheer everyone on and congratulate them once the evaluations are completed.  One of our candidates, Selin Harmankaya, is from Turkey.  Her written exams will be available in Turkish but her presentations will have to be made in English.

For the record, I don’t exaggerate, I embellish.  In Texas, it is a misdemeanor to tell a story devoid of embellishment. However, I maintain that Captain Rich Beliveau is, in fact, the Archangel Michael or Saint Michael, whichever you prefer.  The more he denies it the more convinced I am that I’m correct.  (You can refer back to my 29 December 2009 post for more information on the Archangel Michael.)

I’m going to try to get another hour or two of sleep.  I hope  you have a great weekend.  If you are snow skiing, snowboarding, dog sledding, playing outdoor hockey, or ice diving, I am very happy for you.  Florida is over populated.  It’s 71.5ºF in the cockpit of Escape, 74.5ºF inside the cabin, calm wind and clear skies (the stars are overwhelming).

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

I spent most of Tuesday catching up at the Florida Sea Base; admin, emails, invoices, sorting packages, storing supplies, spring scheduling, securing DMA training aids, staff coordination, etcetera, etcetera ad infinitum.

The dredgers were not working at the Florida Sea Base yesterday.  They were on another site while large concrete panels (for the seawall) were curing here.  Patience is a virtue, Grasshopper.

My immediate supervisor, Rob Kolb, Director of Program, is on vacation this week.  Perennial spring seasonal staff member Clyde Clark has rejoined our merry band.  He spends he springs at the Florida Sea Base and summers at Philmont Scout Ranch.  There are some new faces on base.  I will try to get a list in the next few days.  The annual swarm of volunteers has also arrived, led by the Martins (Capt. Scott Martin’s parents).  The husband/wife teams do an incredible amount of work in a short time each spring.  This place would be in much worse shape without their assistance.  Captain Rich seems to be doing fine.  He took a 20 mile bike ride yesterday.  I saw Capt. Scott briefly yesterday (twice actually).  He’s looking fit.  Capt. Carol made a brief appearance in the program office.  She was cheery and excited to be headed to class.

Capt. Keith Douglass and Capt. Paul Beal took a few minutes to catch me up on the proposed changes to the swimming pool complex.  The original plans are now being referred to as “the dream pool”.  Reality bites when you have to cut back on what you know is best in the long term in order to comply with permitting restrictions.  Money is an issue too, but the BSA has many supporters who would help us out if it was just a matter of money.  Plans B and C are descent, but they aren’t the dream pool.  The current pool has been in use for 30 years.  The new pool needs to meet the needs of Scouting for the next 30 years.  The short sightedness of politicians is very hard to accept.

This reminds me of when I finally persuaded the former General Manager to buy a Newton 46′ Dive Special.  It was expensive and it took some effort to convince the folks at National that it was a wise choice.  Now we own three Newton 46′ Dive Specials and have a 36′ model under construction.  But that was then and times have changed.  It’s frustrating to know what you need for the kids and be told “no”.

But today is a new day and Captain Rich, Captain Scott and I will again pursue the best programming, the best equipment and the best staff that we can to make the Florida Sea Base an incredible experience for our members.

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

Texas.  The Mother Country.  The Republic.  Home.  A lot of people despise (maybe too strong of a word, but probably not) Texans as cocky, boisterous, braggarts.  From my perspective, we simply take pride in our State, our families, and our colorful history.  I’m pretty sure it is a misdeamor to tell a Texas Tale without embellishment.

Saturday I was driving from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex to my parents place in the extremely rural, piney woods forest of Jasper County in far southeast Texas.  While driving along I was passed by a car with a bumper sticker that you probably won’t see in many other states.  It read, “The bigger the hair, the closer to God”.

I’m back in the metroplex today.  It was a long day for a short visit with my folks; drive 5 hours, visit 5 hours, drive 5 hours.  My folks are doing well, all things considered.  I sat in the living room directly across from my dad as he held the tube that’s protruding from his bladder and through a hole in his stomach, grimacing with pain and telling me how he’s in excellent heath.  He’s recovering from prostate cancer; hopefully the tube comes out Monday.  Other than that he is in excellent health, walking two miles aday (even with the tube) and improving his time almost daily.  I think his current time is 36 minutes.  My mom has almost total dementia.  The doctors say the dementia was caused by radiation and chemotherapy used to cure her breast cancer and later her lung cancer.  For example, she knows I’m her son and that she loves me but she doesn’t know my name.  Physically she’s doing well; she takes no medications and probably walks more miles in a day than my dad does.  She walks in circles inside the house.  She can sometimes communicate in single sentences but can’t really engage in conversation.  Its obvious the she is very frustrated at times.

Capt. Rich, Dustin and EJ have been doing my work back at the Florida Sea Base while I’m with my family for a week.  Those of you who read this blog remember that we had a booming fall season for selling used scuba gear.  As the sale slowed, a friend of the Florida Sea Base, Mike Miller of Mike’s Scuba in Pennsylvania, bought the “leftovers” from our inventory.  Somehow Mike misunderstood my travel plans and scheduled a truck to arrive at the Florida Sea Base Tuesday to pick up the equipment.  Laura Kuras had packed the BCs and regulators into boxes and isolated the scuba tanks before she left at the end of the Christmas season.  Capt. Rich, Dustin and EJ worked Saturday (a scheduled day off) to load 113 tanks and the boxes of BCs and regulators onto pallets and to shrink wrap them.

We are expecting snow today in the DFW area.  It’s 72 and sunny today at the base.  Ten foot ceilings and ceramic tile floors are great in the Texas summers.  But right now my feet are cold!  (I hate cold feet and cold ears.)

Steve Martin (Capt. Scott Martin’s dad) and his squadron of Florida Sea Base angels have begun arriving at the base.  Steve organizes a posse annually to come to the Florida Sea Base and the Brinton Environmental Center to contribute hours of labor to improving the base facilities.  The wives will have the grounds looking like a botanical garden before they leave.  The attendees change from year to year so I will get a list of all the workers when I get back.

I probably won’t post another article until Thursday.

Capt. Steve
Shilvering in the Mother Country

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.

Today was a fairly routine, paperwork kind of day.  Until Carl and Ingred Lindsten arrived.  Carl explained that he was a retired professional Scouter from Sweden.  He and his wife happened to be visiting the Florida Keys and had stopped at the Brinton Environmental Center earlier.

Carl and Ingred Lindsten of Sweden

They took several photos and were kind enough to allow me to take a photo of them in front of our BSA Centennial / FSB 30th Anniversary seal.  So while I had the camera out I took a few photos that relate to earlier posts.

Phase one of the sea wall repairs was completed last Friday as I recall (minus setting the Habitat back in place).  This section of sea wall is about 80 feet long and cost nearly $100,000.

Here are “before” and “during” photos of the exterior repairs to the staff housing unit referred to at the Annex.  It is the original motel from the old Tollgate Inn.

Before repairs

During repairs

The volunteers who are doing this project, plus landscaping and much more are Steve and Leah martin, Warren and Carol Bacon, John and Marlene Reilly and Walter and Maxine Frost.  When they finish here, they will go to the Brinton Environmental Center and meet up with Dennis and Karen Bobo and do even more good works there.  These folks are the epitome of Scouting volunteers.