sailingpj

Has anybody dropped it - does it still work, how about below freezing?

How long did your batteries actually last - alkaline or lithium?

Any drops in the water, uses while rafting where the device got wet - does it really float?

Sailing, thanks for your experiences with the device. Any problems with corosion, exposure to salt water?

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There were a couple times when the weather was rough and it got bounced around the cockpit. I would definitely say that it is not fragile. I have not seen any indication of corrosion, and yes it did get exposed to saltwater. Everything on that boat got exposed to saltwater. I got lucky and stuck my personal gear in the one single dry locker on the boat.

The batteries lasted 15 days, and we haven't really had cause to use it again since. Every single message that we sent got through.

I just pulled it out and looked, still no corrosion visible even after two years stowed on a boat.

About a year ago I was on a sailboat delivery with a friend of our family. We were taking his boat from Huatulco, Mexico, to Puerto Vallarta. Now we were only in cell range maybe once every 4 days. Twice a day we would hit the little ok button, and an email with our location would get sent to my parents, grandparents, and several other people. It gave my mother peace of mind when we were a couple days late getting in to port. She would see that we only made 40nm that day, then she could go look at the weather and see, oh there isn't any wind that is why they are late. They didn't get run over by a container ship (a very real possibility) or anything.

Having Spot made her feel better, and I learned after the fact that my Grandpa was bragging about me to all his friends because he was able to actually go on google earth and see where I was.

You know something, **** happens, stuff breaks, people get lost. It may never be needed, but it is just another tool that has its uses.

There are several kinds of whipping twine that they sell at West Marine. I have found the ones that last the longest are pre-waxed. There is one that is easier to use, and holds up better. It is light brown, and is just wrapped on itself, not on a spindle thing. When done properly, even a quick whip lasts years in a marine environment. I would avoid the white West Marine brand stuff. It is really difficult to get it wrapped tight enough, and it just slides off at the first opportunity.

Ok, now I have an axe too grind on several of the topics previously discussed here.

First off, you never want to take your pants off when you fall in the water, or any of your clothes for that matter. Six years racing on dinghies in San Francisco bay have taught me that any clothes are better than none when you are wet and cold. Unless you were one of the crazy people who race with a full wetsuit on all day, it is rare not to go home mildly hypothermic. I've been there more times than I can count. If you know that you are going to be in a place where you think you will need flotation to get to shore safely then you need to be wearing a PFD. That will do more for you in the end because it is another layer against the cold water.

Now, that statement

"When was the last time anyone really needed to whip the end of a rope?"

Whenever I get a new piece of line, if it isn't already done I will whip it. Even if it is line that can be heat sealed, it just looks better and lasts longer if you put a proper whip on it.

Now for knots, this may be slightly skewed by me living on a sailboat, but there isn't a day that goes by when I don't use knots for something other than tying my shoes. There are somethings that velcro and bungee cords don't work on. It is horrible to be looking and find that you don't have the right sized bungee.

A suggestion for those who want to change to a new place, my ship uses Google sites. It is free, and has no ads. You can see how ours is turning out at

http://sites.google.com/site/sssseahawkship

It is really easy to update, and change stuff. Just like using Word.

I cannot believe this. "Grown", "Mature", "Adults" just trading insults. This forum is here for people who need some advice, or have a question, to get the answers they need. It is all right to express an opinion, but you should do so civilly. When you go on forever ranting about your ideas it just makes people think that you are a crazy fanatic, and when people think that they usually ignore you. So it does nothing to act like that because it just gets people angry. As for the rest of you, you should know better that to get into a war of words like that. What kind of example are you setting to the scouts that read this forum? Frankly I am appalled that a 16 year old has to say this.

I am looking for a few suggestions for games that Sea Scouts can play. It should be 20 minutes or less, and have a nautical theme. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

Twocubdad said: "The same is true with nails. When you buy a box of nails, you'll notice half of them have the heads on the wrong end. Those are for use on the other side of the wall."

How do you tell which nails have the head on the wrong side?

As to the compass, I have seen it where the manufacturer put the compass card in the compass backwards, or twisted weirdly. That's just human error.

"You are very right Eagle 92 but they decided to go less formal, no uniforms or ranks, and just sail/kayak for the fun of it."

That doesn't sound much different than what some of the Sea Scout ships in my area do.

Last time I looked the "discussion lists" on seascout.org hadn't been added to in a couple months.

"I would see if your local Flotilla has a web page."

I didn't even know we had a flotilla until you mentioned it.

I am seeing a lot of internet stuff for boy scouts and cub scouts, but I am not seeing anything for Sea Scouts. So, my question is, does anybody know if there are Sea Scout forums, podcasts, anything more that the couple facebook groups and the venturing area here?

Well, from reading all the previous posts I am glad I went the way of Sea Scouts. It sounds like some of you own more scout affiliated clothing than I own of clothes period.

I have one set of Dress Blues, one shirt with patches for our weekly meetings, two work shirts for cruises and working, and a couple regatta T-shirts with our ship logo on the back. I also have a cap that has our ship name, and city.(This message has been edited by Sailingpj)

It is kinda hard not to combine resources, the Sea witch and the whisper have been working together for several years, and half their officers were the Skipper of a ship that no longer exists. Then my skipper is also an officer for the Sea Witch, so we have all our meetings with them. A meeting with two scouts and a Skipper is kinda boring.

One other thing, Keith Christopher the head of the National Events Department came and made a speech, and watched the events and awards ceremony.

The Ancient Mariner Regatta (AMR) this past weekend was awesome. Our regatta team was a combined crew from three ships. We had the entire Sea Hawk crew of two there, the Sea Witch brought four, and the Whisper brought eight people. We went to most of the events, and did really well in the Ship swimming, and the practical part of the sailing event. On the ship swimming we managed to get in to the Schooner class, and we scored the full 100 points on the practical part of the sailing event, I think that that was due to the beautiful landing that I made. We slid up and just kissed the dock, and we stopped with the fairlead that the bow line was attached to right next to the cleat that we needed to tie up to.

We were planning on just doing a training session for the pulling boat races, but we got there late so we had to either do the event for real, or not do it at all. Luckily we were up against a crew who knew even less about what to do than we did, and we crossed the finish line first.

We showed fantastic spirit on the rope climb event, that was helped by the fact that one of the people climbing the rope made it to the top for his first ever time. Unfortunately this was his last AMR because he is moving away.

Needless to say, we had a fantastic time at the regatta, we learned all about the USS Hornet, had a couple encounters with the ghosts on board, and did better in that regatta then we did in any of the others this past regatta season. This regatta told us what we need to work on between now and next year, and I fully expect that next year we will place in a few of the events, and maby even earn the Schooner class for the entire regatta.

Sea Scout Ship Sea Hawk

sites.google.com/site/sssseahawkship

BadenP

Buffalo Skipper picked up on half the point I was trying to make, you got the other half. The skipper does have a responsibility to the boat,and all the people on it, and that leads to him having to step up and make sure that things happen the right way sometimes. As the crew learns, he steps back and lets us get done what needs to get done.

"Second, most sea scout ships are run like paramilitary groups following naval rules and the skipper is the CO, unlike Venturing Crew Advisors who advise and guide not command behaviors or tasks as a skipper does."

There is a very good reason that Skippers act like that sometimes. When you are on a boat the Skipper is responsible for the lives of everyone on board. That is Maritime Law. The Skipper and other officers are there to make sure that the boat doesn't sink. In our ship the only time I have ever seen a Skipper act like a CO is when we are on the boat and under way, and that is only because the crew is very new and they don't know night navigation, and they don't know how to read the chart yet, and they are still learning how to drive a boat. When you have the people who do know what they are doing on watch the Skipper takes a step back and just keeps an eye on the situation. If the skipper didn't step up and act like a CO sometimes, our boat would probably be sitting on a beach somewhere, or stuck in the mud, or be turned in to flotsam because we got run over by a container ship.

Uses for Duct Tape

#1 Temporary Sail repair

#2 Temporarily sealing bike tubes

#3 Remembering not to talk during silent regatta events

#4Fixing a hole in waterproof boots.

Hi everyone, I was just looking around the internet for some info when I found this site. I signed up because I joined a Sea Scout Ship a few months ago, but because everyone aged out of the program a couple years ago I was immediately promoted to Boatswain. I have been recruiting and have a couple other people on the crew now, but I am still learning what I am supposed to do as boatswain. So if anybody has suggestions I would be happy to listen.

I have skimmed through a couple pages of peoples posts, and read a lot of posts from parents and adult leaders, but none from actual scouts. I am a Sea Scout in California. On our ship we are allowed cell phones, we just can't use them when we are on watch, and if it rings when you are on watch the skipper will take it until you go on break. Now, I have found that having a cell phon with me only causes problems. My mom expects me to have it on all the time, and I get in trouble if I don't reply to her voice mail, or if it runs out of battery and I can't call her to tell her when to pick me up. Cell phones are a useful tool sometimes, but in my experience it has caused more problems then it solves.