Somebody in our dorm was an amazing snorer last night. Most of us didn’t get much sleep. I tried ear plugs, but it didn’t help. (Adam later told us that that’s a frequent problems. There have been times when Adam got up in the morning to find everyone sleeping outside; everyone but the snorer had given up and abandoned the dorm.)
Today was our departure for Big Munson Island. We got up a bit late this morning, but unfortunately one of the other crews got up really early to pack up. This on top of the loss of sleep due to snoring left us just a bit bleary-eyed.
We had separated out all of our “take to the island” and “leave at base” stuff last night, but since we wanted to take our sleeping things to the island, we needed to repack in the morning. I took a final shower before the next few hot days.
A crew arrived early this morning from Big Munson, long before most crews arrive. It seems that their plane tickets were for a day earlier than they should have been, so they had to leave Munson really early so they could get back in time to catch the ride to the airport today. Crews normally spend a night here after returning from the island. You don’t know how many times I rechecked our plane reservations to make sure that I hadn’t done the same thing myself.
That done, we loaded up the kayaks with our gear. Each 2-person kayak held two dry bags with the personal equipment that we would take to the island. There were about 30 kayaks, four 2-person for each crew, plus the Island Mates’ 1-person ones. We started out to Big Munson Island in a huge mass.
Our crew acquitted themselves very well, in spite of not getting a checkout the day before, and also in spite of the fact that our average age is younger than most crews. Max and I were together, and we kept right behind the lead kayak the whole time, often being 50 ft ahead of the next kayak. The rest of the crew kept up well, too; nobody was very far back in the pack.
We stopped several times on the way to rest and regroup; the kayaks tended to spread out pretty far. We stopped once at the edge of a boat channel, marked by pilings and a channel marker, so that we could all cross the channel at about the same time. One stop was at a narrow gap between the main key and a small island. We had fun swimming in the deep water there while we rested. Our last stop was in shallow water just off of a fancy resort that’s right near Big Munson. I got out to hold the kayak steady while we waited. It turned out that the bottom was feet deep really soft gooey muck. I ended up over my knees in goo, and it was quite a struggle getting my feet out without losing my water shoes.
The trip to Big Munson took just over 3 hr, which I understand is an average time. Apparently, a group recently made it in 1 1/4 hr. Our crew two years ago had to fight a nasty head wind (we had a headwind, but it was light), and took over six hours.
Once at Big Munson, Adam chased the leaders away, telling us to find tents and let the scouts get the work done. The scouts had to wade out to the floating docks, maybe 1/4 mile off shore, with small rafts and the kayaks to bring in the food and water that had been left out there by the supply boat. Each crew gets a cooler with cold food plus a bin with nonperishable food.
Our campsite was all set up, with tents just like the ones the troop uses, a substantial dining fly, and a food locker. While waiting for the scouts, I picked out a tent for Josh and myself and then checked out the camp. There were a number of hammocks around, constructed from strands of rope that had washed ashore. (They generally are ropes lobster pot markers that have been cut by boats.) One really neat hammock was in a tree at least 12 feet up, kind of like something at “Ants in Their Pants.”
I climbed up and lay down, and Matt and Eric speculated about how long it would take the crew to notice me up in the tree when they got back. They figured it would take about a minute. As it happened, they never did notice me in the tree until I climbed down, even though I had been talking to them from “up there.” I plan to sleep up in the tree tonight.
There is quite a large mat of rotting seaweed along the shore in front of our camp. They refer to it as “sargassum,” and there is a lot of sargassum in it, but there are substantial amounts of other stuff, too. There is a swarm of brine shrimp that live off the seaweed, and they give off hydrogen sulfide as a byproduct of their digestion. The rotten egg smell is pretty potent. [Strangely, I noticed later in our stay that I was getting used to the smell. It didn’t seem to be nearly as strong. Maybe my own “fragrance” just drowned it out.]
One of the guys found a coconut along the shore and brought it back
to camp to try to open it. It was fun watching them try to get the thing
open. (I was reminded of the video from my oldest son’s Sea Base
trip in 1994, when the guys tried to open a coconut by throwing it onto
a sidewalk. They weren’t successful.) They tried using a pocket
knife for a while, with no luck. I was finally able to get it open using
one of the giant sand wedge stakes with the pointy end up. It smelled
like coconut, but definitely was past its prime. A couple of the guys
were foolish enough to taste it, much to their chagrin. At about that
time, a couple of the “elusive key deer” showed up. They
were very tame, and as it turned out like fermented coconut. We kept
expecting to see “cavorting key deer” after they finished
their treat.
[They key deer and the vaca raccoons are very tame, and have no compunctions against stealing food. For the first couple of hours, they were a novelty. For the rest of the trip, though, they attracted somewhat less interest than the dogs that roam around Camp Drake.]
Josh is quartermaster, which means that he’s in charge of picking meals from the food that’s been provided. It sounds like we’ll be eating pretty well. Hamburgers, steaks, spaghetti, plus whatever fish we catch. And, of course, mac & cheese.
Sea Base had said that they could accommodate Aaron’s vegetarian requirements, but he had brought some vegetarian MREs just in case. I was unhappy with the vegetarian options that Sea Base provided for Aaron, but I found out later that Aaron had told Adam that he would just stick with the MREs.
After lunch, Adam took us on a hike around part of the island to show some of the flora and fauna. The most important thing to learn was poisonwood, which apparently has an effect much like poison sumac. (Based on the leaves, I suspect that they are related.) There is a fair amount of it around, and we need to be careful to avoid it.
Adam has been very insistent about “the leaders are on vacation,” and several times has shooed Matt, Eric or me off when we tried to help with something. It’s good for the scouts, I think, though Adam has had to be pretty directive with them to get things done.
It’s good watching the crew work together, though.
Dinner was an amazing repast. First we had hamburgers and mac & cheese. Josh made his Dutch oven cobbler, which came out very well. Since there were some who didn’t want their compliment of burgers, I ended up having 4. I was stuffed.
During dinner, the little automatic lens cover for my camera came apart. The thing has four different little plastic shutters and a couple of tiny posts about 3/32-in long, all held in by a retaining ring. The whole thing came apart, and at one point one of those tiny posts even fell onto the sand under the table. Miraculously, after borrowing a pair of tweezers from Adam, I was able to get the thing put back together, and it even worked! This happened to me once before, as we waited by railroad track in Champaign, IL on our departure to Philmont. I managed to get it back together then, too. What is it about this camera and Boy Scout high adventure trips?
After dinner we took a hike thru the interior of the island on a new trail that’s just been finished.
We then built a fire and did “thorns and roses.” It was interesting that some people’s “thorns” were others’ “roses.” We learned that we will be Adam’s last crew for the summer. He’ll have to leave for college, and won’t be around long enough to take another crew. He’s not looking forward to working in base camp for almost a week.
I had planned to sleep in the hammock that was way up in the tree, and got myself all set up up there at bedtime. But I found that the leaves from the tree blocked what little breeze there was. It was uncomfortably still. Instead, I joined Josh, and we slept on the beach. The breeze there was really nice, and the sky was beautiful.
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