When you plan something for over a year and a half, it’s not hard to have some high expectations. Ever since I signed up our group to head to Sea Base in February 2022, I’ve researched way too much, scoured every post about our trek, and sighed as I watched picture after picture posted on social media about the amazing time other people had as I counted down the months until our adventure.

As a warning, I have a journalism degree, so this is gonna be a bit of a read if you make it that far.

First, the pros:

The program is flat out amazing. Our Scouts had no complaints about it, and neither did I. We did enough of a variety of activities that included hands-on learning and service work balanced with some fun. It is a little hard to plan much ahead as you don’t know your actual schedule until after you arrive. But they were including what had sold us on the adventure, so that’s all that mattered.

Our mate was also amazing. It is her first summer with Sea Base, we were only her fourth crew. It took a couple of days to get into a groove with our Scouts as they are not the most outgoing, and my Scout in particular can be a little challenging. By the time we were adventuring with her through Key West though, they were all really coming together.

I had not anticipated that our crew would be paired up with two other STEM crews for the whole week, but this wasn’t really an issue. Our Scouts got along, and all three crews shared stories and hang out time, and I really enjoyed getting to know the other female leaders that were in my dorm. We were separate for our Key West and fishing days, and though we traveled to Munson together, we did split up once on the island back to our crews. We did have one issue on the last day as there were not enough water tests kits on board for all three crews to do it at the same time. Our crew had to wait 30 minutes to be able to do this part. When it was our turn, the other two crews got to go snorkeling. We had to leave and return to the marina before the Scouts got to get back in the water, so I felt they were cheated a little on this part.

Our captains were also great. Capt. Joey (it was his last week) and Capt. Scott both stopped the boats for us to watch the dolphins as they went by, so we got a little extra treat on our days out. Capt. Mike was our fishing guy, and all around likeable, though he really, really likes his boat spotless after a day out, so our crew was on there longer doing cleaning than others when we returned. I took a lot of joy watching my son on his hands and knees scrubbing the deck, something I had to do over and over for years growing up at my family’s marina.

 

 

Now, the cons:

The food. Lord have mercy the food. Scouts and adults alike in all three crews had a lot to say on this. First, breakfast is decent. The small portions of the main meal can be made up with a fantastic fruit and yogurt bar plus cereal selections. Lunch was a typical picnic style sandwiches – we had meat and cheese each day along with uncrustables for those who didn’t like the other options. Some days we had fruit in our cooler (ours seemed to miss this a couple times), along with chips (not a lot of variety), and cookies (no one complained of those). The biggest issue was the dinner on base. One of my bunkmates said it best by saying they were using a Betty Croker cookbook from the 70s. The first night was chicken fried chicken, the second night chicken parm of sorts. It wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t great, I ate it, most of the Scouts did not. The next night was Key West, so we did Kaya, which can never do any wrong (especially try the Hula Girl dessert). The next night was soggy pork chops, covered in applesauce, however, I didn’t know it was applesauce until someone told me so the next day. It was awful, couldn’t eat it. The next night was salisbury steak, which none of the Scouts wanted, and after one bite, I had tolerated all I could. I ended up getting pizza from down the street at Slice of Paradise because I realized that none of our Scouts had eaten any dinner on base the entire week. All three crews put more than ample feedback on their exit forms about the disaster of dinner meals. The last night, luau night, was amazing, but after such a low bar all week, anything was going to be an improvement. (After the first day, I started saving our non-perishable leftovers at lunch to hand to Scouts later as supplements to their meals.)

The female dorms. I can only speak for the Queen Angel dorm as that is where we were. The male dorms have two bathrooms, one for male adults, one for male youth, a water station, and pretty decent AC from what we were told. The female dorms, not so much. We have one bathroom. There is a sign outside that gets flipped to indicate who can be in at a time, adults or youth. There are three sinks and two stalls, and neither of the toilets worked properly, though we figured out how to manage them throughout the week. As adults, we were pretty efficient with getting in and getting stuff done, but it was usually because we were having to sprint because the female youth had taken so long and we were now on a time crunch. This could be solved by having a mirror (at least) out in the shared area of the dorms and another sink somewhere for people who just need to brush teeth.

I had read numerous reviews about how hard the beds were, and we discovered half way through the week why: each bunk had different mattresses on it. Some of ours, which included mine, had two mattresses, which is why I thought I was pretty comfortable and didn’t need the air mattress that others were having to use. The other ones, which looked to be mostly all top bunks, had a single, only couple inch thick, pad on top, so yes, you could still feel the slats under it when you were sleeping on it. I had brought my 40 degree sleeping bag as it is my favorite, but I never really got in it as the room stayed rather warm to my tastes. There was a fan out in the main area to help blow cooler air to the three dorm hallways (they are divided by plywood), but I couldn’t really feel it much at my bunk.

We were treated to some clothes lines left behind by other crews inside, which was great as you run out of room on the line outside. Also, others had left behind power strips, so we had ample room for our charging. There is only one footlocker that has four cubbies, so if you have more than four crews staying in the dorm, which we did, not everyone can use one. I ended up leaving a lot of stuff in my car to keep locked until needed. I never really felt I had to worry about anything in our dorm as everyone seemed pretty respectful.

Check in. I had followed a lot of tips to make the check in easier from reading on the trek talk page, particularly having my binder with health forms grouped together, certificates grouped separately, etc. However, when we arrived to BEC at 12:51, there was no one around, at least not directly looking to help us check in (official check in time is 1 to 3 pm, so shame on me for being too early). I pulled up to what I assumed was the main entrance but you wouldn’t know because there aren’t any signs directing you anywhere. Three different staff members (identified by their shirts) walked past me standing at my car but said nothing to me – no greeting, no asking if they could help, not even a smile. We ended up going to park our cars and figured we would walk around and figure it out. After we parked, we ran into another crew who had just had the same experience but finally got information enough to know to bring all gear under the quarterdeck and just wait for someone to check you in, so we did. This is information that would have been helpful in an email the week of our arrival, but I’ve never had any communication about our trek directly since I signed up other than asking for payments and trying to sell us on pre and post camp at Camp Jackson Sawyer (we all had other arrangements though I still need to do a review of our October stay at Sawyer, which was fantastic).

Facilities. On our check in day, we were required to do the full swim test again. When we went to use the swim ladder on the dock, we discovered it was broken – one entire side had bolts out of it so it fell over to the left when you tried to use it. My other leader and I had to help hold it so it could be safely used. Our mate reported it that night (Sunday) but we didn’t see anyone working on fixing it until that Friday afternoon. Additionally, for pretty much all our meals out, we were issued a broken cooler, missing a handle on one side. While it stayed on the boat, it wasn’t an issue, but when we had to float it out to Munson Island and carry it up, it became a safety issue: the Scouts did not have a good way to maneuver it over the rocks while trying not to slip themselves, same issue when my son and I were the ones charged with taking it back out and I gave him the working handle side and I had to carry from underside and then slipped.

We also had an issue that there was nowhere near our STEM classroom to get water bottles refilled. Scouts and adults had to hike back to the quarterdeck on the other side of the base to get them (well, males could refill in their dorm area directly upstairs, but females didn’t have that available). This was a bit frustrating for me throughout the week.

Bathrooms on boats. There are none. Just be prepared for that. Your captains and boat mates will tell you what signs to use when you need to do your thing. My advice is to try hard to do it all that you can before you get on the boat and just hope for the best until you return later in the day.

Neutral:

Packing list. Pretty much you can go exactly by the list, though I do recommend you include underwear for the days you don’t want to be in your swimsuit for 24 hours. I alternated between two swim outfits the whole week and a pair of shorts and Columbia Sea Base button up shirt I got on a previous visit. When you arrive at check in, part of the crew leader’s job is to read the requirements which states that females agree to wear a one piece swimsuit the whole week. While my youth did, I and other adults did the tankini tops and either swim shorts or skorts bottoms. I actually used two pair of biker shorts from Walmart as my swim shorts. This gave me decent coverage, until I wasn’t paying attention on fishing day and ended up with a heck of a sun line. We never used the rain jackets as it only rained one afternoon our entire trip. I only used my trek pants on luau night to help keep the bugs off, but most of the staff wore harem pants or even pajama pants with the same effect, and they looked more comfortable. I will attest that a buff is a necessity. I had not packed them, a friend gave me two for my son and me and said we needed them because he knew better, and he was right. I had not anticipated that my hair would get caught up in my snorkel and mask on the first day. The boat mate helped get it undone and she told me how to use the buff so it wouldn’t happen again, and so that’s what I did the rest of the week. Most definitely make sure you have one. I wore my Tevas pretty much all week, and only switched to my closed toe Keen water shoes for the Munson Island day. You absolutely want something that protects your feet that day as it is a bit treacherous to get onto. Socks are on the list, but I never wore them. I did see a few adults with them on their feet as it helped with their fins, so maybe that’s why they are on the list. They also leave off pajamas, which I brought my own tank and short set. I’m fairly certain my son just slept in his swim shorts every night.

Crew first aid kit. This felt like overkill when I was putting it together, especially the jug of vinegar. We did have multiple jellyfish issues, but there was vinegar on the boat. We never had any first aid issues in my crew, so I still have everything we took. Because we were in the dorms and on boats the whole week, our personal first aid kits would have gotten us through pretty much anything I believe. Maybe we were just lucky we didn’t need any of it.

Sunscreen. Do not forget your sunscreen, and don’t forget chapstick with sunscreen. We had numerous lips with sunburn because that wasn’t thought about. Someone was kind enough to leave two bottles in our bathroom of after sun aloe gel that I saw got used a little bit though we had our own. The sun does not play down here, so those of us who stayed in our long-sleeve shirts throughout the week fared much better than those who didn’t. I did not use mine while snorkeling, but was glad I did on fishing day after I saw my legs from six hours on the boat as there is very minimal shade on the Dusky.

Patches. You will only receive the Sea Base ship wheel patch as part of your trek on the last night. Everything else you have to purchase yourself – award patches, Marine STEM program patch, SCENE rocker patch – after your mate has filled out a piece of paper and turned it into the ship store to verify what your crew earned. Consider looking up the prices online in advance to know how much you will need to spend for your crew on check out.

Hints:

Snorkeling gear bags. Make carabiners with a name tag to put on your bag. Much time was spent throughout the week trying to find the right bag. I had an extra scrunchie with me, so I put one around my drawstrings to mark it which made it easier to find with all the others hanging up each day. Also, may want to consider a way to mark your mask and snorkel. Many of them look identical and get moved around when on the boat. I always put mine back in my bag, but most Scouts did not.

Nalgenes. Get an insulator for your bottle as the water heats up quick. After the first day, I learned to fill my bottle up with ice all the way to the top before I put any water in it, and that really helped. You will have water on the boats, but it doesn’t always stay cold the whole day. We had over 110 heat indexes that week, so it goes quick. Also, add a carabiner to clip it to your bag on board so it won’t roll around.

Reading light. If you go to bed at late hours like I do, get a reading light. Your roommates will be absolutely sure that lights are out at 11 pm, but if you aren’t ready to be down for the night, bring something that won’t keep the person in the next bunk awake. I missed out on a lot of reading time because I only had my phone and my main flashlight with me as I normally don’t fall asleep before 1 am.

Photos. On your arrival, you’ll be offered the chance to purchase a flash drive or print image of your crew photo (taken the next morning before breakfast). The flash drive is $20, or you can buy the individual photos for download on the website for $15 each. I recommend you buy one flash drive and find a way to share the photos with the whole crew after the trip. They will also include a folder on the drive with some additional photos of things you may have seen or done on your visit. There are not any photos taken of you throughout your trek by anyone else, so be sure you have a waterproof phone case to take your own pics.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, the Scouts, our other leader and I loved the program. I felt we got out of it what was expected, and my son has already asked to go back and do it again. If I hadn’t already booked a different trek for next summer, it might would be an option. The issues we had with our experience were out of the mates’ control and fall back on those who manage the facilities and food service. With some attention to the minor things that added up, they could have made this an absolute five star experience.