AUGUST 8 - 14, 2004

About 400 scouts were assisted by over 100 staff to work on their merit badges, rank advancement, and generally fun in, on and around the ocean this week.  33 of our 36 scouts immediately qualified for swimming and went on to work on their swimming, boating, canoeing and other water-related badges.

Our busy schedule would have kept our scouts from obtaining the CPR requirements for many of the water- related badges, but the staff offered our troop a special pre-dawn CPR course.

While working on his Aquarian badge, Braden K found a scorpion fish in one of the tidepools.  He took the fish to the Aquarium and discovered that this particular fish is usually found in water over 1000ft deep, and had never been seen in a tidepool before.  The fish is now in the Emerald Bay Aquarium and Braden had the honor of offically naming him: "Ralph".

148 loaded gear up into the war canoes, along with several other troops, and paddled around a few bends to Parson's Landing.  We swam there and snorkeled inside smuggler's cove, where local lore has it that pirates had once buried their treasure.  We spent that night at the beach under the stars.  

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