After our departure from Beresford Park at 8:30, the crew reached a park where we would learn how to windsurf. All the crew members shocked the instructors with our skill to properly raise, and use the sail properly after only having little to no experience. Multiple crew members were able to successfully turn their sail and board around without falling over by the end of the session. Crew members got a chance to not only play in the water but also learned new skills while having a big smile on their faces.
Once our session was over, we got cleaned up, dried off and ate lunch. Luckily, when we began to eat lunch, the wind started to get chilly and blow harder. The instructors were kind and let us sit in their wonderful back patch of grass. The crew had a lovely view of the water, the boats in the distance, the clouds above, the large mountains in the background, and the many birds that flew overhead.
After arriving at the Chabot Campground in Castro Valley, the crew played the game of Kubb. Kubb was exciting, as crew members took turns throwing wooden blocks attempting to knock down the other team’s wooden blocks. Sometimes, we got lucky, other times, we weren’t, but regardless, all the crew members built better friendships. In addition, the crew successfully used rope and wooden beams to build a ten minute tower. Although the tower didn’t take ten actual minutes, the tower represented the crew’s skill and demonstrated that we knew some impressive lashings.
Further, once we had set up camp, we cooked delicious pesto noodles and chicken. One of the crew members might have gone a little crazy with the chicken cooking, in which when the noodles had been eaten up, there was still plenty of chicken to go around. The crew had a wonderful time cooking and shared funny jokes and stories with some lights.
One crew member built a fire that was both warm and bright. Once the light had faded away, the crew got an extremely great chance to look up at the night sky and view the Moon, and some planets. Using our equipment, and help from our adult leaders and astronomy expert, the crew got to view the night sky with its beauty. This was an amazing opportunity to see things that normally wouldn’t be as obvious.
After we woke up from our cold sleeping bags the next morning, we made large fluffy chocolate and blueberry pancakes. One pancake was the size of a frying pan! We got our dishes cleaned and sorted, packed up our gear, and went to project management and axe throwing. This portion of the outing was a good opportunity and experience to go learn about what it takes to lead a good project using steps such as what materials you need, what kind of communication you need, and many other important life skills that the scouts could use in their future lives. The crew also got a chance to throw both tomahawks and large wood cutting sized axes. Many of the larger scouts successfully landed the huge axes deep into the wooden target.
Overall, the crew got an amazing chance to go on an amazing outing that showed that the scouts knew their skills, learned some more, and got to have fun all within 48 hours.
By Dominic