Tuesday, May 24, 2011 by Anna.

While almost all of our camp staff are incredibly busy getting our new float ready, for me (one of the few who are completely tool-impaired), the past couple of days have been much lighter - cleaning and organizing, lots of scheduling and emailing, and ordering new supplies.  The break from TCX school groups has also given me time to think about one of my favorite parts of the season - our youth camp, Camp Castaway!

 Last year, we began using a new workshop-style format for our camp, with each morning and afternoon dedicated to a certain topic.  Younger campers played games and had activities that centered around topics like life in the tidepools, tracking wildlife, and sea myths, while teen campers completed challenges and activities in topics like orienteering & navigation, survival skills, and the kelp forest.  We even tried out some new (and, in my opinion, incredibly exciting!) activities like raft building and kayak-in camping for the teens.

Much of the schedule will be very similar to last year’s schedule and, because we’ve done so much of the legwork already, I am really excited to get to  focus on making the camp experience even better than it was last year.  I am going to take the best of our workshops from last year, throw in a little more open beach time and games (who doesn’t love that?), and hopefully create an even bigger, more exciting camp-wide game.

If you or anyone you know is interested in becoming a volunteer counselor for Camp Castaway, please email me at anna@tcex.org and I’ll gladly get you some more information!

Keep checking the blog for more updates on what our Castaways will be doing out here this summer…

Anna

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Monday, May 23, 2011 by Eugene.

It started at 6:00 AM this morning at Home Depot. I had cruised over to the mainland in my 13′ skiff Sunday afternoon in order to be ready to shop for supplies and hardware first thing in the morning. Grant had finished jacking up the replacement float so that we could spin the flotation barrels freely in order to repair the leaks and apply anti-fouling paint. After shopping for painting tools and supplies at Home Depot, I headed to a marine hardware store to purchase epoxy patching compound and anti-fouling paint. I was able to make it back to Whites by 10:30 this morning.

Ron Warren of Warren Diving Service, and good friend to TCX, headed over this morning as well with Dan Berman (caretaker for San Diego Yacht Club’s outstation at Whites Cove) and his friends from the Sand Dollar dive boat.  By the time they reached Whites Cove around 11:30 AM, we had untangled the pier lines, found the beach-side anchor chains and had prepped the damaged barrel on the replacement float for patching. Ron dove on the seaward anchors this afternoon, located much of the ground tackle, and marked it so we can position the chain tomorrow using float bags and power boats.

The conservancy sent a crew down as well to help shore up the damaged section of pier.  I worked with them to get some bracing installed where two piles had been knocked out by the loose float.

We had a very productive first day. Tuesday will find us applying anti-fouling paint to the replacement float, positioning the anchor chains and adding chain as necessary, and disposing of the old float. The Conservancy is sending their loader and bulldozer down for the demolition of the old float and the launching of the replacement.

Through all of this, the Naturalists at Large brought in over 100
campers. We chartered a bus that made three trips to Avalon and brought
all the kids to the top of our 3 mile dirt road into camp. The campers
hiked into camp while Jeremy brought all of their luggage with the
truck. If all goes well, these campers will be the first to use our new
float when their boats come in Thursday and Friday. 

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Friday, May 20, 2011 by Eugene.

The south swell is finally calming down a little, and we are able to survey the damage caused by the storm surge that affected us. The swell originated in the Pitcairn area of the South Pacific, where storm waves of 40′ and more were generated. The ripple affect traveled all the way to Southern California and surf of 8′ and larger hit our beach over the past few days.

We will be working hard to put into service the float we purchased last year from Campus by the Sea by the end of next week. We were hoping to wait until we had had the chance to make some improvements on the newly acquired float, but I guess those improvements will have to wait until the end of our 2011 season.

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