Scouts - Circus Skills

Friday 26th February 2016 ... was Circus Skills night for our Sea Scouts.
With so much to do there wasn't enough time to catch breath between the activities and the laughter.

We had a unicycle, two different height stilts, diablos, plate spinning, juggling balls and face painting. As we started the session the Scouts quickly realised that none of the equipment is as easy as it looks and would require some concentration and practice.

Between falling off the stilts and unicycle and flying plates, diablos and juggling balls the laughter from the face painting was a joy to hear.

As the session moved on we found that practice makes almost prefect with scouts moving up and down the hall on stilts (some aided and some not), plates were spinning on sticks with some scouts have more than one on the go and diablos were flying in the air and landing back on their strings. However, more practice is needed with the juggling balls and unicycle with cheers when a Scout managed to take their hands off the walls on the unicycle.

The session closed with Cake... not a regular occurrence for our Sea Scouts but a more than welcome one given the hard work. But ... this was no shop brought cake... this was a cake baked by one of our scouts as part of their Personal Challenge Badge.
I think you will agree that this is a fantastic effort.

Scouts - Boat Maintenance

It's that time of year again; Sailing season is just around the corner, the days are getting longer and temperatures are going up. This can only mean one thing; It's time to start working on the boats and kayaks.

Saturday 20th February was our first boat maintenance day of the year. We asked for 4 Scouts per session (am/pm) and found ourselves quickly over subscribed with 5/6 Scouts wishing to attend. 

Session one - Sanding down

When I left home the thermometer in the car read 11 degrees and the sky was clear; It was looking like a good day. While Dave and I sorting the boat to begin work the Scouts started to arrive and instantly mucked in. With the Power tools plugged in and the generator running it was time to start sanding down the dinghy's hull. 

With breaks every 20 minutes or so to give our ears a rest from the noise of the generator we could see how quickly progress was being made. As the temperature dropped and the rain arrived so did breakfast - bacon and mushroom rolls. Yummy :-)

After breakfast and with undercover space limited in the garage we could only work on one end of the boat at a time. The pm team worked very hard in the cold temperatures and limited space to get the job done. After a couple of hours hard graft it was time for some very welcome and needed hot chocolate kindly provided by one of the parents.

With the hull sanded down we could see that the dinghy had held up well to last years tough sailing season with only a couple of points of interest. After a bit of attention from Dave we will be ready for Session Two - Painting.

Scouts - Climbing

Friday 12th February 2016... was rock climbing night for our adventurous Sea Scouts. Organised by one of our young leaders; 17 Scouts, 2 young leaders, 3 Scout leaders and even parents got involved in rock climbing and bouldering.
Warehouse Gloucester has a varied range of climbing walls (up to 11 metres), Bouldering Floor, dedicated Kids’ Zone, Party rooms, Meeting rooms, Café-Bar and Shop. Their friendly and highly trained staff kept us safe and provided expert tuition and careful supervision to all of our Scouts whilst on site.
Quickly we found our Scouts scaling the walls with ease and as their experience grew; so the competitive environment started to grow. A small competition started around the wire ladder which goes 11 meters floor to ceiling. Times posted started around the 35 seconds mark but as the competition grew, so did their confidence and inevitability times tumbled with the quickest time posted at a surprisingly quick 20 seconds.
For some of the Scouts it was more of an achievement to just get their feet off the floor as this is probably not the best activity for those with a fear of heights. However the support and encouragement of the other Scouts soon had them taking their first steps up the wall.
With sore hands and arms all Scouts left with smiles on their faces having spend another fantastic evening doing something out of the ordinary.
15th St Peters Sea Scout leaders would like to thank all staff at Warehouse Gloucester and we look forward to visiting again in the future.