Camp Roy C. Manchester - High Adventure Sailing
Thoughts by Matt Hayden
This past summer we went to Camp Roy C. Manchester. One of the courses they were offering was a High Adventure Sailing Course. The guys who decided to give this a try were myself, Hank, Kevin and Garrett. Oh yeah, Timmy was going to go but he caught a bad case of the Poison Ivy…go figure.
When we arrived at the camp it was nothing like Camp Crooked Creek at all, much smaller and less scouts. It was kind of nice not having all the little kids running around screaming all the time. The older guys had decided (for some reason) not to set up any tents the whole week and just sleep on the ground outside, hoping the weather would hold up.
The second day we got to meet our sailing guide James and his dad Mr. Skinner. For some reason we thought Mr. Skinner strongly resembled Mr. Wright, a past Adult Leader, so we called him Mr. Wright the whole trip.
When we got our boat it looked like it had been through a hurricane and back. Completely decked out with duck tape and other means of holding the boat together, it was just right for us. It was kind of a tight fit but we managed to get all four of us in the boat.
For our last night at camp we had to stay in the boats so we bid farewell to the adults and troop, but it would not be the last time we saw them. The next morning we got everything ready in the boats to launch off on our week adventure but we had to say bye to the troop once more. After we said goodbye and everything and were walking away Mr. Hardesty gave the old “don’t embarrasses us” and Hank replied with a “I’ll just tell them my name is Hank Hardesty, don’t worry.”
The first day of sailing was quite a challenge. Due to lack of wind we basically used our small 9.5 HP engine to get to camp. The boats were scorching hot and by the end of the first day most of us were red as lobsters. Oh yeah, we don’t believe in sunscreen either. The second day turned out to be even worse than the first. We were going upwind the whole time and Hank the expert sailor claimed we were doing it right but we didn’t move even 50 ft. in 2 hours. Mr. Wright got kind of ticked off and told one of us to go on his boat so he could teach us. It turns out that lucky person was me. I kind of just nodded my head and smiled the whole time he was talking. Luckily I was able to go on the pontoon boat the rest of the day and make sandwiches.
When we were close to camp we spotted a barge coming down the lake. It just happens that the duck tape boat with Kevin, Hank, and Garrett in it was headed right toward the barge. Kevin was under the deck getting away from the sun, Hank was asleep on the deck and Garret, our least skilled sailor, was steering the boat wondrously, not knowing what was going on. After some yelling from James, Hank woke up and steered the boat to safety.
We ate great throughout the whole trip. We had burgers, spaghetti, pork chops, and even some in-town food when we went to a small town to shop around for a day. That was awesome. There were some real cool stores, one being an old antique store, which had almost everything you could imagine in it. By the third day we had become great sailors, you could say. We actually kind of knew what we were doing. Being able to sail made it much more fun and exciting. One day the waves were massive due to a storm that pulled through earlier and it was crazy on those small sailboats. On the last day we were able to just sail around and goof off the whole day. I (stupidly) decided to just lay out on the deck for a few hours with no sunscreen and fried my stomach a deep red, that kind of hurt. Kevin who is burnt quite easily was as red as could be and well, Garrett spent most his time below deck. Maybe that was the smart thing to do.
I must say when it was all over we had a great time. It was something that we probably wont have the chance to do again and a good break from the old crooked creek camp. It was a great experience not only being fun but also a great learning experience. There were so many stories I could not touch them all but just ask either myself, Hank, Kevin, or Garrett, and I’m sure we will tell you it they were good times and that if the opportunity ever comes up again you should jump on the chance to go. It was truly an experience unlike any other in scouting.