The Bahamas, land of sun, sand, and wide blue oceans. During the summer of 2008 a group of scouts had the opportunity to spend a week on a large reconstructed ship sailing around the beautiful Great Abaco Island. Arriving in Marsh Harbor, our group took taxis down to the dock and set out in a dingy to our new home for the week. On this amazing ship we met the Capitan and his wife, owners and leaders of Le Pêcheur D'étoiles, the fisherman of stars. Thus began our adventure.

Over the next week we learned knots, sailed around the bay, cooked, cleaned and kept watch at night. Every morning our group would split into our cleaning crews and set to work washing the deck, polishing the brass and scrubbing the sides of the ship. While this was happening, one group would cook breakfast, being sure to come up with an amusing story about how they got our food. After breakfast we would head out to our daily activity, be it snorkeling, exploring an island town, or hiking. While traveling we would learn how to speed tie knots and all about sailing. After the day ended, our crews took turns keeping watch through the night, guarding from pump failure or storms.

As part of the adventure of the trip, we had competitions, punishments, and pirating throughout the week. The two big competitions were best pirate and fastest bowline. Each of the winners of these received a Turks head bracelet to show their expertise in the given task. The punishments normally consisted of walking the plank, or in major cases such things as tying the legs of two scout together for breaking the buddy system.

The last day on-ship was Pirate Day. On this day, each scout was given the props to dress as a pirate and then time to come up with a pirate story. The best story won best pirate. We learned pirate lore and history, and even cot to try hard tack and participate in repelling a raid lead by the adults armed with water balloons.

At the end of it all, we headed home to regular life and summer time. Happily taking showers and putting on clean clothes, we could help thinking back on the great time. We had learned a lot, swam a lot, and overall experienced something we otherwise would have never known.