We have a really cool new addition to our touch tank area - a mantis shrimp one of our campers dubbed Backflip.  Backflip was brought to us by a member of San Diego Yacht Club, who had caught him while she was fishing for whitefish for her dinner.  Not sure of what he was, she brought him over to us in a bucket, and asked us if we wanted him for our aquarium.  The obvious answer…yes!!!!

Note that I said we put him into the touch tank area…NOT the touch tank itself!  Mantis shrimp have incredibly strong, sharp front appendages that they use to attack and kill prey.  These intimidating claws can also slice off the fingers of an unsuspecting observer…not exactly something we want in the “touch” tank!  Instead, Backflip was put in his own tank on the top shelf, along with a sign reading “Danger! Do not reach in tank!  Severe lacerations could occur!”

Some cool mantis shrimp facts:

1.  Mantis shrimp can be either smashers or spearers.  Smashers have club-like appendages that are used to bludgeon and smash their prey apart.  Spearers stab and tear at their prey with spiny, barb-tipped apendages.

2. Mantis shrimp have one of the fastest (if not the fastest) feeding strikes in the whole animal kingdom.  Some species can move their appendages with the same acceleration as that of a .22 caliber bullet!

3. Their eyes are considered by many scientists to be the most complex in the animal kingdom, seeing colors that even we humans cannot.

Our new maintenance guy, Justin, has put a lot of effort into the aquarium area and it looks great, with several new tanks showing off all kinds of cool creatures.  Jeremy and Justin built Backflip a nice “cave” in the tank and made sure he was comfortable.  We’re hoping we can keep him for a while!

Chef Tony, Eugene, and the kitchen staff have really outdone themselves this year with their Saturday night barbecue dinners, featured on YMCA weekends and our Family Camp Event.  The meal is a southern-style barbecue feast, the star of which is slow-roasted pork (cooked for hours in a wooden roasting box) and grilled chicken.  These meats are topped off with a choice of homemade barbecue sauce: sweet and traditional, or the spicier (and truly to-die-for) Carolina sauce.

Some people say, though, that the sides steal the scene: a thick slice of bread  (last week’s was honey wheat), warm and rich cream corn, baked macaroni and cheese, crisp coleslaw, and fresh salad - all of it (even the bread!) made right there in our kitchen at White’s.  And, of course, no meal would be complete without dessert - in this case, apple crisp topped with vanilla ice cream.  I’m embarrassed to say that no matter how stuffed I am after dinner (I can never resist seconds on cream corn or Carolina sauce) I always get at least a few bites of that dessert.

I can’t say I’ve tried the pork myself, being a longtime vegetarian, but I can definitely appreciate how happy our guests are.  As Homer Simpson said before his barbecue, “You don’t win friends with salad!”  You definitely don’t win YMCA Dads with salad, but you sure can with a huge hunk of roasted meat. We hope that those of you who haven’t had a chance to try this feast will join us out here at camp one of these Saturdays…you surely won’t regret it.

Check out our flickr site for a few more photos:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/53138689@N04/

For the second summer in a row, we were joined out at White’s by the LA County Sheriff’s department’s youth group.  The sheriffs brought out 15 kids, who participated in all our usual activities - hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, campfires - plus our Raft Regatta, which we do with our Camp Castaway campers.   The Raft Regatta was impressive, as usual, with the SS Maxwell (named for a little dog that wandered over while they were building their boat) competing against the Joe Mama (don’t ask!) and the Paradise.  The little dog must have brought good luck, because while it was a close race, the SS Maxwell came out on top (although the Paradise was close behind, and the Joe Mama won best name - that’s what happens when you let the kitchen staff decide!).

Overall, the staff loved visiting with the kids and the sheriffs.   Some of us are hoping to be able to pull some strings in the future and get out of a few tickets.  Ha!

Well, Camp Castaway 2011 has come and gone, but as they say, we’ll always have the memories!   My own personal highlights included:

1. New workshops, including a kayak orienteering workshop led by Eugene, in which campers had to kayak around the cove, digging and diving for clues that led them to a hidden pirate.

2. The Camp Castaway game. The campers had to sneak around camp in the dark completing various pirates’ tasks (including solving riddles, rolling dice, and reaching into a box of real worms) to get pieces of a treasure map and find different items.  Our staff, as usual, went all out, dressed head to toe in pirate outfits.

3. Skit night.  Every camper participated, all the skits were HILARIOUS,  Ducky (David) got silly stringed, PLUS we had an impromptu dance party led by Ethan (to a ridiculous 80s song - and everyone got up and joined him!)

4. The annual Staff vs. Campers soccer game. Staff was outnumbered about 4 to 1, but that’s just an excuse: we were beat, fair and square!  We have some pretty fierce soccer players among our campers.

5. Our new bison skull and crossbone t-shirts.  Awesome!

6.  Our counselors.  We had a great crew this year, and they were such a pleasure to have with us.  Nothing makes a great camp experience for a camper like a great counselor, and they really came through!

7. And, of course, our campers!  We always have wonderful campers come out and join us and as silly as our staff is, it would be no fun without them!   It has been fun seeing several of them grow up, and I hope to keep adding to that list!

Overall, camp was a big success, and I’m sad to have it over with so quickly.  But that just means we’ll have to start planning for next year.  In the meantime, check out and Like Camp Castaway on our facebook page.  See you at  Camp Castaway 2012!

Campers had a great reception! The staff put on a pirate-themed orientation, made the swim test fun, and served up a great Sunday dinner. Monday was packed with activities, including a kayaking treasure hunt (complete with pirates and treasure!), played a ton of great games, learned to snorkel and, for the older campers, went night snorkeling!

Here are some photos. We’re having a great time!

Our ground-breaking Camp Castaway concept from 2010 has been modified this year with a “Pirate” theme! I’d like to thank Lori Goetsch for coming out to camp last weekend and providing an enormous amount of decorations, costumes and creativity. Ryan Williams came with her and used his skill as a mechanic to help us get a few things in order as well.

Our program manager, Anna, has outdone herself this year with fresh activities for returning campers and a list of events that will keep the campers engaged, informed and thrilled! There will be a lot happening this week, so stay tuned to this blog. I will try to update at least once a day. In the meantime, please visit our Flickr page. It will have daily uploads of photos of all that is going on at Camp Castaway this week!

Pacific Palisades High School returned to camp after being away for over 2 years. Ms. Benke, who arranged and chaperoned the group a couple years ago, organized their 2011 event. She requested a special extended kayak excursion to Long Point Beach. Her students were very capable, and had a great excursion to the rarely visited spot just west of Long Point.

Welcome back, PPHS!

Believe it or not, there weren’t a lot of kayaking opportunities out in Muncie, so David thought it was about time that Ian took his first kayaking trip.  The odds were against Ian: it was windy, a bit surgey, and his instructor was Ducky (David).  At first, Ian even put on a seat-back around his waist instead of a PFD (see above photo!).  But he made it!  They only went about as far as Moonstone, but Ian got the hang of it.  I think he enjoyed it and hopefully they’ll try it again.  Next up – Part Two: Ducky and Ian attempt snorkeling.  Followed shortly by Part Three: Ducky and Ian are rescued by Jeremy.  (Just kidding!)

The camper ferry was able to load passengers from our newly installed float today! I just want to thank The Santa Catalina Island  Conservancy for sending down the overwhelming force of workers and equipment. Between them and the underwater salvage company we hired, Warren Diving, the project moved forward at unprecedented speed. I should mention that Jeremy, Grant and Kyle from TCX really stepped up and made the new float install happen. Their knowledge and experience with the cove made all the difference in the world.

We have some more work to do to make the pier-side moorings more permanent, but the float is now functional and ready for a busy Memorial Day Weekend.

Wednesday was a busy and semi-successful day. The Conservancy team was able to demo the rest of the old float and assist in the launch of the new one. It was a great moment when that all came together around med-day. The remainder of the day was spent trying to connect the new float to the old anchoring system. Ron (from Warren Diving Service) ran into some problems there.

It seems that we still didn’t have enough chain to connect the western anchor. That is the seaward anchor that holds the keeps the ferries from pushing the float out of alignment. However, Jeremy made another attempt (free diving) to find the missing section of chain, and where all previous attempts had failed, he suddenly succeeded! We spent several hours trying to dig out and move over 70 feet of chain, but are yet to recover all of it out of the sand. The pounding surf of last weekend buried it well.

Also, one of the “dead man” cables (lines heading to the beach and attached to posts called “dead men” ) had snapped during the storm surge. Finding that cable, buried somewhere in the sand in the eastern section of cove, will prove difficult, if not impossible.

Today’s tasks are to recover and utilize the section of chain that Jeremy found and rig a temporary anchor system where the cable had snapped. Then we will assess what hardware is needed to provide a permanent mooring for the new float.