While having loads of fun, kids learn how to safely navigate and maintain not only the troop's ship, the SSS Challenger, but also operate sailboats, powerboats and other small watercraft.

No boating background is required, just a strong desire to learn and a willingness to operate as a team. Everything else is taught.

"The kids run the boats, the older people just direct you and tell you what to do," says Ryan Bray of Campbell, a Sea Scout who has been with the ship a year. In addition, the scouts do all of the cooking, as well as routine maintenance like checking the engine, while on their two-hour watch. But parents need not worry—an adult skipper is aboard and everything is under control.

"On the first day, my parents were a little iffy, but they came and met our skipper and after that they were very comfortable. They love it, too," says Kyle Northend of San Jose.

The skipper, Layne Davis, is a sergeant with the Los Gatos­Monte Sereno Police Department. He has been running the ship since 1994 and has been involved in Sea Scouts since 1978.

The SSS Challenger, a former Coast Guard vessel, carried its crew to the Coast Guard station at Yerba Buena Island for the annual Safety at Sea weekend last October. After working a full evening doing community service at the Haunted Forest in Los Gatos, the scouts set sail from their berth in Redwood City late that evening, arriving at 2 a.m. The weekend was stunning—unusually warm, but crystal clear with a beautiful view from the shadow of the Bay Bridge. The water was so still it looked like glass.

One of the first activities was a water rescue exercise where the scouts got into what's called a "gumpy suit." It's specifically designed to keep someone afloat and on their back in the event they are unconscious when falling into the water, preventing drowning. "It's a little constricting when you jump into the water—all the pressure gets sucked out," says Grant Hendricks of Sunnyvale. Getting out proved just as difficult. Most landed like beached whales, and they were greeted with lots of laughter and cheers.

Their ship looked inordinately clean, the result of a "haul out" last summer during which the ship received a thorough overhaul, as well as an ultrasound check of the bottom followed by the welding of new steel on any thin portions. This is in addition to the routine painting done every year. The process took six weeks and occurred at Moss Landing.

Needless to say, it's not cheap running the group—the annual cost is about $25,000. This year was a little more expensive because of the haul out, says Skipper Davis. They raise money through dues—$15 a quarter—as well as through fundraisers like working at a Christmas tree lot carrying out trees for customers.

A division of the Boy Scouts of America, Sea Scouts was founded in the United States in 1912—two years after Boy Scouts were founded—and offers both girls and boys an aquatic alternative to the outdoor experience. Kids come to the program for myriad reasons, including those who are from traditional scouting programs and looking for something different.

"In Boy Scouts, basically we'd load everything into a backpack, hike 2 miles into the woods and then it rained," says eighth-grader Cassidy Cannizzaro of Los Gatos. He's been with the ship nine months and is really enjoying the experience—not to mention the comforts of a heated bunk on the ship.

There are ranks similar to those in Boy Scouts but with different names—apprentice, ordinary, able and, ultimately, quartermaster, the highest rank and the equivalent to Eagle Scout. Dan Kroman, a junior officer on the ship, achieved the rank of quartermaster and for his project built a 30-foot stairway for the public works department to get up a hill in Los Gatos.

The older boys are responsible for the younger ones and take the job very seriously. Matt Hendricks is the ship's boatswain, comparable to being president and in charge of all the kids on the ship. He is a senior at Oak Grove High School in San Jose and will be joining the Coast Guard after graduation. Usually Hendricks has around 16 to 20 kids under his command.

"They are so young and don't know a lot of the stuff, so they need someone to guide them," he explains. He keeps on eye on the group, as there's a tendency for them to goof off a bit, he says.

The older boys exude a quiet maturity, no doubt because of the experience. "Some kids my age do whatever they want and don't care about the rules or other people, but I credit the program with giving me a sense of responsibility," says Hendricks.

Brad Latigue, a graduate of Leigh High School, will be joining the Coast Guard this month and will be training at Cape May, N.J. He's been with the ship two years and was assigned to assist the younger crewmembers during a hypothermia demonstration. This exercise involved sticking one's hand in a bucket of ice water and grabbing pennies from the bottom. It's not easy and kids learned just how incapacitating cold water can be. The expressions on their faces said it all.

One activity pitting boys against girls was the fire hose contest, an especially welcome respite from the heat. It was similar to a tug of war contest during which approximately six kids on each side held a fire hose and attempted to push a ball in the middle to the opposing side, using the force of the fire hose. Kailey Elliott, a seventh-grader from Los Gatos, liked this activity best and confessed it was a lot more fun getting the boys wet than winning the contest.

"My brother was in Sea Scouts and it sounded like a lot of fun because they went on cruises and swam," she explains. She's been in the group a year and enjoys the socializing as well. She finds the experience of working as a team with shipmates also helps her in sports.

Her ship, the Morning Star, is also docked in Redwood City, and the group accepts girls from all over the Peninsula, with most of the crew coming from Los Gatos. It's half the size of the Challenger, but big enough for the seven girls who participated in the weekend event. The Morning Star served as the admiral's gig on the USS Midway, a Navy legend that was recently refurbished in Oakland.

They average between five and eight girls on each excursion and learn everything their male counterparts do. Davis was in charge of the crew before handing it over last July to Tess Herman, whose day job is running the molecular genetics lab at Children's Hospital in Oakland.

It's easy to lose sight of the serious nature of boating, but during the weekend activities kids are reminded of this very important fact. The damage control drainage exercise involved a leaky boat with holes on the bottom filling up with water. There is an assortment of rags, wedges and wooden plugs to be used to stop the leaks.

"It's fun, like a sinking boat," says 13-year-old Alex Gillette, a student at Fisher Middle School in Los Gatos. He quickly learned that rags weren't all that effective and stoppers were the way to go.

"If you don't work as a team, nothing works because we had to ask some people to hammer and others to hold the stoppers."

In the event an emergency happens at sea, their training from the weekend would help them respond appropriately—for example, how to properly use a flare in order to sound a warning. And there was the pyrotechnic exercise, showing everyone the proper use of a fire extinguisher, which actually involves a very specific technique; the extinguisher should be pointed at the fire's base. They also learned what type of extinguisher should be used for the different types of fires.

The SSS Challenger was purchased in Southern California, where it was berthed at a naval beach near Santa Barbara. The crew traveled every weekend to work on the ship from February to May of 1998. It was finished on Memorial Day Weekend and, while the crew was at a competition in Alameda, the adult members went down to bring it up north. They hit a severe windstorm and it took 42 hours to make it back. Of the nine on board, only two weren't seasick—the skipper, Davis, who never gets sick, says Kroman, and a 75-year-old Naval veteran.

The boat hit 20-foot waves and everyone took turns with six-hour watches while the Coast Guard monitored them the whole time. Needless to say, the Challenger was the talk of the day.

The boys have never encountered anything quite like that. But it can get a little blustery on the Bay, and the ship can get knocked around some, says ninth-grader Andrew Alexander of Saratoga, who is also in the Boy Scouts and is working on his Eagle project.

"We've encountered a lot of wind. Sometimes it's a little crazy, but you get your sea legs and balance yourself out," he says. It can get pretty cold, too, especially while on watch at night, but he loves cruising and going places.

Alexander fondly remembers a cruise to Napa last year—dazzled by the lights of San Francisco and the rowdy sounds emerging from Pac Bell Park. Yes, he just heard the Rolling Stones concert, and he had the best seat in the Bay Area.