Canoe Expo and 2-Star Award

Building on the success of the first Canoe Expo organised last year, 5 members of the Unit completed their MCF 2 Star Award between the 8th and 9th August. Three of the ventures, myself and a special guest met up on Friday night at L-Aħrax. From there we walked down to Slugs Bay for a short swim and then made it back up to set up bivoacs for the night. The ventures tried to get an early night..which turned out to be quite a challenge because of all the mosquitos.

The Unit walking down to Slgs Bay

Simon and George at Slugs Bay

The next morning Tom and Allen joined and we met up with our instructor Clarke, for what was going to be a full day out at sea. The ventures started off by brushing up on 1 Star stroke work, and once Clarke was satisfied proceeded to learn some new techniques.

Tom and Simon cooking lunch

After a lunch break it was straight back to the water for some rescue drills using several different techniques. Simon and Allen managed the eskimo roll in the process! Since we were spending the night at Mġiebaħ we returned to land to waterproof all the kits and load them in the kayaks. On the way to Mġiebaħ the team took turns at leading the group, while the others got creative with ways to create confusion to keep the leader busy. Allen decided this would be a good time to make a new friend and hide behind some boulders, waiting for the leader to notice his absence.

Allen with his new friend

The kayaks at Mġiebaħ

Once at Mġiebaħ the ventures set out on a search for firewood, supper couldn't come sooner after such a long day. There was one last adventure to go before dawn, a night paddle around the area. Definitely one of the highlights of the weekend from what I heard! Sounds like they got to see some bioluminescent bacteria too (bacteria in the sea which give off light when disturbed).. I was busy hunting in the meantime, the area's got quite a few rats of its own!

The next morning we returned to Għadira, where it was time to put all that the ventures had learnt to the test. Needless to say they all passed without difficulty, congratulations Tom, Simon, George, Allen and Chris! I'll just post one last picture of me with my kayak. More activities to follow so keep checking back!

Mo$es

Fundraising Carwash

As the SVS is a non-profit organisation, just like the Sliema Group and the Scout Movement as a whole, we try to gather as much funds as possible to keep the SVS boat afloat. We accomplish this by organising fund-raising activities throughout the year, such as Malta Marathon Sponsorships, Car-boot sales, Job-month and more.

This time round the Unit decided to organise a car wash to help raise the last funds needed for the completion of our very own climbing wall! The Ventures met up early on a sunny summer morning in July in Swieqi to turn the front of Zack's house into a fully functional carwash. And so they did!

Cars flowed in and out of the makeshift car-wash -which at the end of the day totaled to about 40 cars! It was hard work for the Ventures, but well worth it in the end. Good job guys and a big thank you to those who came to support our Unit!

PS - The Climbing Wall is now in its final stages of graffiti and painting! More info coming sooooon!

Mo$es

Iljieli Scoutin

Between the 31^st of July and 2^nd of August, the Sliema Front became alive with a strong scouting fever, organized by our Scout Group as part of our 100 year celebrations. There were games for the kids and the centenary photos on display. There was also a climbing wall up which attracted the attention and interest of most of the passers-by, and was tried by nearly all Cubs and Scouts alike.

As for the Unit, we pioneered a structure that displayed our abseiling equipment on one side and had an abseil wall on the other. On this wall Ventures took it in turns to demonstrate how to abseil down a flat surface, and how to war the abseil gear. On the second day, we started letting people try it for themselves and before we knew it we were constantly kitting up people to let them try their hands at the activity we love so much!

All other Scout Groups were invited to attend, and indeed many did turn up and joined in the fun. San Gwann Scout Group also put on a remarkable show, by dressing up in full parade uniform and playing the bagpipes.

Ljieli Skawtin was certainly a success, and hopefully helped to improve the image of Scouting to the public. Well done boys!

Iljieli Scoutin on TVM - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kqlgfEyDmI&feature=player_embedded

Joint Activity with Dingli Ventures

As you may have realized, this summer the SVS have been up to a lot of sailing, and this we were joined by none other than the Dingli Venture Scouts! The activity was held as part of the respective Units’ leaders’ IHQ Basic Adult Leadership Training Programme.

We met on a windy enough afternoon in Mellieha bay, where we were briefed by the people renting us the dinghies. They reminded us what to do were we to capsize, and to be careful of the boom when we tacked (change direction), since it has quite a hard swing (just ask Chris!!).

View of Ghadira Bay from Torri Ahmar

Since there was about 12 knots of wind blowing, the sailing was good, and we went as far as the fish farms and even further. We sailed both on a reach at some points and on a run at others. After about 2 hours at sea it was time to head back to base as the sun was going down.

Preparing the BBQ for the night's feast!

We then walked up to the Red Tower and got the BBQ going. Whilst the flames turned to embers, we played a series of ice-breakers to get to know each other better.

As for food, some of us were more creative (and thus better fed!) than others. For many it was sausages or burgers, but a few enjoyed rib eye steaks!

"Breaking the ice"

A big prosit to the Ventures of the Dingli Scout Group, who helped make the activity a success. It’s always good to meet and take on new challenges with fellow Ventures from other groups!

More posts on our aquatic summer are on the way so keep an eye out!

Mo$es