Sunday, March 05, 2006

A shared community:

I think the thing I like the most about the cruising lifestyle is the sense of community with the other cruisers. Recently, we have had some trouble with our anchor staying set. One of those days we were setting and resetting, we worked for about 2 hours trying to make sure we were set in the crazy reversing current. The VHF radio came on Crossroads, Crossroads, White Diamond. (That's how you talk from boat to boat). We thought he was calling to tell us we were too close to his boat or something negative. He was so nice; he said, " Your husband is working way too hard. I hope you are planning to cook him a big breakfast. Another time went to get fuel for Crossroads so we left our dinghy in our spot to save our anchor spot. When we returned we anchored very close to our dinghy but we were going to have to swim over to it. Steve from the next boat over got in his dinghy and took me over to our dinghy. These are just a couple of minor examples of sailors helping each other out. We have previous told you about the morning radio net in Georgetown. This morning we announced on the boaters general section of the net that we were having problems with our autopilot. (It has not worked the whole trip meaning we have hand steered every mile, Yuck!). At least six boats came back to us on the radio with great advice. It is so reassuring to know we are a radio call away from receiving help when needed. I wish the world would function more like the sailing community.

Michele