The Abaco Cruisers Net
The first thing we do every morning is listen to the Abaco Cruisers Net on our VHF radio (channel 68). The Cruisers Net is run completely by cruisers and comes on at 0815 hours every day of the year. The “Net” has been ongoing for about 20 years. Currently it is broadcast out of Hopetown Harbour on Elbow Cay where our marina is located.
The Cruisers Net was created to promote safety, friendship, and message handling among cruisers. The Net is a vital link allowing cruisers to keep abreast of what is going on in the Abacos. The Net agenda is the same every day. It is as follows:
Enjoying cruising friends at Nippers On Great Guana Cay
- The first order of business is providing the weather forecast for the Abaco area and the crossing over to Florida. This is important to many cruisers who are out at anchor or otherwise cannot receive the daily weather forecast.
- After covering the weather forecast, contributors to the Cruisers Net provide their assessment of the “cuts” between the Atlantic Ocean and the Sea of Abaco for all cruisers who may be considering transiting a cut for a passage south.
- Next the local churches, schools, and other civic organizations in the area advertise their fund raisers and other upcoming activities. This is how Dena and I found out about and went to a very entertaining local school Christmas play at a local church.
- Next on the agenda is “invitations.” This is where the local businesses advertise their services. From hotels to restaurants to scuba diving companies and other retail outlets advertise their upcoming events, daily specials, inventory sales, or happy hours/meal specials. This is how Dena and I knew about and attended the Hopetown Lodge Christmas eve party.
- The next item on the agenda is the transmission of emergency messages that the local internet service provider provides for free to the Cruisers Net. This is so any relatives back home who have an emergency or otherwise need to contact a cruiser can do so. However, with the recent availability of Wifi throughout most of the Bahamas, this service has become mostly obsolete.
- The last item on the daily Cruisers Net agenda is the open line segment. This is where people can call in and ask a question, ask if anyone has seen Ed & Betty on S/V “Second Wind,” or just call in to introduce themselves as either first-timers or old-timers returning back to the Abaco for another winter.
Cruisers off Grabbers Bar & Grill at Guana Cay
This last segment is what makes all the cruisers in the Bahamas such a close knit community. One day a boat may advertise they are hosting a potluck dinner and invite everyone within dinghy distance to motor over with a dish and join in. This is how so many people meet in the cruising community and become lifelong friends. But this network of cruisers is about more than just friendship, it is also about helping others. Let me provide an example of how valuable this network of cruisers is.
A couple weeks ago we had another electronics problem. After replacing our chart-plotter unit and our autopilot system at huge cost while on the ICW in the US, now our chart-plotter GPS antenna was in the early stages of failure and we had to get a new one. Since our chart-plotter installation was 10 years old, the new ones sold are not compatible with the older model that we have.
Cruisers at anchor in Hopetown harbour
So my problem was I had to somehow find a Raymarine GPS antenna that was no longer in production. After some research on the internet, I did find an antenna that looked like the right one for sale on eBay that was asking $350. But the cost does not stop there; the item must be shipped to the Bahamas (FedEx gave me a cost estimate of $139 to ship the antenna from the US to Marsh Habour). Additionally, FedEx informed me that the Bahamian duty on electronic items was 45%. This would add another $158 to the bill totaling $647 cost just to get a used antenna that has no guarantee to my boat in Hopetown. In addition to the cost to procure the item, I would need to pay someone to install the new unit. I am not capable of installing electronic items (or most any other item for that matter).
I was trying to think of who was coming to visit us in the Bahamas from the US that we could ship the GPS antenna to them in the US and they could hand-carry the antenna to us avoiding much of the costs. However, the next people we knew coming to the Bahamas was not until early February about 6 weeks later. I was not sure we could wait this long.
As I was mulling over the options, a guy comes by our boat in his dinghy saying he heard us calling another vessel on the radio and wanted to let us know they were out scuba diving for the day. This fellow looked familiar to me. It turns out it was Will from Annapolis, MD. Will works in West Marine in Annapolis in the summer when he and his wife are not in the Bahamas. Will helped me with a few last minute items for our boat at the end of last September just before we left Annapolis. I remember he said I’ll see you down there in the Abaco. I did not give it another thought. But 3 months later there he was just as he said. Will obviously knew better than I that the Abaco cruising community is very close knit and that he would see me again.
Will and I got to talking about my chart-plotter antenna problem. Will took a long look at the antenna and then he said to me, ‘If you can wait another day or so before you do anything in the US, let me check the “Net” for you.’ I said sure I can wait another day.
The next morning during the open-line segment of the Net, I heard Will come on the net and ask if anyone had a Raymarine GPS antenna Model No. 43Aw7jknc*fgHY6@!7832. I had no idea what he was talking about, but presumably everyone listening knew. Before I could get up to get another cup of coffee (about 5 seconds later), someone calls back on the net and says, ’Hey Will, I got one of those, come by and get it anytime.’
Will installing new GPS antenna
Will dinghied over to our boat about 30 minutes after the net was over (usually about 0845 hours) and says, ‘Some people on another sailboat in the harbor had one of the antennas you need. They had just upgraded their system and they still had their old antenna; it is only about 2 years old, so it should work fine.’ I was in shock over this development. I said Will how can I ever thank you? How much do I owe you? Will said to me, ‘you do not owe me anything but you can go settle up with the vessel that had the antenna sometime when you get a chance.’
Then I said to Will, ‘I have another problem, I don’t know how to install it.’ Will says, it is easy to install, there are four color-coded wires and you just cut the old one off and…………. I told Will I was not very good with electronic things and I asked him if I could pay him to install it. He said ‘You do not have to pay me, I will be happy to do it.’
But the installation was not as straight forward as we expected because, even though it looked similar, the base of the old antenna was not compatible with the new antenna I needed to put on it. Will told me no problem I will get some sailboard material and fabricate a transition section between the new antenna and the old base, so we can use the old base. Will spent a couple hours “machining” a 1.5 inch thick round spacer piece that fit perfectly on the old antenna base such that now he could place the new antenna on it and Will had somehow drilled out some pre-set screws to hold the whole thing together.
One good reason to have lots of cruising friends is they let your drive their cool boats. Here Ted drives a friend’s 44-foot Lagoon Powercat
After Will completed the installation, I turned on my chart-plotter and it worked fine. So two days after I told Will about the antenna problem, he had the problem fixed. I offered to pay Will for his time and material, but he declined. He said everyone here looks out for everyone else; someday you may have something I need (not likely, after 6 years of cruising, Will seems to have everything).
Will would not accept any cash for helping me, but I did buy him a bottle of his favorite rum and a bottle of wine for his wife. So this project cost me $100 (for the antenna), a bottle of rum and a bottle of wine. I asked Will to fix a couple other small things on our vessel and finally Will asked me (in a nice way of course), “What did you do in life that you never had to learn how to fix nothin?”
After our chart-plotter unit and our autopilot system broke down in the US, everyone told me how lucky I was that this happened in the US as opposed to the Bahamas where parts and technical labor are difficult to get. Now I am not so sure I was lucky. Those two repairs in the US cost us $3,500 and about 2 weeks lost time on the way down the ICW. This recent GPS antenna fix would have cost about $700 to $800 in the US. It cost me only $130 here in the Bahamas and was completed in 2 days.
This illustrates the value of the Abaco Cruisers Net. We never miss it while we are in the Abacos. Sometimes we even listen to the Net when we are back home in the US. It is available daily on the internet at http://www.barometerbob.org/
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