Abaco Cruisers Net

Abaco Cruisers Net   …   Friday 18th Jan 2013

One of the great sources of information here is the so called "Abaco Cruisers Net" which broadcasts on VHF radio channel 68 at 8.15am every morning. It does sound funny when you first listen in … "Good morning cruisers, it's Friday 18th January … "  a bit like I imagine a "Good morning campers" on the public address system at a holiday camp. It's stated aim is to promote safety, good communication practices and friendship, and it's genuinely useful. The sequence is the same every day and even the dialogue sounds very similar like it's being read from a script. Ahead of the broadcast you can hear the coordinator lining up the contributors for each segment. The order goes - 

- weather forecast - synopsis, local conditions, gulf stream conditions, tides, sun and moon  rise and fall

- current weather / seas in the Sea of Abaco

- reports or observations of the cuts / passages between the Sea of Abaco and the Atlantic 

  (all of the above are also captured on barometer bob.org)

- any emergency contact messages via cruisers@oii.net

- local community announcements

- advertisements from local bars. restaurants, dive shop etc 

- welcome to new arrivals

- open microphone for questions etc

We try and listen in to at least the weather every morning. Today we had a bit of a slow start, revolving around bacon, eggs, toast and lots of coffee, and listened to the whole thing. When we did go to shore, around 11am we met a lovely lady called Pauline and chatted to her for quite a while and then went out to lunch together at the local marina dock restaurant. Gloria and I then ran a couple of errands, post office and cell phone top up, and enjoyed wandering around the town. Once again, I have to comment on how friendly and helpful everyone we have met here has been. Later in the afternoon Pauline and her husband Alan came over for a drink and we enjoyed chatting and sharing our boating experiences. All in all a very pleasant and social day !

Mike

Ruddy Turnstone - Atlantic ocean beach Man of War Cay

One of the local cats - very like our own "Tiger"

Flower Petal - there are lots of beautiful flowers in the gardens on this island and also Hope Town

Purses make from Androsia Batique fabrics (from Andros)

We have to run our main engine ~ an hour a day (or ideally 2 x 45 mins) to run the compressor for our freezer / fridge. When we do so there's some noise / vibration and these are the ripples that the vibrations produced on my cup of tea