We were at anchor in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua and the Captain got quite philosophical during his cocktail hour(s) today. He said, You know, our neighborhood keeps changing, but our neighbors don’t.” I was just waking from a catnap in the cockpit and didn’t quite understand what he mean. I urged him to explain more. He said, “We keep sailing around to different islands, but we hear the same boats being hailed on the radio no matter where we go.”
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| John (s/v Out of Africa) with us after walking a hash. |
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| One race of Antigua's Annual Regatta |
His observation was dead on. In fact, when entering an anchorage one of the first things we do is use the binoculars to scan the vessels before us and locate our friends. In my opinion, living aboard and cruising is much more fun with time to socialize through hiking, shopping, water aerobics, and of course sundowners.
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| Out come the spinnakers and A-sails |
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| John's S. African poitje on board s/v Nirvana |
During stretches of time when we haven’t seen anyone for a while, we tune into the Coconut Telegraph on the SSB at 8am to hear where everyone else is and let them know where we are. We can also use the SSB to try to contact others. Three weeks ago one of my FB cruiser friends let me know that Tiger Lilly was asking about us on the Coconut Telegraph, so we made a point to tune in the very next day. Sure enough, they called in again and so did we. I spoke with our good friends Lilly and Tom on s/v Tiger Lilly. They were in Venezuela near the mouth of the Orinoco River. We’ve kept in touch through FB, but hadn’t spoken to each other since we parted ways in Tobago last November. And now that they are cruising in sparsely populated areas, their access to wifi is very limited. Lilly & I were so happy to reconnect and Tom helped us set a weekly time to try to contact each other via a particular SSB frequency. Dan keyed it in on our radio and I looked forward to our next chat…
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| Dave (s/v Persephone) & Lee (s/v Allegro) digging the poitje! |
The next week on the appointed day and at the appointed time, we tuned in… N O T H I N G but static! So we dialed into the Coconut Telegraph again and Lee (s/v Allegro) helped us connect on a different frequency. However, the next week the use of that frequency was short-lived due to sunspots or some other mumbo jumbo in the atmosphere that interrupts the radio waves. (Can you tell I don’t understand the technology?) So Lee suggested that we try to contact each other daily on yet another SSB channel to increase the odds of us talking every now and then.
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| Weather like this can mess up SSB transmits. |
We listen to George’s Weather Report on the SSB every morning and on some days we can hear Tom or Lilly check in because they are licensed ham operators. On those days, I’m happy to hear my friend Lilly’s voice even if we can’t carry on a conversation.
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| Lilly & me when last together in Tobago. |
We were at anchor in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua and the Captain got quite philosophical during his cocktail hour(s) today. He said, You know, our neighborhood keeps changing, but our neighbors don’t.” I was just waking from a catnap in the cockpit and didn’t quite understand what he mean. I urged him to explain more. He said, “We keep sailing around to different islands, but we hear the same boats being hailed on the radio no matter where we go.” 
