OtherGoose: May 4

May 4

Today looks like it will be a solid rain day…flat grey sky and steady winds to drive the rain. Luckily its cooler because we have to keep the hatches closed so not much air moves around.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday the meat market sends a pickup truck to pick up boaters and take them to the market…I think I already told you that. Today the Net controller asked if anyone wanted to go…no response, so I guess the truck won’t be there today. No-one needs chicken or steak bad enough to sit the back of the truck for three miles and back.

Yesterday between rain squalls we went over to the other side to watch the Atlantic. It was awesome. We got a little wet but when it’s warm, it’s not so bad. We had our poncho’s with us.

Last night this enormous catamaran came in and parked at the edge of the mooring field. We could park underneath it…sideways! Maybe we should to get out of the rain! It’s too far away to read the name and it didn’t announce itself as a new boat here on the net this morning…maybe it’s undercover. I’ll bet Stephane knows the captain!

So have I explained the cruiser’s net? You boaters know what I am talking about, so you can skip this section. On the VHF radio, Channel 68 is used in the harbour for boats to contact each other. That leaves channel 16 [the emergency channel for important stuff]. Channel 68 is like having a party line… you call the boat you want to talk to, then pick another channel and you can chat as much as you like. Every morning at 8:00 am Channel 72 is reserved for the “Cruiser’s Net”, and Sue on Wind Dancer is the “Controller”. Basically it is a private news & information channel. Every night she gets weather for the next few days from Chris Parker [very interesting guy… I googled him]

After she reads us the weather, she asks for local businesses to announce and they all come on and tell us when they are open or what they’ve got. Rodney, in the pump-out boat lets us know when he will be out to pick up garbage and empty the holding tanks.

Then she asks for harbour announcements: volleyball games, water aerobics; library hours; Gordon on Blue Heavens lets us know if he needs volunteers for the reading program at the school, etc.

After that she asks if anyone needs help. This is where everyone gets to tell what they need to fix or find.

The she does the “Buy –Sell- Trade or Give -Away” section. After that, she asks for new boats to identify themselves and also boats that are leaving.

It takes about a half-hour and it’s great for giving a community feel to the place. She does this every day for as long as she is here. Don’t know what happens she is not here!

So it looks like today will be another on-the-boat clean-up day or goof-off-on the-computer day…maybe if it stops raining we can go swimming or visiting. We’ll see.

Pics [if they will load] are from yesterday.