Marathon Cruisers Net

Each morning at 9:00 am on VHF Channel 68, Marathon Cruisers Net gives the weather for the day, welcomes new boats to Boot Key Harbor, wishes farewell to departing boats, makes announcements, does buy/sell/trade, solves problems, and ends with a little trivia and final business.

It is hosted by the boaters in the harbor and volunteers who are called net controllers.  Net controllers open it each morning following the agenda plus monitoring the conversation.  You get some very interesting conversations, but most of all what I like is the community of it all.  It is like sailing, you never know what is going to come up next.  For example, I learned about Spanish classes and Tai Chi from the cruisers net. 

Sage from Spirit Dancer is my favorite.  She has a kind voice and you can tell she is compassionate and caring, and that you could call on her confident that she would know what to do to help you.  Charles on Ship of Fools is perky, sometimes a bit too perky in the morning, but he has my favorite closing line, “Remember, we are all here because we are not all there!”  Don’t you love it?!  Don on Lady Trianna, a trimaran of course, has the best radio voice, and he always includes his wife Dina, his dogs, Rudder and Tiller, haha what a hoot!  Then we have a guy who sounds just like Click and Clack, the Tappit brothers on Car Talk.

The Net provides a venue for sharing information on the storms, too.  With Tropical Storm  Erika bearing down on Marathon, the net is used to see what issues are out there, who needs assistance, and sailors share best practices and gear.  We have a special Net at 7:00 pm a couple of nights before TS Erika was scheduled to hit us.

So we look forward each day to our daily dose of Cruisers Net.  And it is ok that we won’t have one at distant islands and deserted beaches; that will be very different, more adventure than community.  Just like air conditioning at the dock, it’s nice, but you may as well stay home if that is what you want.