[Don L]

Needed a small help item this week. There is close to 400 boats anchored here. The help I need I bet 100 of those boats could have provided and it would have taken less than 5 minutes time. Got no one offering and I even even was offering to pay. Just a few years past I would have been turning down people.

Last week was at an anchorage with a well known cruiser beach. Last time just 2 years ago there were regular sundowners etc. get togethers there. This visit in 4 days there I never saw anyone other than us even go to the beach.

6 years ago on my first year I collected a stack a couple inches high of boater cards. Now for every 10 I give out I might get 1 as newer cruisers just aren't interested in them. Boaters just don"t really even seem to interested in getting together.

The last couple of weeks in various anchorages I have noticed cruisers don't care how close they fly by your boat in the anchorage or how big a wake they made with their dinghies. All they care about is getting to beach bat faster. Just a few year ago it was only the super yachts that acted like owned the water and to hell with other boaters.

Now days it is almost common for someone to take up 3/4 of the small dinghy dock because they needed to lock their boat for and aft.

Maybe it is just me.

 

[Mama's Mink]

Social media on internet now fills that time for most.

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

400 boats??????????????? Must be Georgetown, Bahamas.

I think I have told you each year for the last 6 years that its time you headed south to the Caribbean.

In amongst 400 boats you are not borrowing a hammer you're the social problem people are trying to escape.

Head south - not to the USVI's - and live the dream you used to have


Mark

 

[Don L]

I think I have told you each year for the last 6 years that its time you headed south to the Caribbean.

In amongst 400 boats you are not borrowing a hammer you're the social problem people are trying to escape.

Head south - not to the USVI's - and live the dream you used to have

I answer to a higher authority. And even then I have to contend with not doing what is better.

 

[sailordave]

While we were sailing in the south pacific 5 years ago (on OPBs) just about everyone we talked to said they would never go back to the Caribbean. To much crime/unpleasantness/unfriendliness. I personally haven't experienced that in the few times I've briefly spent there, but...

 

[colemj]

Starlink

 

[colemj]

While we were sailing in the south pacific 5 years ago (on OPBs) just about everyone we talked to said they would never go back to the Caribbean. To much crime/unpleasantness/unfriendliness. I personally haven't experienced that in the few times I've briefly spent there, but...

While there is little about the Eastern Caribe we enjoy (French islands excepted, but they are France, not EC), I wouldn't say crime/unpleasantness is any worse than most other places, and crime tends to be petty theft - nobody is shooting up schools or anything like in the US. There are a few very well-known areas to avoid, but not many. Much of any unpleasantness is from simply being exhausted from the unreasonable charter people. Outside that season, the people are great. Even chartering, if you approach with respect, you get nice people - it is just the charterers that think entire countries exist solely for their vacation, and their people to serve them instantly, who bring the local people down.

We are currently in Jamaica and it is great, with good food, lots to see, and friendly people. We are headed to the Western Caribe, where we have spent a lot of time before, and the people there are also great. Violent crime is really bad around Honduras, but everywhere else is back to just the potential for petty theft of unlocked/unguarded things.

I don't understand the argument about leaving the Bahamas for the East Caribe to avoid crowds. Georgetown definitely, but the EC is WAY crowded in most places, while the Bahamas are essentially empty in most places. And the Bahamas outside of Nassau and the Northern Exumas aren't full of charter boats banging into you, dragging everywhere, and demanding unreasonable things.

Mark

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

While we were sailing in the south pacific 5 years ago (on OPBs) just about everyone we talked to said they would never go back to the Caribbean. To much crime/unpleasantness/unfriendliness. I personally haven't experienced that in the few times I've briefly spent there, but...

Oh, yes, the Pacific is even better. The further one must sail to a destination the more friendly they are.

No doubt about it!


Mark

 

[MikeOReilly]

Go somewhere else. There's lots of cruising areas where people are still people -- IOW, good, kind, generous, and always willing to help. What you speak of is foreign to my experience with cruising and cruisers.

 

[VIEXILE]

Needed a small help item this week. There is close to 400 boats anchored here. The help I need I bet 100 of those boats could have provided and it would have taken less than 5 minutes time. Got no one offering and I even even was offering to pay. Just a few years past I would have been turning down people.

Last week was at an anchorage with a well known cruiser beach. Last time just 2 years ago there were regular sundowners etc. get togethers there. This visit in 4 days there I never saw anyone other than us even go to the beach.

6 years ago on my first year I collected a stack a couple inches high of boater cards. Now for every 10 I give out I might get 1 as newer cruisers just aren't interested in them. Boaters just don"t really even seem to interested in getting together.

The last couple of weeks in various anchorages I have noticed cruisers don't care how close they fly by your boat in the anchorage or how big a wake they made with their dinghies. All they care about is getting to beach bat faster. Just a few year ago it was only the super yachts that acted like owned the water and to hell with other boaters.

Now days it is almost common for someone to take up 3/4 of the small dinghy dock because they needed to lock their boat for and aft.

Maybe it is just me.

Sounds like you're not happy with anyone.

 

[colemj]

He's wearing a hair shirt in the tropics - didn't you see that other thread?

Mark

 

[Don L]

Sounds like you're not happy with anyone.

just some

 

[paulk]

Needed a small help item this week. There is close to 400 boats anchored here. The help I need I bet 100 of those boats could have provided and it would have taken less than 5 minutes time. Got no one offering and I even even was offering to pay. Just a few years past I would have been turning down people.

Last week was at an anchorage with a well known cruiser beach. Last time just 2 years ago there were regular sundowners etc. get togethers there. This visit in 4 days there I never saw anyone other than us even go to the beach.

6 years ago on my first year I collected a stack a couple inches high of boater cards. Now for every 10 I give out I might get 1 as newer cruisers just aren't interested in them. Boaters just don"t really even seem to interested in getting together.

The last couple of weeks in various anchorages I have noticed cruisers don't care how close they fly by your boat in the anchorage or how big a wake they made with their dinghies. All they care about is getting to beach bat faster. Just a few year ago it was only the super yachts that acted like owned the water and to hell with other boaters.

Now days it is almost common for someone to take up 3/4 of the small dinghy dock because they needed to lock their boat for and aft.

Maybe it is just me.

There ARE a lot of newbie cruisers out there now due to the "Covid surge" of many people deciding to buy a big cruising boat and get away from the crowds. Besides being new to the sailing lifestyle, (not knowing enough to steer clear of other boats and going too fast in anchorages) they may also see cruising as a way to get AWAY from others, rather than to socialize. Except you say they're heading to the bar as fast as they can. Maybe you should try to meet them there?

Taking up 3/4 of the dinghy dock IS rude and selfish. Others may just have to step over, on, or through the inconsiderately placed boat to get to the dock and tie up. They'll need to learn.

 

[OntarioTheLake]

Starlink

You catfishing? Lol.

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

The world has changed.
Previously we were all together hating our rsspuctive governments.
Then we learned to hate each other because the Governments told us to.

You think people are less friendly? Yup. Probably right. They taught us to hate people with a different vaccination opinion. They taught us to hate people with a different political opinion.
They taught us to hate.
We all learned very well.

 

[colemj]

You catfishing? Lol.

 

[MikeOReilly]

The world has changed.
Previously we were all together hating our rsspuctive governments.
Then we learned to hate each other because the Governments told us to.

You think people are less friendly? Yup. Probably right. They taught us to hate people with a different vaccination opinion. They taught us to hate people with a different political opinion.
They taught us to hate.
We all learned very well.

I appreciate the sentiment Mark, but I think you're wrong when you look at the broader human perspective. You want political hatred, just look to the middle ages, or the Inquisition period, or the tribal interactions of our Native Peoples, or even the Cold War period. By all historical standards, we live in a far more tolerant and loving world than has ever existed.

Not to say there can't be backsliding, and perhaps we're experiencing one right now when people are fed so much disinformation about differing economic perspectives, or yes, the science behind vaccines. I think the Internet, and specifically so-called "social media" (which is anything but social), has pushed us back a few paces.

Regardless, we must not be fooled into thinking our immediate experience represents anything but a blip in time. From any objective standard, we live in the most loving and accepting time humans have ever known -- and this is most especially true of our western developed nations.

 

[Don L]

none of this means I am wrong

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

none of this means I am wrong

Maybe its because you can't capitalise your first letter, or put a Period - Full Stop at the end of your sentence.

I certainly up-anchor and go to the other side of the 400 boats in your anchorage.

😂

 

[Don L]

Maybe its because you can't capitalise your first letter, or put a Period - Full Stop at the end of your sentence.

I certainly up-anchor and go to the other side of the 400 boats in your anchorage.

😂

since what was displayed isn't what I wrote I deleted it

not acceptable to me for mods to go in a change what is written