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Cruisers not as friendly etc. anymore
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.
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.
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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.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...
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
He's wearing a hair shirt in the tropics - didn't you see that other thread?
Mark
Mark
If it was a head, then I totally understand the lack of response...out of curiosity, what did you need assistance with?
Mark
You haven't been there in quite a while. We were gone years also. The pig beach is now a major tourist attraction with packed go fast tourist boats waiting their turn to get close to it (and the pigs are now regularly chomping people). Incongruously, Thunderball Grotto and Staniel Cay is now a Mega Yacht center with 150' boats everywhere with inflatable slides, 40' dinghies, and jet skis buzzing like insects.Even at that silly piggery on the beach there was only half a dozen boats anchored when I was there. Thunderball Grotto was ammmmmazzzzzzing and I stayed anchored there for about a week diving into that place at all times of the day and night, different sun angles, tide levels etc. That too, is just a bee's probiscis from the 400 anchored grumpy boats.
So very different and appalling from when we spent time there in 2008-2009.
Mark
On our watermaker, the pressure gauge is THE most difficult part to access/remove, with the most risk of doing so. And the risk is fairly high.
I know Don personally, so would help him out here - although I would require to be the one doing the testing so he isn't held accountable for anything. It would cost him dearly in beer, which is worth way more than money in the Bahamas. However, I don't think I would be helping out a stranger in this particular example.
Otherwise, I spend half my time helping others, and our boat is known as the "hardware store" amongst our friends. While we are probably over-provisioned with spares and ancillary gear, we don't have a spare pressure gauge. That seems like an unusual part to carry as a spare, although it is relatively cheap and small.
Mark
I know Don personally, so would help him out here - although I would require to be the one doing the testing so he isn't held accountable for anything. It would cost him dearly in beer, which is worth way more than money in the Bahamas. However, I don't think I would be helping out a stranger in this particular example.
Otherwise, I spend half my time helping others, and our boat is known as the "hardware store" amongst our friends. While we are probably over-provisioned with spares and ancillary gear, we don't have a spare pressure gauge. That seems like an unusual part to carry as a spare, although it is relatively cheap and small.
Mark
There are several places in the Bahamas that have unusually salty water and production tanks and TDS rises. Things go back to normal in other places. Is this happening in one particular place, or everywhere now? If still in GT, then nevermind.
Mark
Mark
What is over pressure? The membrane can handle 1000psi without damage, and running it up to 900 routinely isn't a problem. 800psi is just a compromise pressure between output and lifespan.
I think yours is new, so the membrane and piston seals/valves should be OK, but you never know. Not having enough feed water can cause it not to reach pressure, so check the water route from seacock to HP pump - and make sure the boost pump is operating to spec. Another suspect for low pressure is the membrane brine seal. If that is leaking, it won't pressurize the seawater well. Might want to open the membrane housing, pull the membrane and check the seal for any breaks. Then smear it with silicon grease and reinstall to make sure it reseats.
Mark
I think yours is new, so the membrane and piston seals/valves should be OK, but you never know. Not having enough feed water can cause it not to reach pressure, so check the water route from seacock to HP pump - and make sure the boost pump is operating to spec. Another suspect for low pressure is the membrane brine seal. If that is leaking, it won't pressurize the seawater well. Might want to open the membrane housing, pull the membrane and check the seal for any breaks. Then smear it with silicon grease and reinstall to make sure it reseats.
Mark
Boat cards have been mentioned a couple of times. They just aren't a "thing" anymore. Face it, most of us are the old cruisers now, and younger ones don't even think about boat cards, let alone know what to do with one when handed it. They are all exchanging that information on their phones. Often times by just getting them near each other. Heck our boat cards are from our previous boat, have the wrong contact information on them, and we haven't looked like our pictures in a decade. When we do give one out, I'm pretty sure the person is thinking we just gave them somebody else's card....we have been collecting fewer boat cards...
Participation on the Waterway Radio and Cruising Club net, Cruiseheimers net, the BASRA weather net and the local VHF nets were all decreased...
HF nets are also old and on the way out. We do have HAM/SSB, but find it increasingly useless. Those nets you mention are the same 4-6 people every day, and half of them haven't left their land homes in years. Even Chris Parker gets less than 25% of his daily traffic over HF anymore, as everyone uses the internet interface now. Younger cruisers don't even know HF exists, and have Starlink, Sat phones, cell data, and other means of staying connected. They also aren't afraid to sail from Black Point to Staniel Cay without first getting the OK from Parker, then discussing it with old people on the sequential HF nets - they just up and go.
VHF nets kill me anymore. I just cannot stand to listen to the bleating dribble and petty grievances that go on for hours every day. I've stopped trying to get people to use their DSC functions, and just keep our VHF tuned to an off channel so we can get some peace and quiet during the day. If you have an emergency, hit your DSC and I'll be right there.
Mark
Like Spock, You Apocalypse Sheiks are always cool. The rest of us not so much anymore.
1 - 11 of 110 Posts
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