Abaco Cruisers Net comments

My partner and I have been aboard our boat, Pilgrim, cruising the Sea of
Abaco and listening to the Abaco Cruisers Net since the last week of
January. We are leaving for Charleston within the next week for the
next leg of our world cruise by way of the Azores.

We may not typical of the cruisers we have met in the Abacos. We may not
typical of the cruisers we have heard on channel 68 and on the Net. We
enjoy cruising with other boats and getting to know other cruisers, but
we also like to meet local folks and learn about similarities and
differences from our background and experiences.

We also love remote anchorages and observing wildlife and fishing. We
are distressed by the "adult winter camp" and country club environment
in Marsh Harbour and Hope Town and Great Guana (Nippers/Grabbers); there
are too many US ex-pats in control leading to the loss of any local
flavour except notably on Man-O'-War and Green Turtle.
We were shocked at how few birds, indigenous animals and fish we saw.
The lack of local produce or fish varieties in the markets was a clear
sign of the decline in local production capability and any real interest
in maintaining a non-service oriented economy. The overfishing by "Sport
Fishermen" was very apparent evidenced by both the boasts "on air" and
lack of availability of product at the fish monger.

I mention all of this to let you know that our comments probably do not
reflect the general cruisers and cottage listeners to the Abaco Cruisers
Net.

We found the gender and sexual orientation insensitivity especially of
Jeff and Pete to be offensive. Many of the jokes and comments were just
not appropriate for the 21st century North America or Europe. The net
could be both informative and fun without taking shots at women and
gays. You may not have much control over the ads (invitations), but the
anchors could be just as effective and less corny and offensive.

On the positive side, we were happy to hear daily weather forecasts(and
have learned to take the "mostly sunny" forecasts with a bit of
saltwater) and were glad to learn of other boater's suggestions and
needs. We got in touch with one boat heading out to the Azores (but via
Bermuda) and had some good chart exchanges.

We wonder if the Bahamian government is interested in attracting
cruisers. Everything they are doing seems to favour development of
resorts, golf clubs, and condos at the expense of Bahamians and the
environment. It is hard to get access to beaches because the facing
land appears to be all private, often with locked gates (Treasure Cay),
no trespassing signs (most Cays) and unpleasant dogs (Man-o-War)
deterring us . The lack of formal/official weather forecasts and a
totally volunteer rescue service (they took over 20 minutes to respond
to a drowning outside of Marsh Harbour regardless of what was reported
on the net ... we listened to the whole incident while it was happening)
are other indications that cruisers' needs are not important.

It appears that the entire boating focus is on those folks that can
afford to spend a couple of months at dockside or on a mooring ball.