We have a friend who is on a boat delivery at the moment. He flew out to a central eastern Caribbean island to pick up a boat to deliver up the East Coast. The last we had heard from him was a Facebook entry from Inuagua, Bahamas. His wife had received an email stating they were departing for Georgetown, Bahamas immediately for a 30 hour sail with arrival planned for Saturday night or Sunday morning. As a sailor, we all know that arrivals can be delayed for a whole variety of reasons: no winds, leaving you conserving fuel for the really necessary times you need your engine; bad wind direction, forcing you off your primary course; ornery weather, causing you to alter your travel plans and bail out someplace along the way; bad or lack of fuel, causing you to sail all of the way rather than relying on your engine; mechanical issues, which delays or alters your trip because something decided to go off-line; none of which may be a life threatening issue. The other circumstance to recognize is that communications in the Bahamas can be very sketchy, with few areas of coverage by cell phone or WIFI. One of the reasons we have a Single Side Band High Frequency Radio (SSB) on board JonNe' is just for this reason. Other boats discard this radio as old fashioned and not worth the cost. They would rather get their weather and communicate by SatPhone. I personally believe one should be able to use every means possible for getting the word out.
The issue in this instance is the known weather in the Southern Bahamas. Although 25 knot winds, gusting to 35, are very manageable, 10-13 foot seas on the starboard beam is nothing to sneeze at. Arriving in any of the islands off the Exuma Sound in dicey winds and waves can be trick., The Sound can be as challenging to negotiate as the Gulf Stream in the Winter and early Spring. We have delayed our departure from Key West specifically for winds and waves. Our delivery sailors have both been on many deliveries and our friend's wife is much immune to issues with the deliveries. However, by last night (Monday) at 2200 hours (10:00pm) she had not heard anything regarding his situation. Had they arrived in Georgetown, she would have received an email atleast, so at 36 hours overdue, last night she called us to see if we could contact one of the various SSB or other radio nets covering the Bahamas, to see if the boat had been sighted. She was NOT panicked, rather expressing concern. Renne' and I informed her we were not too worried, but we would begin asking questions as of this morning on the various nets.
I took the time to send an email to Cruiseheimer's, via their published email address, with the boat name, type of boat, crew names, last known route, last known departure point, last known intended arrival destination, to alert them of our request. Cruiseheimers is one of the more popular non-membership nets on SSB. They are up every morning, on 8152 (SSB radio frequency), 7 days a week, at 0830 Eastern Time, with a very broad audience of cruisers checking in daily throughout the East Coast and Bahamas.
This morning at 0620, at 48 hours overdue, having heard nothing from our friend's wife, I called our cruising partner, who is a member of Chris Parkers Weather Service, with a request that he contact Chris with the above information. Chris Parker conducts an extensive daily weather broadcast on 4045 (SSB radio frequency) at 0630 Eastern Time, and covers weather for a wide area of the East Coast, the Bahamas, and later at a different time, covers all of the Caribbean weather. This broadcast is faithfully listened to by a very large number of cruisers for daily weather briefings to plan either daily activities or crossings from one exotic port to another.
At 0630, Chris Parker came up on the radio asking for any urgent traffic first, and our cruising partner called in, again with the information I had sent to Cruiseheimers. Expecting this might take a day or so for information to be passed, I was NOT expecting the response we received. Immediately following our request, Chris received a reply from a cruiser on Rum Cay, 52 nautical miles from Georgetown, that our friends boat had been in port Monday and had departed last night for Georgetown. In 30 seconds after the initial notification, we were satisfied our friend, the boat, and the rest of the crew were safe and continuing their journey. I then emailed Cruisheimer's with the information we had received so as to close out that inquiry before it went out over the air.
Our lesson learned in this particular situation is: 1) Don't panic when you don't hear something! 2) Trust in the skills of the crew on board the boat you are tracking, disasters seldom occur. 3) File a float plan with your anticipated plans, with a friend who will be responsible for tracking your progress, 4) Realize the world is out there, and there are a lot of us cruising. There are ways to find someone if you REALLY NEED to know, BUT DON'T ABUSE IT. The other is it is nice to know there are those who love us out there, who are concerned.
Last night was a fitful night sleeping knowing our friend was out there in some dicey weather and his wife was concerned enough to ask for assistance. This morning, life goes on as it has, and as the sun rises, I am grateful, AGAIN, that I have my SSB on board. It has been an AMAZING morning!
See you guys tonite on the docks for Sundowners. Look forward to it!!
JonNe'
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