The Coconut Telegraph

Every morning, Monday to Saturday, Caribbean cruisers turn their SSB's (single side band radios or ham radios) to frequency 4060. This is the frequency for the Coconut Telegraph or Net. The purpose of the Net is to keep cruisers connected and informed.

One cruiser acts as control. His/her job is to keep the communication flow organized. The Net always starts with a request for priority traffic or announcements. This is where information about emergencies or security issues is exchanged. Fortunately there is rarely any of this type of information passed on. Next comes a request for vessels underway or short time. This is for vessels that are unable to stay on the Net for the full time. After that the Net is opened for first time check-ins. That is cruisers who have never checked-in with the Net before. Finally the control calls for general check-ins. When boats call in they are expected to give their boat name, who is on it and the boat's location. Boats that are underway are also asked to describe the wind and sea conditions. The other function of the Net is to give cruisers the opportunity to set up boat-to-boat traffic. This is where one boat can call another and set up a frequency to carry on a conversation similar to what you do on the telephone. Well maybe on a party line for those of you who remember those since anyone else can also go to the frequency and listen in.

On Friday February 6, 2009 there was a new control. That was Griff and Cheryl on Mystic Journey. We think we did a remarkable job for our first time. Griff was on the mike and I was writing down the information from the boats so that we could repeat it. Sometimes it was difficult to hear the boat names and we would have to ask for a relay. We only had to do this a couple of times. There are some days when the propagation, connection, is very poor and relays are used a lot. We actually acted as relay a few times before we became controllers.

As I mentioned earlier the Net is a great way to keep connected with cruiser friends. When we were sailing from Curacao to Antigua we found it comforting to hear friends every morning at 0800 and actually have traffic with our friends D and Don on Southern Cross. As soon as the Perry's get their SSB up and running we will be able to keep in touch with them other than through emails.

Post Script

We now have our new staysail furling system installed and our chart plotter is back. We can now sail with all our sails raised and know where we are going.