Georgetown is a haven for cruising yachts enjoying the winter season or as a stopover on the route South to the Caribbean. There are hundreds of boats in the area that form a rather solid community. Each morning they have a cruising net broadcast on VHF channel 72 where boats can share information or organize events. Each week a volunteer manages the broadcast.
Today’s broadcast included a special note about a crazy event that happened to us last night. As we headed back to our boat in the dark after the Colts game at a local bar we were approached by another dingy. “We can’t find our boat!” Basically, it’s every boater’s anchoring nightmare. These folks were circling around and could not figure out what happened. I offered them our portable VHF (a good thing to bring onboard the dingy) to ask around. Someone down the harbor spotted the anchor lights about a mile or more across that channel. It was blowing around 20 knots, so we offered to keep them company in our dingy as we raced to find their sailboat. It was a little wet but we arrived at the boat about 20 minutes later as we talked on the VHF with other boats who were helping to keep watch. These folks were amazingly lucky; the boat was about 5-10 minutes away from rocks and some serious damage. We rode back with them in their boat and helped them anchor again.
Let’s hope we don’t have to deal with any such mishap on Rosario!
Listen to the Georgetown Cruisers VHF net: Audio File (m4a)
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