Cruiser Culture

Velcro Beach, FL

No LL

Boaters are friendly and interesting. That's part of the appeal of cruising. We get to meet a lot of people we like. Part of every day is spent chatting with cruising friends. We do it at the marina, on the bus, in town, and especially from the dinghy.

Rowing your dinghy to someone else's boat to strike up a casual conversation is the boating equivalent to chatting over the back yard fence. Never mind that the talking is nearly vertical. The person sitting in the dinghy is about 7 feet lower than the person standing on deck.

Boating etiquette is such that you feel encouraged to approach an unknown boat as a stranger, knock on the hull, introduce yourself, and start chatting. The ice to break is much thinner out here. In fact, it is quite common to be invited on board for drinks and to tour the boat within 5 minutes of meeting new boater friends. On land that's unthinkable. Imagine a stranger knocking on your door and you inviting him in to tour the house.

About once a week we invite someone over for dinner or we get invited to their boat or we all go to a pot luck dinner. As boaters we are much more socially active than we were before cruising.

For the past several weeks as I worked on the Boomkin project, at least once per hour a boater comes by offering assistance, or reminding me that they have tools I could borrow if I need them. It's very gratifying. Libby and I act similarly. If we see someone doing a big project or especially someone else in trouble, we always rush to help.

At sea, the culture of assisting anyone else in distress goes beyond good etiquette. It is law. Maritime law requires any boater to offer whatever assistance is needed by someone else in distress. I've been told that is the reason that commercial ships refuse to answer our calls on the VHF radio; they are afraid we might ask for assistance. If true, that is very sad and speaks poorly of the character of commercial sailors. I'd rather believe it's not true.

Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule. I can think of three Oscar The Grouch cruisers that we've met in the past 5 years. Obviously they are less common than among the general population.

I would also like to dump on the entire population of sport fishermen owners in Cape May, New Jersey. Every time we go in and out of that inlet channel we are constantly bumped around by the wakes of excessively fast boats passing close by. We occasionally encounter rude power boaters in other places, but in Cape May rude seems to be the norm. Must be they put Tony Soprano pills in the drinking water there.