The marine "services" industry is quite unlike any other. For some reason, people who work on boats and boat systems are among the most unreliable, unresponsive, least customer-service-oriented and expensive of any. Say we want to spend several thousand dollars for a specific type of safety and comfort equipment that is only distributed by one dealer in the LA area. We call, say we want a quote. Do we EVER get a call back? No. When we first started shopping for a boat, we'd go to boat shows, tell the brokers what we were interested in, and NEVER hear back. Same with buying sails - contact four sailmakers, no one cares enough/wants the business enough to even return the call. How these "services" and companies stay in business is beyond me. Even in THIS ECONOMY, we don't get call backs. And if they DO call back, and do the work - they disappear afterward. Need further help? Too bad, so sad....

Which brings me to the point of today's blog post. One of the things prospective cruisers hear over and over is that "the community of cruisers" and "the people you meet cruising" are one of the true blessings of the experience. Why? Because, as Wendy Mitman Clarke points out in my latest Cruising World, THEY HELP EACH OTHER. She correctly points out that in this country, it usually takes a disaster for people to come together and help one another. In the cruising community, often far from "services" - people help each other. Put out the word on the morning net (or on your blog) of a problem - and people you barely know, or don't know, materialize to offer assistance.

I think it is not only cruisers that experience this WHILE cruising, but that it can also be found in most any boating community. People offer to help. Their time; their expertise; their tools; their spare parts. It is already happening for us - and we always offer to help as we can in return. It's the group equivalent of "pay it forward."

That's the sort of community I am proud to be a part of, and proud to participate in!