For the most part cruisers are a pretty tight nit community, one of the ways we stay connected to each other is through the local cruiser nets on our VHF or SSB radios. Both Sharon and I have become fairly active in the San Carlos cruiser net, which starts at 8:00 AM every morning. Each morning someone different runs "the net", they always start with everyone listening for anyone who might be in trouble, they then go to check-ins. During check-ins everyone announces their boat name and the person running that days net replies with a friendly "Good morning Si Bon". After check-ins we move to a weather report, then local assistance. Local assistance is where if you are in need of some sort of local service, (dentist, hardware store or in Sharon's case, somewhere to get you toes done), everyone chirps in with their opinion of the best place to go. There's is then a call for lost and found and then we go to swaps and trades. We are not allowed to sell things to each other here in Mexico (not sure why), so we have to trade things for coconuts....for instance I was able to sell....oops I mean trade my hookah dive system to another cruiser for 1000 coconuts, and I am hoping that I can trade some of those coconuts for a fishing reel from the Sanford and Son of San Carlos, Garth on Tuna-holic.
The cruiser nets are a very important part of our day and we look forward each morning to flicking on the radio to channel 7-2 and joining our many new friends in starting out another day in paradise.