Seven days per week, 9am, VHF channel 68. It's a moderated discussion between local boaters. There are maybe 7 different moderators, mostly year-round boat dwellers here, who take turns. This is the program :
1) Good Morning! Quick introduction and listing of the rules (only 1 rule really which is when you want to speak you give just your vessel name and wait for the moderator to come back acknowledging your vessel name). Maybe a quick weather report.
2) New Arrivals. Any vessel newly arrived introduces themselves, usually tells where they arrived from, how long they plan to stay, and where they are headed next.
3) Departures. Any vessel leaving Marathon says goodbye and tells where they are headed.
4) Announcements. Typical announcements are for 3/week yoga classes, softball games in the city park, about local theater, a myriad of events. For the last 3 days someone has announced about a flyover of the International Space Station at dusk.
5) Comments / Questions / Need Help. A couple of days ago we asked for advice on repairing our Honda Generator which was running poorly (only ran when choked). Apparently a common thing as many boaters came back with recommended potions to clean the carburetor, and advising only use of no-ethanol gas. We since bought a bottle of SeaFoam which seems to have done the trick.
6) Buy / Sell / Trade / Giveaway. Probably the most popular part of the show with people selling or buying all things boat related. We used this a few days ago to buy a used kayak paddle for $15.
7) Trivia. Usually time for 3 trivia questions from the audience. We have offered up 3 or 4 and guessed at several.
8) Final Business. Last chance to get in a question you forgot, or to get someone to repeat a phone number that was given.
The 'show' usually lasts 30-45 minutes. Afterwards some people hang on and go to other channels for follow up discussions. For example we moved to channel 72 for a 10 minute discussion on our generator problem.
This time of year the City mooring field is usually full, with 226 boats. There are maybe another 80 or so boats anchored in the area and maybe 200 at marina slips. So the audience for the Cruisers Net is pretty big. We try not to miss it. My only complaint is that I wish it was an hour earlier.
Posted with Blogsy
Sounds like craigslist on radio.
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