Our SSCA Cruising Station program is alive and well with over 150 hosts worldwide. In an effort to assist in coordinating some key areas of our oceans we recently added Regional Hosts. They include Susan and Dennis Ross for the Western Mexico/Pacific region, Randy Reeves for the East Pacific, Tom Cordero for the Northern Caribbean, Jesse James for the Southern Caribbean, Gonzalo Ravago for South America and for Europe, Agustin Martin. You will find their names highlighted on the Cruising Station lists maintained on the Seven Seas Cruising Association website, www.ssca.org. As your SSCA Cruising Station Coordinator, I update the lists regularly (they are uploaded to the website monthly) and make every effort to note changes in your contact information and email accounts.
In order for us to highlight your efforts and keep your information current please be sure to send any notices or updates to me at [email protected] to insure we post the best and most accurate information. Should you have a special event that you would like us to publicize, you may send an email/Letter to the Editor at [email protected]. Depending upon the event and timing we can include information in the Coconut Telegraph, our eblast to members, the Commodores’ Bulletin, our monthly publication and/or on the SSCA Facebook page. Please feel free to include any and all events or happenings you think might be of interest to the cruising membership! And don’t hesitate to also send a write-up and photos after an event!
This year brought some major challenges and events. Our new CS Host, Bong of South Korea, experiencing terrible weather off Japan, lost his vessel. Fortunately they were rescued by the Japanese Coast Guard, with help from SSCA Commodores and Bong's sponsors, s/v Carina, who helped track his vessel while keeping us posted on the rescue, but it was a sad event for Bong and his family.
The weather in the Atlantic has been as challenging as the weather in the Pacific this past year! Thankfully, a number of our members and our Cruising Station Hosts have assisted in rescue operations. This is what cruisers helping cruisers and SSCA is all about. Backbeat, a member boat, was destroyed in a cyclone near Yap. Though SSCA members banded together to try and help them find equipment and repair the vessel, in the end it couldn’t be saved. And it wasn’t just issues with storms; a vessel required assistance with weather information when they lost their engine and NOAA WEFAX was not available. Thanks to Carina and a team of very dedicated sailors, plus a relay of NOAA WEFAX weather to Carina from Growltiger to send via HF radio to the vessel in distress, they got into Pohnpei safely. Of course the “safely” included passage through a reef system without engine, facing 25 knot winds, and ropes from shore/guide boats getting the boat into the channel and into the lagoon. Our Canary Island hosts in the Atlantic have also assisted member vessels, once assisting with a freighter pickup of a sinking boat and in the Marshall Islands, Karen Earnshaw and Cary Evarts, helped locate a missing vessel.
Then we had the Fall 2013 Salty Dawg Rally with the bad weather event off Hatteras USA East coast, with two vessels sunk and nine with major equipment failures such as rudders and masts that required emergency activities by the US Coast Guard. Fortunately there was NO loss of life, and SSCA CS Hosts up and down the US east coast aided by escorting damaged vessels into ports. We are so very proud of our family of members who assist other cruisers! Most recently, Steve and Susan Hollis, our Hosts in Bermuda assisted a vessel with an injured crewmember, and our host in the Azores, Duncan Sweet, continues to help the vessels arriving there. We have a busy group of cruisers and Hosts in the Pacific, with Randy Reeves (Guam), John Ranahan (Pohnpei), and Keith Vial (Nuie) all working to try and assist cruisers however they can. Keith was able to determine that a Customs issue with vessels arriving in Nuie was due to paperwork problems and posted solutions for SSCA to spread to Pacific Cruisers to ease their entry! In the East Pacific, the Rosses helped with vessel seizures and recommendations in Mexico, and much, much more. In Panama, Mary Robertson of Marina Carenero, has continued to assist visiting yachts, and in Shelter Bay, our CS Host helps boats making passage through the Panama Canal. Congratulations to SSCA CS Host Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich, Commodore of the Hemingway Marina, who helped organize the Cuba side of Diana Nyad’s historic swim between Cuba and Florida “I always thought she could do it given her internal energy, her mental and physical strength, her will of iron,” he said.
The ongoing assistance and these events, and they are only a small subset of activities, were only possible due to the network of members and hosts using all communication devices possible—HF radios, email, and even physically searching in out of the way places. But our Cruising Station network is not just about the emergencies. It is about seeing the SSCA Burgee flying and knowing there’s a friendly HELLO awaiting you in a new harbor. It’s about meeting other members whether it’s at a pre-planned potluck or an impromptu get-together. It’s the SSCA camaraderie that makes this program so special!
Hosted by our Palau SSCA Cruising Station at Sam's Tours, on May 24, 2014 the SSCA Western Pacific VE team of Leslie Linkkila (WZ7LL) and Philip DiNuovo (K7PAZ), s/v Carina and Sherry (KN4TH) and David (KE4BKF) McCampbell, s/v Soggy Paws were able to offer Ham Exams in Palau! Three applicants presented and were tested with a total of 10 elements, resulting in the successful completion of elements 2 and 3 by all three candidates. All applicants earned a General Class amateur radio license. The applicants were all from cruising yachts and included Peter Schmieder, s/v Kokomo; Selena Steddy, s/v Westward II; and Lisa Hogger, s/v Lorelei. Congratulations to our new Hams and thanks to our SSCA VE team and special thanks to Sam Scott for facilitating this.
We have been busy growing our program. With vessels in the Pacific and Atlantic, our SSCA Roving Ambassadors Melinda and Harry on Sea Schell, Sherry and Dave McCampbell on Soggy Paws, Leslie Linkkila and Philip Dinuovo on Carina and Marcie and David Lynn on Nine of Cups have been recommending prospective new hosts. Please email me at [email protected] with any prospects you think would well serve our members. Upon receipt of the referral we will follow up to qualify the prospect’s interest in the program and explain SSCA’s Clean Wake Philosophy. We will send them an application and if/when approved, the paperwork is submitted to our Association Director at Home Base, who then sends out a formal approval and welcome package It is not a difficult process, but it is important that we maintain accurate contacts and information on facilities and services for member our vessels. And of course we want you, our Cruising Station Hosts to stay informed too, so log onto the SSCA website often and read the Commodores’ Bulletin!
Please let the cruising community know that you are an SSCA Cruising Station Host. Doing so will not only bring our members to you, but will help promote SSCA and grow our association. Fly the burgee. Put the SSCA logo on your website. Announce that you are an SSCA cruising station on the net, put it on your Facebook page and/or blog. Though our members may find you by downloading the cruising station list from the SSCA website, it is important as well for you to let them know you’re there. A number of SSCA Cruising Station Hosts hold SSCA gatherings or Gams. This year; Jesse James of Trinidad, John Ranahan of Pohnpei, Mary Robertson of Marina Carenero, Panama, and Bob Osborn of Essex, Connecticut have put together gams ranging from the informal potluck to the structured event complete with catered meals and speakers. If you would like assistance in putting together an event in your area, please email Judi at: [email protected]. Home Base is there to assist.
Thank you for the commitment, dedication and assistance you give to the cruising community.
We couldn’t do it without you!!
Wishing everyone fair winds and calm seas.
Joan Conover
