The only way that competing users can enjoy boating is through cooperation. Sailboaters, power- boaters, jet skiiers, fishermen, all have to learn how to accommodate each other. New technology continues to offer new ways to make boating safer and more enjoyable. It's easy to become reliant on gadgets, gill-hickies and security blankets such as GPS, Loran, VHF radio, SeaTow and others. But when the going gets rough, the weather closes in, and equipment breaks down, increasingly we are finding boaters unable to cope.
Technology is fine, but it's no replacement for common sense, seamanship and practical experience.
Walk the docks at a marina and look at the boats that lie in their slips and rarely go out. Cuba is the last cruising frontier within reach of thousands of American boaters. But it's a frontier boating environment with few of the kinds of shore facilities that the American boating public has come to expect. It will be a while before we see droves of boaters heading south across the Gulf Stream. What's more possible is the development of a bareboat industry in Cuba, similar to what you find in the eastern Caribbean, to satisfy the charter market.