The social media wave hits the open seas with Sailing Spoken Here, a website launched by Mt. Gay Rum and geared toward sailors, rum tipplers and Caribbean island regulars.

Described as "a community that celebrates the sport of sailing," it gives casual cruisers, racing fans, competitive sailors, and all other potential Mt. Gay Red Caps, a place online to connect and talk about upcoming events and the sailing lifestyle. The site offers different online social media tools including the Crew Finder, where people can connect with other crew sailors and/or potential crew members in a given location; and Cruising Life, where site members can share photos, drinking recipes and other snapshots from the sailing life.

There’s also a "Resource" section of the site, with a gamut of stories that range from "How to" [Upgrade Your Main] to "Bareboat Yacht Charter Secrets" (for the few who can afford such a thing). Some sections are obviously for the pure enjoyment of desk-jockeys, for example, "Make the Call," which features video clips of various questionable racing moments along the challenge: "Think you know the rules? Make the right call for the infraction below."

Other sections range from the ubiquitous Gear/Products retail category to the Bar Finder — very appropriate for a rum, we say — that allows guests to find a sailing bar within a close-mile radius. Or, to put it in more poetic terms, a bar where sailing is the first language, rum is the religion and the online world is suddenly up for social media-style connection.

Though currently launched only in beta, the site has already garnered an impressive 9,300 Facebook fans and active members that include pivotal people in the racing community.



Its back end is linked into Facebook in such a way that signing up via the social media behemoth instantly links one into the SailingSpokenHere.com site and enables different features including the "Make the Call" app and the Trivia section. Though it remains to be seen how well SailingSpokenHere.com will translate into the real world, the site is certainly a meeting ground for sailing enthusiasts of all levels who wish to virtually enhance their social spheres.