WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU
I know this is against the norm in the blogging world but, I try to keep the site clean and easy to read for our reader’s enjoyment. For this reason, I opted to keep comments to one page. We would love to hear from you. Do not let my wacky thought process deter you from expressing your feelings regarding our postings or another items of interest you want to share.
- Thoughts on the cruising lifestyle?
- Do you have an favorite sailing destination or a place you think we should avoid?
- Send us your favorite recipe.
- Have you read any good books lately?
- What would you like to know about us?
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Thanks for connecting to us!
Mark and Cindy
Mark and Cindy just surfed into your blog, working my way through all the articles. Great stuff.
I particularly enjoyed your article and photos on Ocean City. Spent many happy summers there as a kid.
The Redneck Riviera, kitschy, crass, craven, colorful and a lot of fun in the sun.
Love the AMELs, yours is…well…a creampuff.
BTW I noticed what appears to be a ladder on your starboard rear quarter rail. What is that used for.
Tight lines mates.
Cheers.
Hi Paraclete,
Thank you for the kind comment. Ocean City was one of our favorite days. We walked the entire boardwalk, twice. One way and then back the other. Our feet really hurt 🙂
The ladder on the rail is a swim ladder used to board the vessel from the water. It attaches to the rail and hangs down into the water. We don’t often use it this way as we have a folding swim ladder on the stern. The ladder also doubles as a passerelle boarding gangplank when we are parked stern to a dock. We can easily board the board from the dock this way. This is how we mostly use it. It has a piece of wood that fits over the ladder rungs and a rope railing.
Thanks for checking out our blog.
Mark
Hi Mark & Cindy! Not sure if you remember me or not, but I’m still stuck here at the Harborage Marina at C Dock (Mike, Bob and Jack). The two of you would walk past (Blue S/V Emoceans (Ketch)) and especially Cindy, and stop and say “Hello”. Love your website and Blog! We had finished the renovations and were getting ready to ship out 3.5 months ago and the fuel tank decided to crack. Needless to say, we’ve been waiting ever since. Hopefully we’ll get a weather window next month (tanks hopefully will be installed) to head east and then north up to your favorite area the Chesapeake and then NYC. We plan to go up to Boston then return back to the Annapolis boat show. After that, hopefully head south then off to the Bahamas for the winter. Was hoping to see the two of you while you were here in town, did you go to a different marina?
PM sent
Oh, man, do I hear you! No pun intended. It is so noisy, even at our house where we can hear the low drone of the constant traffic on the freeway (which is less and less ‘free’ around here). Then there is the local Joint Base Lewis/McChord, which plays their ‘war games’ all the time. Seriously, it sounds like a war zone with all the practicing with explosives. The marina is not much better, and it’s very dirty as well. They don’t call Tacoma ‘grit’ city for nothing. I believe most of our high-population-density citizens exist in a constant state of over-stimulation due to noise and visual pollution. But hey, their overwhelmed state keeps me in business.
This made us laugh. Thanks. It is good to know someone can make a living from angst. Whatever it takes to fill the cruising kitty, right?
It’s good to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t like conch 🙂 I’m grateful our marina is in the boondocks – it’s very, very quiet here.
Conch is really quite disgusting. If people had to smell it or touch it (very slimey) they would never eat it 🙂
Love watching your journey, your ideas and your conclusions! The absolute highlight of our trip from Jacksonville, Florida home to Michigan was the dolphins. We only ran with them once; but it was an incredible thrill. Still trying to convince the Mr that we should do the Great Loop after retirement. I hope to have that thrill again some day.
Hi Marie,
We never get tired of dolphins. There is nothing that will bring smiles to our faces quicker. It is one on the best benefits of the lifestyle we have chosen. Sometimes they will stay with us for about half an hour. It is always the highlight of our day. In clear water it is remarkable to see them swimming below the boat. They are incredibly fast!
Thank you for the kind words. We hope you enjoy having your own pod of dolphins playing in your wake sometime very soon 🙂
Mark and Cindy
Bon voyage and fair winds!
Hi Mark and Cindy, thanks for sharing your journey and adventures. We like your style! We have a question that hopefully you could answer or give us an idea of what to expect….
We intend to buy a boat in Florida (we live in Melbourne Beach, just north of Vero Beach) and cruise the Bahamas and beyond (eventually). We are currently looking at a sailboat with a 6.5’draft, (Amel Maramu 46, actually) but we are unsure if the draft would limit us visiting common cruising destinations in the Bahamas. To that end, have you had many issues with Cream Puff grounding? Do you have to search for alternative routes? I have mostly read that it will not be a big deal, has that been your experience?
Thanks!
Doug and Nicole
Hi Doug and Nicole,
Thank you for the note and kind comments.
We did not feel restricted by the draft of Cream Puff in the Bahamas. It is true that having a 3′ draft such as those on some catamarans does open up areas where mono-hulls can’t go. But, whether you have a 5 ft draft or a 7 ft draft doesn’t make that much difference. Keep in mind the tide is about 3 feet in the Bahamas. It you are not sure about an area, go in on a rising tide. For the Abacos, we used a guide by Steve Dodge. It included a two page route and chart of sailing the Abacos with a 9′ draft. We found the Explorer Charts very accurate and trusted the charts for the rest of the Bahamas. We did not touch the bottom in the Bahamas and only rarely had to seek alternate routes. When we did seek an alternate route, it was because most any mono hull would have an issue with the depth.
When we purchased Cream Puff, we wanted a boat that would take us safely to all parts of the world. We realized we were not intracoastal friendly (height and depth) but felt better about having a safe boat rather than change our minds for a small piece of sailing geography. Amels are solid world cruisers. We were told that we would have trouble in the Bahamas by other cruisers. This wasn’t the case.
We wish you luck with your purchase and hope to see you out here one day soon. Be sure to ask us if you have any more questions. We are happy to help.
Mark
Excellent information, thank you so much. We hope to see you out there soon!
Warderick Wells looks wonderful! I can see why you stuck around there 🙂 Great photos, as usual.
Hi Ellen. Thanks for the note. It is easy to take good pictures when the subject matter is so beautiful 🙂
Mark
Hi Mark and Cindy
Just looked at your website today after seeing your note about problems with the mast top LED lights. We absolutely love your site and the excellent photography. What camera do use use to get such good photos?
Also, just noticed you have done what we are about to do, ie. place a 2nd Radar on the Mizzen and that you chose to place it above instead of below the original one. Since we are putting the new just released Raymarine Quantum (similar to 4G ones) on for higher definition of close range targets (marker bouys, small boats in fog etc) we were going to place the new one below the old one for closer range work and still use the old one for long range. Also easier since the cables come out the mast lower down. Just curious to know what your thought processes were, advice you had, and if now after using it a bit you are still happy with your decision to place it above the old one?
Hi Colin and Lauren,
Thank you for the note and kind comments. We both shot with Nikon D700 cameras. We take a lot of pictures so sooner or later we are bound to get a couple of good ones 🙂
The previous owner of Cream Puff added a second radar unit as part of the Nobeltec navigation system. We upgraded the Nobeltec unit a couple of years ago to a better HD radar. The Furuno is original (mounted lower on the mast) and we tend to use this system for a back up. Our primary unit is the Nobeltec (upper unit). We have not had any issues with small close range targets. Since we only ever run one unit at a time there is no fear of any interference. Hope this helps.
Hey Mark and Cindy
Thanks for that. My our trusty older Nikon D90 camera body stopped functioning recently so we will look at a similar Nikon to yours as it should still take the same Nikon lenses which are still good.
Love your recent blog too. Keep it up and we hope to be over that way from 2018 for a year or so but have a lot of water to cross before then.
Best regards
Colin & Lauren
Amel – SV IslandPearl II
i love the pig photos! And yes, you are probably right about why they are there. Still, free range is as good as it gets! And that breakfast you describe is totally healthy, except for the hash browns. Give me eggs and bacon any day. Or eggs and sausage. That’s what we eat around here, and we’ll probably continue to do so on the boat.
Ah! but the hash browns were fried in peanut oil. That has to count for something 🙂