Just signed Paperwork for Boat! We're Officially Sailboat Owners!

[D&D]

Congratulations natraps! We echo the comments by others that you found yourself a sweet-looking vessel...and, from the sounds of the efforts put into the purchase, a well-deserved result.

You asked for possible other important cruising-in-comfort suggestions. Consider a good quality thermal cooker. The best ones [OK...here's the plug... Shuttle Chef 6000W, Floating Impressions ] are made by Thermos and come with very high quality pots that can be used for 'ordinary' stove-top cooking as well, i.e. the one unit serves multiple purposes. Very quickly, the advantages include:

• very low energy consumption. Meals (and breads/cakes/deserts/etc) only need a short time to be heated on the stove top before they go into the thermal unit and cook themselves...so vastly less energy is used;
• long 'window' of food being ready. Typically, once ready in the thermal unit, meals will remain hot and ready for many hours; that's particularly useful when passage-making and subject to the vagaries of weather (and appetite) as to when you can eat; and
• very large variety of foods can be prepared thermally.

If you want to read a bit further about how it all works, check this link...

http://floatingimpressions.com.au/im...it%20Works.pdf

Thermal cooking is a very old -- probably ancient -- food preparation method. Modern 'technology' really only introduced more efficient containers, but the container is very important for both using less energy in the heating phase and for the length of time the food remains hot-and-ready. Thermos units offer a patented vacuum which virtually

eliminates temperature change by creating an airless space between two stainless steel walls...and Thermos

guarantee that you simply cannot buy another product with better hot and cold keeping performance.

We use our Shuttle Chef a lot, both at home and especially when we're cruising. We also (obviously!) sell them...and every such sale was followed by glowing thanks. They're simply great units for cruising in comfort.

There are also lots of other cruising-in-comfort ideas on our website.

We wish you many years of enjoyment with fair winds and following seas on Soleil Blu!