New Forum member

[alaskadog]

Hello fellow boaters
This is a great forum that I enjoy very much and which I have followed for the past 9 or 10 months. Thanks to you guys, I have gotten much useful and needed information. After guesting this forum for so long, I finally decided to join so that I could benefit even more. Hopefully, I may also be able to contribute somewhat when questions are asked about which I have some knowledge. I have owned and been around powerboats (mostly out board powered) all of my adult life (am 65 yrs. old). Still have a powerboat that I use to go out in the Gulf of Mexico to fish for red snapper and other Gulf species. But sailing is my real joy. I have been sailing for many years on other people's boats but only owned my own sail boat for the past four years. Our sailboat is a 37 ft. Jeanneau sloop. We have taken a number of short cruises in our local Gulf of Mexico area (Mississippi, LA, AL and FL panhandle) and one longer four-month cruise to south Florida and the Keys two years ago. Were going to cruise last winter to Mexico and Central America but Hurricane Ivan gave us a direct hit last September that resulted in us having to stay close to our home in the south to deal with repairs, insurance companies,etc. Hopefully we can head south in late October if we don't get whacked with another bad 'cane. We've already got hit by Hurricane Dennis and one or two tropical storms this summer. So much for this long introduction. Cheers to ya.