Best BLOG/Website Setup

[PHIL+MARYANNE]

We are getting ready to setup a website to track our adventures during our 5 year seabbatical aboard our new Manta 42 - to be delivered in October. We want something to help us organize our own memories and allow us to (easily) share them with friends and family. We'd like to be able to show LOTS of pics, text and an updated and interactive map that would allow folks to navigate to any particular subset of the site.

There's a site called sailblogs.com, which looks interesting. And there's simple MSFrontPage. Was wondering what folks have best, and what sites we could checkout as examples of good setup.

Cheers!

[PHIL+MARYANNE]

Dave (and family),
Just skimmed through your website http://www.sailingdreamcatcher.com/ which looks like it's either MSFront Page or a sailblogs.com?? We have just sold our biz, sold the house and bought a new Manta, to be delivered in October.

But it all started on a Voyage 43 about 4 years ago with Stu & ElizabethAnn Bell, whose website I assume you've seen (we're even on there, I think...).. We spent a week with them and have used their boat as our benchmark through a VERY long and FUN search over the last 4 years - from South Africa to Malasia to the Med - finally finding the perfect (for us) boat right here in the good ole USA...

We live in Portland, ME, where it's cold and rainy. I believe you're down in MD, and we just flew there yesterday for Santa Fe (VERY SUNNY!) and know you've been having the same poor weather. Hope you get to sunny seas soon!

Drop a line with any info on your BLOGGING choices (have you done research).
Cheers!

[Jeff]

We use Blogger pointed at our own domain. The best part is that we can email in updates or update directly online. It also has nice (meaning simple) image handling. see http://www.blogger.com It's not wildly customizable, or the most full featured but it's simple and does the job.

Before that we used Mambo and then I tried a bunch of the others (e.g. Moveable Type) before settling on Blogger.

[tilmonday]

PHIL+MARYANNE,

Thanks for the email, yes we are using sailblogs with the remote email option. I think it will work out great. Actually we live in Dover NH and will be leaving in mid july to start our cruise. Congrats on your new Manta, we looked at them for a while and settled on the voyage. Will you be bringing your boat north? Hope to see meet up with you at some point.

Dave

[Sonosailor]

Check out this one:

http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/corbetl

You will note, if you follow the address as you go through the site, that it is actually set up on two sites. In Atlantic Canada, you get a free small site to play with when you request an email domain. We use our own and a friend's sites rather seamlessly to get enough room for those pictures. The newest weblog is "Homeward Bound", and it is fairly up to date. We are waiting out the first tropical storm of the season in a canal in Norfolk before heading out for Canada.

Best feature of our site, for relatives, is the connection, via Winlink airmail, to a map showing our location. That is available to those who use ham radio for their email.