Howdy John, and Welcome Aboard CF!
Just so you know, there are several former, retired, or active
commercial skippers and seamen here on the forum. In other words, you won't be the only old
salt.
There is a wealth of information on this forum, and I continue to discover more things that I find helpful.
I will post a few tips I like to share with newcomers below:
There is a free Cruiser's Wiki associated with this forum.
There is a LOT of free content in that wiki. Including "cruising guides."
As a
newbie to sailing on yachts, there is a LOT of additional information there too. I suggest looking at the contents to see.
http://www.cruiserswiki.org/wiki/
There are also some "social groups" that are more focused on special interests, and as I saw, they can be fun for their members. I am not a
member of those groups, but you should be able to find them if you do some exploring of the forum website, look for "groups."
Cruisers & Sailing Forums - All Groups
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Looking for Quick Answers?
This is the best and fastest method I have found to the answers I seek here.
Since you are relatively new to the forum, here is my favorite friendly forum search tip: Look at the green menu bar on the forum pages for the drop down "Search" menu. Click on that to drop down a list of search functions. From that drop down menu select the
GOOGLE CUSTOM search feature (the second box down) and then enter several different descriptive terms for your topic of interest. That will do a Custom
google search of ONLY this site and it is likely to find answers to your questions or results for you. Note: this is different from using the regular forum search box or field. Also note, this is NOT found if you use the CF app. It IS found if you use a web browser such as Safari, etc.
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Fair Winds and Following Seas.
Steady