Livia's List O'Links

On the web. What tickles my fancy...

1. The Interview With A Cruiser Project and Newly Salted. Yes, as the founder of these sites I'm biased, but it is hard to imagine someone who is planning to go cruising and who is looking for info on the topic who isn't interested in more than 100 first hand accounts directly from the mouths of actual cruisers. Take your time and devour a few a day at your desk.
2. Our random thoughts on French Polynesia, chock full o'links for those planning to Puddle Jump and also our region reviews.
3. Go to Beth and Evan's website, download all of their articles, and sit down for some good reading. Then scroll to the bottom of the same page and review their links to other info and pick and choose.
4. Everyone already knows about noonsite, right? That's old news. You have probably already gone to the main site and looked at a country that you were interested in visiting, and while you were there you've probably also noticed the interesting links on the right margin of the page consisting of area-specific reports sent in by cruisers. What you might not have noticed is that those letters from cruisers are all gathered together on noonsite's news page and you can add that page to your feed reader. This is a great source for current reports from cruisers around the world.
5. If you are a kiteboarder who sails you probably already have drooled over the captains log on Offshore Odyssey (previously Best Odyssey). Even if you don't kiteboard, Jodi's photography is unreal. Worth starting from the beginning.
6. If you are heading to the South Pacific you may not know that Bob McDavitt puts more stuff on his blog than in the weathergram that he sends around when you subscribe. This is, presumably, to keep the bandwidth down because the blog includes images and links while the weathergram does not. If you are sitting around in Mexico with wifi the year before you jump, it is good prep to start reading his blog now.
7. Not just for women, Women and Cruising tackles a lot of interesting topics of the reflective, philosophical type.
8. For keeping in touch with people back home, we have enjoyed being able to use a postcard mailing service. We send an email with a favorite photo and some text and this photo is printed in the US with the text on the reverse and mailed to the family member we specified. Cost is $1 per card and is great for almost-missed birthdays etc. There are a number of services you can find. We've been happy with Postcardly. Also, consider setting up a feed reader you can use offline. If you don't know what that is, it is a way of keeping track of all of the blogs and other sites you read in one place. While feed readers are common, ones that allow you to sync while online and read everything offline aren't. We are using Feed Demon.

Our articles:

1. Is the Lagoon Half Empty or Half Full?
2. Calculated Risks: Staying Tropical During the South Pacific Cyclone Season
3. Is New Zealand Outside South Pacific Cyclone Zone?
4. Strategies For Navigating Around Coral
5. Windpowered Dirtbags: The Cruiser-Kiter Lifestyle
6. Shooting passes on a solar tide

Books and video.  I've put some of our media recommendations in a one place*. Important notes about this compilation: The reference book category refers to books we have aboard right now on our boat. This is not a hypothetical list of what we would like to own, or what we have owned and sold/given away. We bought these with our own money and decided they were useful enough to keep. The guidebooks are what we actually used in each region. We don't keep them aboard once we've left the region. Not all of them are great, but we included some not-so-great ones because there wasn't another option we were aware of in the region that fit our price point or needs. The rest (non-fiction, video) are just fun media that we enjoyed. If you have questions about the list, email us s.v.estrellita@gmail.com

*For information on our monetization of this blog, click here.