When you can’t sail what can you do? Go to a boat show! Perfect!

(fellow Westsail people!)

We spent the last two days at the “Strictly Sail Boat Show” in Jack London square. Wonderful time! Wonderful people!  It was so nice to be surrounded by others who are equally obsessed with their boats, their boat equipment, their sailing plan, their head, galley, SSB, and so on….

We spent an afternoon having lunch with folks from our local Santa Cruz Yacht Club, went to several seminars (some useful, some not so much), and priced several pieces of equipment on our” need to have” list. We actually did purchase our EPIRB at a steep discounted price because the units had been sitting in the warehouse for a year, which ate into their 5 year battery life. Upside is that they give us a replacement battery (free of charge) when this one expires. The battery alone would cost us a few hundred dollars.

We also purchased foul weather bibs, Gil brand. I had not expected to pay this much for bibs, but we really liked the features. So there you go. A large savings on the EPIRB and an excess spent on the bibs. I still think we made out well on our purchases.

Two other great things! We bought a couple of cruising guides for Mexico. After searching through them we discovered that the authors (who were at the show) were also cruising on a Westsail 32. Were we ever excited! We had to go back and chat them up. Additionally, and probably the best part of the weekend… we had drinks and then dinner with fellow Westsail owners. It was so great to chat with other folks that have the same type of boat as us. To hear what they have done, plan to do, and how things have worked for them. Hoping that we can see some of them again soon.

Getting it done! Having fun doing it! Life is Good!