I found this excellent article by Captain John Jamieson, of http://www.skippertips.com/, on a LinkedIn alert on my email a couple days ago. After reading it and being impressed by the quality of writing and information, I wanted to share it with as many people as possible and retweeted it on Twitter. Then I sent his an email with a link to my http://www.sailingprograms.com/ website, so he could learn a bit more about me and asked his permission to feature the article on my new blog. He emailed back right away saying it would not be a problem and asked me to include a link to his website. So please check it out - you will be very happy you did!
In checking out Captain John's website for my own "due diligence", I was immediately struck by the wealth, variety and depth of knowledge he has available to help people become better sailors. He is a published author and has information on his sailing books there as well. His website is well organized and extremely easy to follow. To read his tips on how to better protect your boat at the dock in case of storms and high winds, just click on http://lnkd.in/_42_dP . One of his commonsense, but easily overlooked, tips that can save you valuable paint and/or fiberglass on your boat is that fenders hung horizontally offer more protection for your boat than the vertical ones. Even if your boat might still be up "on the hard" (sailor speak for up on dry land), you can print this article out and keep it for later. The boat I race on goes in the water on April 18, less than 60 days away, not like I'm chomping at the bit or anything!
My next blog entry will probably be about the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary in Bequia - it is a special place on a special island. I have some great Hawksbill Turtle photos that I am yearning to share. Also upcoming will be a report on my visit to "The Graduate Institute" in Bethany, CT involving more cutting edge information/experts in the health field. So....stay tuned and keep checking back here!
Meanwhile, do you have any great sailing tips you would like to share or any sailing questions that have been on your mind?
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Healthmonth.com
This great new "game" on the web was created by Buster Benson out in Seattle, WA. He has harnessed the powers of the web to provide a great way for people to quickly and easily stay committed to their health goals. You can have as much or as little interaction as you desire. I've been playing it since the beginning of this month and am happy to say I have definitely been drinking more water, eating more greens and getting more exercise. I am so thrilled as I am definitely not motivated to exercise when the temperature starts to drop and I tend to stay indoors a lot. As I'm not much for downhill skiing like lots of other New England sailors and people I know, this is huge! An added bonus is that I am even making new friends as I have started to walk with a friend and her dog and the other "dog ladies" who walk on the beach every day, which is great fun. This could even help with my new "dog walking business" if I ever get around to starting it, in between job hunting for a "real job". Not even to mention all the Vitamin D I am getting from the sunshine. It is also much more fun for me than usual in the winter when it is time to get on my scale and look at those numbers!
Healthmonth takes about 5 minutes to set up the first time and is very easy. After that, it only takes about 30 seconds a day to "check in" and report how you are doing. The game gives you points or takes them away, depending at how good you are at following "your rules", which are the goals you set for yourself for the month. People from all over the world are playing it which adds to the fun; right now there are about 4,500 players.
Next month, I have to decide if I will stay with 3 rules again, or jump in and pay a whopping $5.00 a month (or $50.00 annual) membership fee and do as many rules as I want. I figure that I do lots of the rules already, so I might as well do this and get tons of points. Another obsession, but a good one and it's helping me get ready for sailing season, so what could be better?!?
Healthmonth takes about 5 minutes to set up the first time and is very easy. After that, it only takes about 30 seconds a day to "check in" and report how you are doing. The game gives you points or takes them away, depending at how good you are at following "your rules", which are the goals you set for yourself for the month. People from all over the world are playing it which adds to the fun; right now there are about 4,500 players.
Next month, I have to decide if I will stay with 3 rules again, or jump in and pay a whopping $5.00 a month (or $50.00 annual) membership fee and do as many rules as I want. I figure that I do lots of the rules already, so I might as well do this and get tons of points. Another obsession, but a good one and it's helping me get ready for sailing season, so what could be better?!?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Welcome to My First Blog and Sailing Through the Internet!
Sailing through the Internet since 1996 - Websites, Google, Social Media and Craigslist
The hardest thing for me about starting a blog was figuring out what to name it. I am still struggling with his and am not sure if "Sailing, Eco, Health Adventures" will be the permanent name or if I should go on to start multiple blogs for different subjects. Advice from experienced bloggers on this subject would be most appreciated - thank you! I do know you are supposed to blog about what you know. Other than my family and friends, sailing, nature and healthly living are my passions, and have existed pretty much my entire life. Does this make me obsessive?!? Probably. But these three passions also cover a range of other subjects as well, for example, music. What is the best music for sailing? What is the best music for working out? What kinds of music will one hear when one is in a new area?
Being young at heart, energetic, a mom and a woman who loves to learn, I am very interested in young people, education, sports, travel and the arts. The wide world of sailing actually covers most of these interests as well. I must admit, as competitive as I am in sailing (except of course, while cruising), I think it is even more important to be competitive in education in our global world today. I would like to see the USA doing much better in this area than we are at present, ranked something like 20 something in education in the world today. If all those other countries can do it and are producing better educated young people, we can do it as well! Look at us, the USA had the wind and water conquered by winning the America's Cup for all those years and conquered space by putting the first man on the moon at the same time. Both of these achievements involved inspired vision and large investments of time, money and energy. We can do this again and many are working on it right now. Sailing can even work hand in hand with better education, as it spans the generations and generally attracts some fairly bright, active people. There are plenty of "Baby Boomers" in the sailing world and there are also plenty of Gen X'ers, as well as much younger people who are taking sailing lessons and competing in high school and college sailing on the same page with the land-based sports. Sailing is also the only truly co-ed sport, which makes it great for girls and boys in lots of ways!
Soon after starting my professional career with the sailing industry in 1996, I began to notice that some of the organizations I worked with, liasoned with or just followed for fun, were quick to harness the amazing power of the internet. I am very fortunate to know and have worked with some of the top organizations in the sailing and marine industry. A former employer, Offshore Sailing School, together with its standard bearer, US Sailing Association, had great websites even in the 90's and continues to be on the leading edge today. Both of these organizations are also wildly successful, which means a lot in the challenging, ever changing world of the sailing industry. If you depend upon sailing in order to feed your family, employees and to pay the bills - in order to even stay in business - it is critical to be able to look ahead and study the effect of upcoming powerful trends (like the invisible, yet powerful forces of upcoming wind and current on the race course). As a professional in any industry, one needs to frequently analyze one's current situation while at the same time, scanning the horizon and studying future trends in order to be able to even stay in business, let alone experience amazing success.
Future blogs will be contain more adventures with "Sailing Through the Internet". Top Sailing, Ecology and HealthWebsites will be referenced as well as possibly some information on "Internet Stars" like: Website Creation, Google, EBay, Craigslist, Facebook, Web Coaching, Twitter, Quora and Blogs. My adventures with and useful information related to sailing, health and nature will be woven in along the way - I promise! Please comment and let me know where your interests lie and if you have questions relating to any of these subjects. Meanwhile, it's time to get up from the computer, return some phone calls, head out into the sunshine, get some exercise and get back to selling boats and job hunting!
The hardest thing for me about starting a blog was figuring out what to name it. I am still struggling with his and am not sure if "Sailing, Eco, Health Adventures" will be the permanent name or if I should go on to start multiple blogs for different subjects. Advice from experienced bloggers on this subject would be most appreciated - thank you! I do know you are supposed to blog about what you know. Other than my family and friends, sailing, nature and healthly living are my passions, and have existed pretty much my entire life. Does this make me obsessive?!? Probably. But these three passions also cover a range of other subjects as well, for example, music. What is the best music for sailing? What is the best music for working out? What kinds of music will one hear when one is in a new area?
Being young at heart, energetic, a mom and a woman who loves to learn, I am very interested in young people, education, sports, travel and the arts. The wide world of sailing actually covers most of these interests as well. I must admit, as competitive as I am in sailing (except of course, while cruising), I think it is even more important to be competitive in education in our global world today. I would like to see the USA doing much better in this area than we are at present, ranked something like 20 something in education in the world today. If all those other countries can do it and are producing better educated young people, we can do it as well! Look at us, the USA had the wind and water conquered by winning the America's Cup for all those years and conquered space by putting the first man on the moon at the same time. Both of these achievements involved inspired vision and large investments of time, money and energy. We can do this again and many are working on it right now. Sailing can even work hand in hand with better education, as it spans the generations and generally attracts some fairly bright, active people. There are plenty of "Baby Boomers" in the sailing world and there are also plenty of Gen X'ers, as well as much younger people who are taking sailing lessons and competing in high school and college sailing on the same page with the land-based sports. Sailing is also the only truly co-ed sport, which makes it great for girls and boys in lots of ways!
Soon after starting my professional career with the sailing industry in 1996, I began to notice that some of the organizations I worked with, liasoned with or just followed for fun, were quick to harness the amazing power of the internet. I am very fortunate to know and have worked with some of the top organizations in the sailing and marine industry. A former employer, Offshore Sailing School, together with its standard bearer, US Sailing Association, had great websites even in the 90's and continues to be on the leading edge today. Both of these organizations are also wildly successful, which means a lot in the challenging, ever changing world of the sailing industry. If you depend upon sailing in order to feed your family, employees and to pay the bills - in order to even stay in business - it is critical to be able to look ahead and study the effect of upcoming powerful trends (like the invisible, yet powerful forces of upcoming wind and current on the race course). As a professional in any industry, one needs to frequently analyze one's current situation while at the same time, scanning the horizon and studying future trends in order to be able to even stay in business, let alone experience amazing success.
Future blogs will be contain more adventures with "Sailing Through the Internet". Top Sailing, Ecology and HealthWebsites will be referenced as well as possibly some information on "Internet Stars" like: Website Creation, Google, EBay, Craigslist, Facebook, Web Coaching, Twitter, Quora and Blogs. My adventures with and useful information related to sailing, health and nature will be woven in along the way - I promise! Please comment and let me know where your interests lie and if you have questions relating to any of these subjects. Meanwhile, it's time to get up from the computer, return some phone calls, head out into the sunshine, get some exercise and get back to selling boats and job hunting!
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