Greetings From Norfolk Virginia

[subnate]

Hey everyone, I've wanted to get into sailing and cruising for a long time, and now that I have retired from the Navy I have a time to start pursuing this dream. I have little to no experience sailing, but plan to talk to the sailing center here on base and start taking lessons. My dream is to own a boat, get enough experience here on the Chesapeake Bay, and near shore then travel to Florida and cruise to the Bahamas. That being said I have one little hurdle with the wife that I will post in another forum. But I'm sure I will have tons of questions and I'm really excited to start this journey.

[Waterway Guide]

Welcome aboard! That’s pretty much how we did it…retired, bought a sailboat, cruised the Chesapeake for a couple seasons, then headed south down the ICW to FL and the Bahamas. Good luck with the plan, and you’ll get a lot of help here at CF.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Howdy and Welcome Aboard CF SubNate!

Go Navy!

FYI: There is at least one former submariner on the forum. I am sure there are many others with Navy experience too.

A Few of my Favorite Tips for New Members to this Forum:

Since you are new to this forum, let me mention a few things you might miss but that could help you more enjoy your time here:

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

There is a free Cruiser's Wiki associated with this forum.
There is a LOT of free content in that wiki. I suggest looking at the contents to see. http://www.cruiserswiki.org/wiki/
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The forum site has a wealth of information here. It can be fun to just browse. But, if you are in a hurry to get an answer to something here is what I suggest:

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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Good luck on your sailing adventures and have fun!