Welcome! I am John Banfield, and with my wife, Alison Banfield, I hope to give you a glimpse of what life on a blue water cruising boat is like. We live in Sydney, Australia, and now have a Crealock 37, Liberty, which we will eventually circumnavigate on.

Before that we were the proud owners of True Blue Voyager, a classic 32ft cruising yacht. She is a 1976 Allied Seawind II.

A review of the Crealock can be found at Boat US. Going to a bigger boat was a very difficult decision and only time will tell whether it was the right one. Interestingly True Blue had more storage. The Crealock is a very different boat in that she is narrow for a 37 footer - 10" 10. She is more tender, much faster and points much higher. The bed is smaller but everything else is bigger, including the galley, head and main cabin.

After living in the US for a number of years we left Florida in 2002 for Australia. Our trip took us around the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, and across the South Pacific. (Read more about our trip here.)

When we arrived in Australia we were glad to get off the boat. Guilt eventually set in though, and it was time to start getting her up to scratch. We were immediately struck by how much more oriented towards racing Sydney was. Boats are lighter and faster. Perhaps the dream is different from the USA- there everyone dreams of the South Pacific, whereas here it seems to be the Sydney to Hobart.

So we have spent the last year or two trying to locate cruising boat resources- from springs for a manual windlass to cruiser friendly marinas, getting a waterways mooring and some water tanks made. We hope this site will help others who find themselves in the same situation.

We also hope to pass on anything we learnt after sailing a long way, what worked and what didn’t, our impressions of the cruising life and something of the places we visited along the way. People we have met and the friends we have made since have all asked about the trip, and it is hard to find a place to start. We hope this site helps.

There is an enormous amount of information on the web, and some of it is incredibly useful to anyone who is contemplating a blue-water cruise. This site will cover both those we find essential, useful or just interesting or fun. Some of our friends have amazing web sites, and we will include these too.

We also hope this site might become a forum for the exchange of ideas, information and stories. We would love to hear from you, and hope you will contribute.

One day we intend to take off again, this time around the world. We are leaving it quite a while. In the meantime there is plenty of cruising in Australia, which is what we are doing now!

We hope you enjoy the site!

Cheers,

John and Alison