Tag Archives: Australia to Oman

November 2012 Update on Us

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Shelf Unbound Magazine featured our books in their October/November 2012 issue, which we were excited about. There is even an excerpt from Part 1.

We are also pleased to report that The Unexpected Circumnavigation Part 2 is now available at Amazon UK, Amazon France, Amazon Germany/Austria, Amazon Italy, and Amazon Spain, in addition to Amazon USA. Hopefully, Part 1 will be listed in the international stores soon, as well. (See the Buy Our Books page for a complete listing of where both books can be purchased). We’ll try to upload the books to Kindle soon.  

The new updated version of Voyaging Under Power by Denis Umstot has been delayed until late-December. Denis had asked us for some information that we believe he put into the book. We are very excited to be quoted in the “bible” of long range power boating!

On to personal news…Keith is now 8.5 months old, and developmentally speaking, he is doing great. He is either right on target or a little bit ahead of the curve in all areas. He seems to be able to do more and also understand more each day. It has been fun watching his range of skills and abilities grow. He is so proud of himself every time he accomplishes something new.

Right after we posted Keith’s six month update, he started making motions to indicate that he was getting ready to crawl. He still isn’t crawling yet, but he is on the verge. He gets on his hands and knees and tries to move forward, but just hasn’t quite figured out how yet.

He has been able to Continue reading →

September 2012 Update On Us

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Sorry it has been so long since we posted an update. Life has been really busy. Keith takes just about every bit of Christi’s time and energy. Keith is thriving in every way: healthy and developmentally ahead in many areas. We’ll post more information and lots of photos of him soon, but for now, here is a photo taken last week.

Both The Unexpected Circumnavigation Parts 1 and 2 continue to sell well, which is
surprising to us since we have done virtually no marketing at all in almost a year now. The e-pub version of Part 2 is now (finally) available the iTunes store and on Barnes and Noble.com. A paper version is also listed on Amazon. (See the Buy Our Books page for a complete listing of where both books can be purchased). We’ll try to upload the book to Kindle soon. We’re hoping it won’t have the same bug that Part 1 has in the HTML (Part 1 looks all messed up on Kindle. Hand fixing the HTML so it looks okay has been on the to-do list for over 2 years now.) 

Christi has made no progress on the Recipe for Success: What Cruising Aboard My Own Yacht Will Cost Me workbook since Keith was born, but she will get it done as soon as Keith is less needy. Once the workbook is done, we can start on Part 3.

The new updated version of Voyaging Under Power by Denis Umstot will be out on November 1. Denis had asked us for some information that we believe he put into the book. We are very excited to be quoted in the “bible” of long range power boating!

February 2012 Update On Us

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A couple months ago, we mentioned that World Footprints Media was running a Best Photo Contest called “I LOVE To Travel.” One of the prizes was a copy of both our books. In our last update, we forgot to mention that the winner of our books was Sarah S. of Pennsylvania. Congrats to Sarah!

We have gotten more feedback on The Unexpected Circumnavigation: Unusual Boat, Unusual People Part 2: Australia to Oman. So far, all the feedback has been good, with more than half of the people telling us they like Part 2 better than Part 1. We would be grateful if people who have read the books would rate them on Lulu or Amazon.

We’re still trying to finish up the Recipe for Success: What My Cruising Will Cost Me workbook. As we said in the last update, the workbook’s content is mostly complete; the hold up is formatting challenges. With so much going on with getting ready for the baby, it has been easy to procrastinate on the re-formatting, but we are still slowly plugging away at it.

In personal news, Christi Continue reading →

January 2012 Update

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We are pleased to report that Part 2 of The Unexpected Circumnavigation is selling well (for a self-published book, at least). We haven’t gotten much feedback as of yet, but so far all of it has been good. If you want to read some excerpts, there is one in The Mariner Magazine taken from Chapter 1 (starts on page 18) and one on Lulu with the first few pages of the prologue (click on preview link under image of book). If you have already read the book, we’d appreciate if you would rate it on Lulu, as well.

Part 1 is also selling well. Sales had been steady for most of 2011, but since Part 2 came out, sales of Part 1 have leaped up.

We are nearly finished with our next book project, a workbook called Recipe for Success: What My Cruising Will Cost Me. The text is more or less complete, but we are finding it harder to format a workbook than a reading book. We didn’t have much time to work on it over the holidays, but now that things have slowed down, we hope to have it done by the end of the month. Once Recipe for Success is finished, Christi will focus on Part 3 of The Unexpected Circumnavigation. 

In personal news, Continue reading →

More About Part 2 of The Unexpected Circumnavigation

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Part 2 of The Unexpected Circumnavigation: Unusual Boat, Unusual People covering Australia to Oman is now on sale! Read the first few pages on Lulu’s “preview” feature and read an excerpt from Chapter 1 here (starts on page 18)!

Jeff Merrill wrote an extensive book review for the Nordhavn.com site.

Many people have asked us why they should buy our book if they can read our blog for free. Just like Part 1, the book is very different from the blog. Here are a few of the differences between the two:

  • Prologue: Picks up where the Prologue of Part 1 left off. It focuses primarily on the research we did as we planned for our journey and addresses the majority of the questions we were most frequently asked.
  • Several new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
  • Many details have been added that were best left undisclosed while we were still on the journey (sometimes we didn’t want our parents worrying about us; sometimes we didn’t want to incriminate ourselves!)
  • In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
  • Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
  • Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
  • Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
  • All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

People have also asked us why we broke the series up into four books instead of only three. We had very different experiences in each of the four world regions, so it was best for each region to have its own volume.

  • In the South Pacific, Part 1, we spent most of our time in sparsely populated areas communing with nature. And we did a lot of rough sea time, learning about boating the hard way.
  •  In Asia, Part 2, we were mostly in densely populated areas building cultural bridges. Our sea experiences were also different from the Pacific, with both our best and worst passages occurring in this region.