NoForeignLand

To say we don’t do social media very well would be an understatement.  Neither Bill nor I is on facebook or instagram or anything like that.  Hence this old-school blog that gives us a window from which to shout out from time to time to our friends and family.

But a fellow cruiser recently introduced me to NoForeignLand as a way for us to find them.    I liked the idea, and Turtlebones has now signed up. 

NoForeignLand is a social network site for “the cruising community” – meaning, people like us, sailors who are living aboard their boats and sailing around from place to place – designed and maintained by a couple who are full-time cruisers themselves.

NoForeignLand is a map-based platform for sailors to share information about sailing destinations around the world – what’s the anchorage like over there?  where to check-in to this country?  what’s ashore?  hiking, snorkelling, other visitor attractions?  All these things show up on the map – the anchorage, customs and immigration, the laundry, the coral reef, the ATM, and so on.

But it’s also a way for cruisers to share information about where we are.  It helps us find each other.  Where’s so-and-so?  They were headed to Fiji, I wonder if they got there yet? 

And more than that – it lets our loved ones back home see where we are and how we got there.  That’s mostly what I like about NoForeignLand. 

What “got me” is the tracking function.   We had a tracking function on Turtlebones when we first set out from Mexico in 2023, but it was very clumsy and eventually stopped working altogether.  I’m hoping that tracking on NoForeignLand might be a simple substitute.

As a NoForeignLand user, Turtlebones will now show up on the searchable map.  If you ever want to know where we are, just hop on the website and ask to find Turtlebones.  Our last recorded location will appear as a pulsating boat icon.  Go to NoForeignLand, click on the little magnifying glass on the right, and type in Turtlebones.  It’s that easy! 

And if you want to see our track, just click on Show Journey on our boat page – as you zoom out, it’ll show a track of where we’ve been. 

PS – We’re still waiting for a weather window to sail north.  Maybe this Thursday, fingers crossed.