Cruising crash course - web, books, people

I've been sailing since I was very young child - and was naive enough to think that I was an expert on the subject. I believe that I am a decent sailor, but I am not a very knowledgable sailor ...especially when it comes to cruising vessels.

Our plan has always been to research the vessel, and have one picked out and ready to purchase by the time we sell our house. Researching the vessel brought me into a whole new world of sailing! My idea of the perfect cruising boat would soon be rewritten. Anchor wells, long overhangs, huge cockpits are a few examples of things that I looked for in my little weekenders - but were suddenly on my 'no,no' list. Those huge roomy cabins I had planned to place my family in were generally at the expense of important seaworthy aspects. Phyew!!! The choices and decisions seemed endless.

I started buying book, after book. Living aboard books, Heavy weather sailing books, anything by Nigel Calder, and every work I could find by a 'been there, done that' sailor.

I bought 'Cruising Routes of the World' and learned the times of year to travel to different locations, and spent a while schetching out our course.

Searching the web I found http://www.cruisersforum.com to be the most helpful resource out there. This is a site I would recommend to every sailor looking for a tested, and true answer. Everything is layed out in an easliy navigable manor, and broken up into logical sections. Experienced and unexperienced alike swarm this site ready to swap useful info and answer questions almost as quickly as you can post them. After spending a small fortune on books, I think some of the most useful information that I have acquired was from this site.

a few other websites:
http://noonesite.com
http://ssca.org/cgi-bin/pagegen.pl?pg=home&title=Home
http://cruisenews.net/db/region.php?region=
http://www.everythingboats.com/ryob/ryob_search.pl?type=list