Hi 'a',
my advice is worth exactly what you paid for it ;-) Sounds like you should
be having the time of your life - did you not succeed in leaving the stress
behind when you cast off? You could have mentioned where you are located,
what i was implying in my post was that nobody knows where you are in the
world. Ive never actually been to the states myself, but even I've heard of
west marine ;-)

I cant help you out with where you are, but if you happen to be in australia
(where i come from) or new zealand, indonesia, south korea, japan or russia
then i might be able to help you out. I've only 5 years experience abroad
to date, and unfortunately it looks like i'll be tied to the land for the
next 2 or 3 years. I do have plenty of experience with trying to find
things in strange countries where there is little to no information, and i
can's speak the language. Since i most like being where the peopole aren't,
I've generally had to rely on a bit of dumb luck combined with some lateral
thinking and a liberal application of boot leather to get the things i want.
I've often been in that annoying situation (in asia) where every store has
only one brand of a particular item, and that is all you can get in that
country. People just cant understand why you'd want anything different ;-)

Good luck with your search, maybe someone will come forward now that you
have mentioned where you are. It does help a bit if you supply extra
information.... the first thing people think about when they read a post
like this is 'oh great, now i have to actually ask this guy where he is in
the world, what he needs it for, how much he needs etc etc...'. At this
point, many well intentioned people just move on to the next post.

Best Regards,
Shaun

wrote in message
...
Hello Shawn,

Thanks for your advice. We are in southern Mexico - just came back up
from Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama,
Ecuador, Galapagos and Peru. Is that international enough for you?
Where have you cruised lately?

There are no yellow pages here - except useless internet ****. We have
been cruising outside the USA for 17 years. So your advice is not
actually worth much to me or anybody who is cruising outside the US.

Five years ago this NG was inhabited by folks who knew something about
something - now it seems full of empty wanna-be whiners. I suggest you
drink less and cruise more. You could turn out to be a fine fellow -
at least you can spell.

BTW, I didn't ask anyone to "look it up" - I thought there might be
cruisers here who worked on the own boats.