Traveling by boat we meet a lot of people – we live “next door” to them in marinas and anchorages. Having a common bond, we get to know each other quickly and “what do you do for a living” and “can you believe that traffic” is replaced with “what do you think of the upcoming weather” and “where can I find the showers”. It’s nice to be able to have a little something to remember these people by, so most cruisers carry boat cards which are similar to business cards, only the boat is the “company” being represented.Being full-time travelers our contact info changes frequently so we decided on just adding the link to our website and email addresses.

Shipping to Mexico is not very reliable so we decided to make our own. Before leaving the US we bought a small WiFi color printer (so we can print from any device and store the printer anywhere) and heavy cardstock paper which is cheaper than pre-cut business card paper. We designed cards that work for us right now and only printed enough to last a couple of months. When something changes or we get tired of the design we will make new ones.

Cutting the cards was a bit of a challenge since there really wasn’t any room to bring along a paper cutter. I’m using a fabric cutter and a straight edge to make the cuts and they are coming out pretty even.

UPDATE: I quickly became tired of the cutting and started using clean-edge business card paper for the printer.We have a three-ring folder with business card holder sheets on board to keep track of companies we use in maintaining Camille and the people we meet on our journey.

The back of our card has a photo of us since it’s nice to be able to put a face to the name years later. Back in the 80s when I was cruising with my parents I kept a logbook of the people we met (which I cherish to this day) and one sailor wrote this:

“It’s easy to come and go. The hard thing is to remember.”