Mad Mariner's booth in Miami was rarely empty, as new readers came by the hundreds.

The editors at Mad Mariner would like to extend a hearty thanks to all who stopped to see us during the Miami International Boat Show this past week. This was Mariner's first time exhibiting in Miami and it was a great deal of fun.

Hundreds of people stopped by the booth, where we gave away free deck keys and chocolate, owing to the show's Valentines Day kickoff (no one seemed to notice that they shipped the wrong order to us, and that the candy said AFRT rather than MadMariner.com.) One guy simply said "Breakfast!" and grabbed a handful.

We also raffled off a hand-held depth sounder each day, making five new readers pretty happy, and handed out beach balls to young boaters – an item so popular that we ran out after just two days. We covered the show live on the Ocean Lines blog and had four large screens to display the site and The Docking Game which, as you might imagine, was also pretty popular with the younger crowd.

We made the rounds a bit, too. Editor Glen Justice spoke on a panel for Boating Writers International and collected a Web Award from the North American Marine Association. Managing Editor Leef Smith ran the the site – in between trips to gawk at the mega yachts lining Collins Avenue. Reporter Tom Tripp rose early to sea trial boats, then hit every corner of the show – every day. Many of us also made it to the Power & Motoryacht party, which offered a view of the vessels from 18 stories up and an odd Hollywood theme, complete with the magazine staff in costume.

But the best part was meeting hundreds of new readers, people with every type of boat from every type of background, many of whom understood immediately the value of a daily online publication that shares their passion. We welcome you to the site, and we hope you enjoy!

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