If there is one truth about the lifestyle that is performance boating, it is that it reaches across continents, breaks down language barriers and bonds people across the world. An example of this would be a recent visit my family received from a fellow offshore enthusiast who just happens to reside in Bologna, Italy.

To give you some background on how this visit from Italy came to fruition, I must start at OffshoreOnly.com. For it is there that I first read the various threads where Michele Ghedini (aka Mickey) first began to reach out to the boating community.

Mickey keeps his beautiful 1995 Cigarette 38 Top Gun (right)—the same vintage and make as my own boat—on a picturesque tropical island off the west coast of Italy called Sardinia. It quickly becomes painfully clear how difficult it is to gain parts for a Cigarette (or any other performance-boat brand) in Italy. Through “speaking” with Mickey via his various posts and assisting him to get parts from Lip-Ship Performance for his Cigarette, we eventually became good friends.

After countless e-mails, texts and posts on the various boating forums, Mickey eventually notified me he would be coming for a visit to the greater Los Angeles area and would like to spend some time with my family. So in early April, Mickey and his beautiful wife, Raffa, arrived at our home in Channel Islands, Calif.

I most desperately wanted to get Mickey and Raffa out onto the Pacific Ocean for a run in our Top Gun, but unfortunately it was not meant to be and the timing did not work out. However, we still managed to grab a Duffy electric boat and enjoy a harbor cruise. We were able to hang out, see the sites and introduce Mickey and Raffa to our family and friends over cocktails and a bbq. We were saddened to see Mickey and Raffa leave but they are part of our extended family and we hope to visit them Sardinia in the near future.

As I wrote in my first blog, the people I’ve met through this lifestyle called “performance boating” and the opportunities that have been presented to my wife and I have been in a word—awesome. This is just another example of that and an example of how the passion for high-performance offshore powerboats stretches across the globe and brings people together.

Sometimes we bicker, disagree and argue with each other, but in the end we all truly share one common thing: The love of this sport and lifestyle.