04/22/2024
Sailing post ...
A friend is joining one of the Swan ocean sailing deliveries that my friend Hank organizes. Sailopo.com. Jimmy was asking for gear suggestions. I haven't posted my ocean tips in a while, here is most of it:
Aloha Jimmy,
What a great sailing adventure. It took me decades of sailing to finally get to Bermuda. It is a very cool place. You'll love it.
Watches. 3 on 6 off is my prefered schedule. 4 is too much for most humans in the middle of the night. You will probably be paired with someone. On the bigger Swans I adopted Tania's prefered schedule. It is a 3/6, two on watch staggered with overwatch. Watches were staggered so that fresh eyes came on every 1.5 hours. And we had enough for an 'overwatch'. The skipper and first mate did 6 hour standby watches to help with more complicated helm and deck tasks. I had the rule that no one besides the two of us go forward of the center cockpit at night. You will do what your captain says of course :).
I've done both directions of Newport to St Maarten. This is chilliest version of the Swan legs. As you would expect, it gets cold, especially as you exit the gulf stream toward Newport. The times I did this leg, it was foggy coming out of the gulf stream. I'm not especially bothered by cold but the wet cold with very little activity in an open cockpit can catch up to you.
I use spray on waterproofing on my foulies, a little extra protection. Your foulies can be cheap but they need to be completely waterproof. Then you have the luxury of layering underneath.
Thick fleece top and bottoms. If real cold, I'll wear a shirt under that then ...
Long underwear under that. The silk kind pack tiny and are great on the skin and create decent warmth. If concerned or for longer cold trips (CA to Seattle), I also bring a set of normal long underwear, I like the old school honeycomb. This trip is a day and a half of cold but all the Swans that I've seen have open cockpits (which is dumb imo ;). I find that light gloves make a difference, even when they get wet. And I mean rigging gloves. I like the gloves that just have the index and thumb exposed. For cold trips. Snow gloves are an option but again, I'm always packing as light as possible.
Waterproof boots, great. I keep my bib's ankle velcro secure around my boots. After watch I can drop my bib foulies down over my boots. Then I can hop out of my bunk and into my boots and foulies quick. So I can calm varying panic occuring at the helm, ha.
A pair of wool sox is great but again, just 30 something hours of real cold. Wool cap for longer trips or my whole head, thin, backlava thing for motorcycles is fine for this. You probably have one. Or nothing.
A small VHF is handy. I think of it as an emergency device. If I go in (and am conscious, didn't get hit by the boom, never be in the boom swing airspace :). I figure me communicating with the boat is the best way to speed re-boarding. Features I look for: small, waterproof, usb charging (no big charge base). Floating makes it bigger, if non float you might tether it to your gear.
One trip the radar failed and I felt super lucky to find a simple version of AIS tracking on the big VHF. I have the ICOM ais radio. AIS is not working ha. But I expect ICOM will fix that and I will love this radio. I bring my small usb radio for most use but have that AIS in my go bag.
Waterproof roll top bag is nice to have. Airport security likes my clear one. On the boat I pull out my day to day electronics and put go bag type stuff in the waterproof, ready to go. I have a water flask for planes that also goes in there. Laser light etc. Blinking red float light attached to your bibs is good for a theoretical night swim.
Headlamp is a must for watches, galley work etc. Find one that also does red out of respect for your fellow crew. I end up with the high end, small Princetons. They do red first which is nice. White is fine in your cabin after watch if your bunkmate isnt getting up soon. And I use it to see the top of mast wind direction. The only way to get accurate wind direction on a boat. Try to get used to red only before watches (a rule on my boats), to preserve night vision.
I don't bring a harness, they'll have one for you. Sometimes I'll bring my stretchy harness lanyard though. It starts shorter so it hooks on less boat gear and warns you before yanking you back.
Some people bring satellite trackers, fun for family at home. Basic messaging too. You probably have one. I think I have an old Spot if you want it. I have been using the Garmins. The Cubans have my old Garmin now ;). There is a new company with a green unit I haven't researched. A crew had it on a trip and liked it. I choose my tracker based on available plans. I need like 40 messages for a trip, mostly for asking about weather. I only activate it a couple of times a year so I don't want to pay standby fees year round.
My travel computer is an iPad with an iClever folding keyboard. I bring waterproof housing for my iphone and ipad. Coming into ports etc, I can bring my waterproof iPad to the helm for charts. It is always faster than whatever $10-20k system is at the helm. Or I use my iPhone for same. Gps on them often works in my bunk.
Internet. Tmobile still seems best for international data that you never have to think about. I find it works great, even pulling my emails as I sail by countries.
Apps. I'm sure you have most of them as a person that now travels more than I do. Gogo Entertainment for wifi access on some planes.
Navionics Boating still seems to be the best though most expensive. Download the relevant charts. I'm sure you have. I use iSailor for backup charts.
Weather, when you have internet: I prefer Passage Weather for wx. No app, use it on a browser. Download the images for the first few days of your route to use at sea. Download a couple of the gulfstream images to have an idea of range of shifting for the time of year.
Windyty app is fun to look at. Compass app is surprisingly handy, also gets bunk use.
Whatsapp, the choice for everyone outside the US. I'm sure you know.
Shipinfo or MarineTraffic to track your boat and others when you have internet. I try to collect mmsi numbers from all fleet boats so I can identify them on the boat Ais at sea. This might belong under extra credit, ha.
Extra credit, probably more for captains: whichever navigation system they have likely has it's own app. Which means I can monitor almost everything from my bunk through boat wifi without internet.
We'll sail together again soon I'm sure. Tania and I have Sail Spain in October. If we get a fourth yacht, we may need a captain.
Woody
