Getting Ready?

How does one intelligently provision for a major cruise?  There's no one way to do it, since all crews are different.  However you slice it though, there will be lots of thoughtful shopping.  We found it helps to break your needs down into basic categories: Nutrition, Safety, Bookkeeping/Customs, Getting Hurt and Entertainment were ours.  

This breakdown does NOT include the massive inventory of spare parts, fluids, tools, etc. necessary for keeping the BOAT and her systems healthy and prepared - that's a completely different, exhaustive topic.  This page is only about what it takes to keep the human element alive, legal and well.

Nutrition
When it came down to buying food, all the cruising literature and real-world advice from sailors we knew said the same thing:  buy according to the way you eat now, not the way you'd like to eat.  Don't expect your life at sea to help you turn over a new dietary leaf, in other words.  We've been eating very simply for years in order to stay healthy and save money for our cruise.  So we didn't have to buy any soda, chips, cereal or snack cakes that cost a fortune, come in a ridiculous amount of packaging, take up a lot of space and do nothing constructive for your body.  Thus, we were able to cram a truly massive amount of good food into our storage lockers.

We packed the boat full of dry staples that keep practically forever and that lots of menus can be built around: rice (brown, sushi and arborio), all kinds of beans, rolled oats, wheat, pastas, quinoa and polenta.  These items were ordered in bulk online for considerable savings for good quality.




Brian with a wagon load of rice, beans and oats.

Another good point someone mentioned to us is that people eat all over the world, and part of the pleasure of cruising is sampling local produce.  We plan on buying a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables whenever we possibly can. But if fresh food is not available, we've packed along lots of sprouting seeds for growing our own salads- alfalfa, mung bean, radish, lentil and chia.  We could also sprout our wheat berries and brown rice if we so wished.  Our very helpful cruising friend Lauren Henry turned us on to sprouts and we've never looked back.  Even Louie likes them!

We found a good brand of crushed tomatoes on sale and stocked up for sauce making and soups.  We also loaded up on canned tuna, mackerel and salmon (in case we're not great fishermen), peanut butter, chocolate, condiments, yeast, natural sweeteners, coffee, tea, semolina flour for pasta making, and powdered milk for making yogurt and baking.  We bought about 50 pounds of our favorite cheeses and vacuum sealed them wrapped in vinegar-soaked cheesecloth to make them last as long as possible.  We made sure to buy backups of all of our favorite spices after hearing that they may be hard to find away from home.  Also we took along some little extras and treats to make things special every once in a while.  It was a lot like our regular weekly shopping, only in amounts that suggested we had a whole football team of hulking teenaged man-children to feed along with ourselves.
 

Raiding the bulk bins at the health food store for our pack of hulking maniacs.
Safety
Feeling confident about the Nutrition category, we turned our attention to Safety.  The first and obvious necessary item was some sort of life raft.  SARABANDE came with one that was manufactured in 1975.  Although it was a considerable expense, we didn't want to take chances with an old raft and bought a brand new one of a reputable brand.  It's a bright orange six person raft with an integrated canopy to provide sun and wind protection, and it's vacuum sealed to prevent any moisture from sneaking it while it's stored.  If the boat sinks I'm sure we'll be glad we spent the money, although it probably won't be the most comfortable ride of our lives!

Now that we had some form of floating shelter worked out, we asked ourselves what else we would be grateful to have if The Worst Case Scenario came true?  Thankfully, the boat had come equipped with her own EPIRB, a device that when manually tripped or set afloat, will send a distress signal to the US Coast Guard who will then (presumably) begin search and rescue efforts.  It's a wonderful thing to have, and we had a new battery installed in ours and updated the authorities with our information and emergency contacts.

The EPIRB is stored in our Abandon Ship bag, an oversized hiking backpack we filled with all manner of items useful to the shipwrecked:  MREs (Meals Ready to Eat, which are usually given to military personnel in combat. Alicia's brother kindly gave us a case), distress flares, a fishing kit, a first aid kit, a handheld VHF radio with fresh batteries, a hand-cranked AM/FM/WX radio, a flashlight and batteries, a signaling mirror, two Gerber tools, paper and pens, waterproof matches, changes of clothes, space blankets, a bailing sponge, towels, sunglasses, soap, string, vitamin pills, and a handful of other odds and ends.  Everything is in individual ziplocks in case the whole bag is submerged.  We stowed the bag next to the life raft in the port cockpit locker, and on top of the bag we stowed two 5 gallon jerry jugs of water, tied together and filled two thirds full so that they'll float if necessary.  In the event of an emergency, we've decided that Brian will grab and deploy the life raft, Alicia will grab the water jugs and the bag and we will untether ourselves from the boat and to each other.  

Another simple way to stay safe at sea is to make sure that if you fall off the boat during that lone watch, you're physically still attached to it.  We purchased two sets of SOSpenders for ourselves, which are automatically inflating lifejackets and harnesses in one.  You tether yourself to the boat via the harness using ridiculously strong nylon webbing, and if you fall off the boat the lifejacket part automatically inflates (or, if that fails, there's also a manual way to blow it up), so your head stays well above water as you try to work your way back aboard.  Louie and Sheba also both have life jackets, although Sheba predictably absolutely cannot stand wearing hers.    

Bookkeeping/Customs
For this arena, we gathered all our important papers, (SARABANDE's Coast Guard documentation, our passports, social security cards, etc.) scanned them into the computer and then vacuum sealed them to keep from getting damp on the boat.  This way, as we check into foreign ports we can print out copies of the scans rather than run around with the originals, which live in a safe, secure place.  The animals' shot records got the same treatment.  We saw to it before we left that all of our banking can be done online, and any snail mail will be forwarded to Alicia's mom's house (thanks, Mom).  

It is a requirement (and common courtesy) to strategically fly the flag of the current country one is visiting along with one's own country's flag.  Since we plan on seeing a lot of countries, we purchased nylon flag material by the yard in the most needed colors, grommets and webbing, and will make the flags as we go along.  These will be fun to display later, and we'll save considerable cash per flag.  We did purchase an American flag since we'll have to fly it the whole time and because all those stars and stripes would be a big pain to sew in place.  

Getting Hurt
As mentioned in our previous update, Mr. Collins' dear friend Tom Eagles came all the way to Jersey to supply us with a complete medical kit and training.  We're very lucky he did, and we organized the medical supplies in the head by ailment:  Pain/Allergy/Infection, Burns, Stomach, Skin, Lady Problems, Small Boo Boos, Big Boo Boos, and Pet Medications.  Each ailment has its own tupperware container stuffed with supplies for that particular set of problems.  We also have a tupperware marked "Tools" with things like thermometers, an otoscope, needles and syringes, etc.  For even more details, click here.  For any (god forbid) really, really big boo boos, we have international traveler's health insurance.

Entertainment
Since both of us have a strong interest in film, we've taken along lots of ways to document our adventure and a computer capable of editing our video footage into movies.  We also love being in the water, and so we've brought snorkeling and SCUBA gear along with us.  We can even combine film with water and shoot underwater digital pictures (thanks, Kevin!).  If we get sick of swimming, there are a million hikes and natural wonders to go see, and so we'll take to the land.  We're betting that constantly being immersed in a new environment will usually be entertainment enough, but in case all else fails we've brought along our whole DVD collection and lots and lots of books.  Throw in fishing for supper, shell collecting and maintaining the boat, and we'll probably always have something to do.  Of course, we're also looking forward to periods of time where we do nothing at all but sit quietly and appreciate.

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