What's in your go bag?

If the worst were to happen (the boat sinks) your life raft and go bag are immediately your new best friends. So what's in your go bag? Mine will contain:

- Strobe light

- Three self-contained handheld aerial safety flares

- Three handheld smoke flares 

- Signal mirror

- Waterproof whistle

- 3-foot x 6-foot orange distress flag

- LED floating flashlight

- Container of orange water-activated signal dye

- Handheld, waterproof VHF radio with alkaline battery pack

- Handheld GPS navigator

- Leatherman Super-Tool

- Personal Locator Beacon (or 406 MHz EPIRB for your boat)

- Small medical kit with aspirin and seasick pills

- One 16-oz bottle of water

- 100ft of 1/8" line

- Water maker

- 12 protein bars

- Reflective blanket

- Sunblock

- Rescue kite

Keep some waterproof bags with the ditch bag to allow a quick gathering of additional items if time allows.

Preparation for the Med

The boat ultimately needs to be prepared to "live" in the Mediterranean for awhile. I'll need to compile a list of considerations:

• Original ship papers (France requires the possession of original ship documents not copies)
• Power (conversion device for 220v to 110v)
• Propane vs. butane (dual fuel stove?) 
• Water (Does europe use a different type of hose connector?)
• others??

Checklists

I'm a big believer in checklists. Here's a collection of input that I will refine into a final checklist:

Passage Preparation Checklist

Engine
Oil and filter change
New fuel filters (include checking/cleaning bowl)
Check belt tension
Check stuffing box not leaking
Top up battery water level and equalize charge
Fill fuel tanks
Take sample off bottom of both fuel tanks (check for water or sludge)
Fill one spare jerry jug of fuel (for bleeding or emergency)
Spare belts, fuel and oil filters
Oil for 3 full oil changes
Service complete spare set of injectors (if they have been used)
Rig
Sail inspection/touch up seams with popped stitches
Make sure all telltales are intact
Wire tie (or mouse with stainless wire) all shackle pins closed (and any other pins that might vibrate loose) Check halyards for chafe
Renew marks on reef lines and on halyards (drop or pull lines to marks)
Renew marks on jib tracks for various sails (esp. storm jib) sheeting position
Mark (on mast) spin car pole position for poling out jib
Make sure all clutch labels still readable
Check spreader boots
Clean all shackles and blocks with soapy fresh water
Set up preventers
Set storm jib sheets
Hank trysail on mast track (where it lives on passage)
Stow storm jibs in head shower area
Install stern blocks (used for trysail sheets and drogue briddle)
Install ‘safety loops’ thru center of blocks (spectra soft loops to contain them if they should explode) Galley
Fill all propane cans
Test all burners/oven on stove
Flush and fill water tanks
Fill two jerry jugs with water (for emergency)
Several spray and squirt bottles of slightly soapy water (in cockpit and near companionway, to rinse salt off hands and feet – keep salt out of boat)
Pre-prepare first 3 to 5 dinners – ‘heat and eat’ single bowl meals
Stash ‘grab food’ (granola bars, Chocolate bars, dried fruit, etc) in easy accessible places
Add additional ‘taste bud’ food (pickles, strong sauces, etc)
Safety
Set fixed work station tethers and jacklines
Put drogue and warp on forepeak sole
Put ditch bag next to companionway

Change Co2 on PFD’s and test bladders
Check battery on EPIRB
Provide ‘crew list and float plan’ to emergency contacts
Update speed dial numbers in iridium (USCG, emergency contacts, weather and medical) Take seasick medications 24hrs before leaving and stow them in an accessible place Check prescription dates in medical kit and replace as necessary
Turn all thruhulls to make sure all are free
Make sure head Y valve will turn, macerator pump works and vent line is clear
Put a little soapy water in bilge and flip on bilge pumps to make sure all work
Ankle splint
Navigation
Test iridium
Check for entire e-chart coverage of route
Create ‘plan A’ route/waypoints with ETAs (include in float plan above)
Sort into sequence paper charts for potential emergency landfalls
Find best SSB weather and net frequencies
Find best weather fax frequencies
Start tracking weather patterns 2 weeks ahead of departure
Change batteries and test celestial calculator Make sure passports are on board (in ditch bag) Check the running lights
Double check spare eye glasses are on board Steering
Top up autopilot hydraulic fluid
Two spare bottles of hydraulic fluid
Tighten all bolts (locknuts)
Check slop/tension
Lubricate steering system and rinse rudder bearings with soapy fresh water
Mark center, and +- 8 degrees rudder angle on wheel (reef when wheel goes to +-8 degree marks) Bunks
Make up sea bunks
Cover double bunk with plastic
Set up lee cloths
General Stowage
Stow dinghy (under main saloon table)
Stow outboard (in Laz)
Plug windless chain pipe
Turn off windless breaker
Duct tape hatches
Remove forward dorades
Replace batteries in all flashlights
Pack pretty much everything in ziplock bags – certainly all books, loose electronics and clothing

Credit to  Evans Starzinger for most of this list

* bilge pump: For those of us with old, leaky fiberglass boats, I'd double check the bilge pumps.  I'm wiring in an LED light to activate when the float switch is tripped so I know when it's running. If equipped with an indicator, make sure it works.   Filling the bilge and testing the manual pump is probably a good idea, too.  

* check ALL thru-hull valves to ensure none are stuck. 

Medical kit

- check transmission oil / fluid level

- clean prop

- check shaft seal for leaks with engine running at cruising speed and in gear (usually when leaving anchorage)

- clean water line and/or bottom as required (probably not in high latitudes!)

- cover on windlass and windlass circuit breaker off

- close forward sink drains (don't think Hawk has any that are forward enough to get hammered by waves)

- tape pelican hooks at lifeline gates

- clean speed transducer paddle wheel

check impeller

How it progressed...

After getting married, my wife and I occasionally set up trips with friends and chartered boats in increasing size from a 35' Mackinaw Cutter on Lake Michigan

 to a Hunter 41 on the Chesapeake.












The introduction of children to all of our young families brought this chapter to a close.
As my children were growing up, they all loved being around water. When they reached an age where we felt comfortable taking them on a boating vacation, my wife and I decided to introduce them to sailing. The question was, "Where to go?". With the short attention span of most of our society today, I was concerned that selecting a location that would require long sails might poison the experience for them. Google to the rescue! (Or rather some other search engine as this was pre-google). Searches for the best sailing area routinely directed me to the British Virgin Islands. So in 1999 we made our first excursion to the BVI's. My kids loved it. I've been back there every second year since then. Along the way, we've introduced a number of friends to this floating oasis vacation paradise.
We've mostly sailed catamarans while in the BVI's due to their large interiors and stability which minimizes discomfort for non-sailors that we have introduced to this experience.

A few of the boats we've charted:

Lagoon 500

Hunter 46

PDQ 36

Horizon 56

Lagoon 450

Knysna 47

How it began for me

I'm not actually sure how or when it happened, but a "big" item crept onto my bucket list while I wasn't looking: to sail across the Atlantic in a sailboat.

A little background...

When I was young (around 6 years old) I learned to sail on a Snark, which is a very small lateen-rigged sailboat. My grandparents had a small cabin on a large inland lake in northern Michigan that we visited regularly during the summer. My dad had saved up a small slush fund by emptying his spare change into a container each night. When the change bucket was full he ordered a Snark which showed up in a cardboard box a few weeks later.
I loved that boat. Not only was it a lot of fun, it gave me great freedom. On my seventh birthday, I sailed across the lake by myself; it was a little over a mile. Although this probably made my parents a bit anxious, they were always supportive. I suspect I received some recognition for this small feat which may have started the growth of  a small germ inside me. It's hard to pinpoint later in life the many inputs that form us.


A few years later,  a Hobie Cat 16 was added to our fleet. (R.I.P. Hobie Alter)
This boat was an order of magnitude faster and more sophisticated than the tiny snark. It introduced me to a whole new level of sailing excitement and capability.

When I was a young teenager, my dad received a substantial bonus one year and used it to purchase a "cruising boat". The boat was the Hereshoff designed Chrysler 26 and we sailed Lake Huron on it many weekends and for a week or two at a time each summer. This was my introduction to the cruising lifestyle. Arriving at each new port provided lots of opportunities to explore and discover what the town had to offer. Or at least to what was within the range of my trusty skateboard.
I have fond memories of learning how to hank on  a headsail in a choppy sea, taking a nap in the sun while laying on a sailbag on deck,  the adrenaline rush of "exciting times", and some not-so-fond memories of boredom during long legs on the same tack. This experience culminated in my first extended trip where I was the captain when I took my two best friends from Tawas City, Michigan to the North Channel in Ontario, Canada at age 17. We had numerous adventures and returned with everyone relatively unscathed and the boat no worse for wear.