Quote:
Originally Posted by Eder
de captain
Thanks for the great read. I'm about 20 months from starting on a similar trip, with similar sailing experience as you started with. Few questions...
1. Is a 35' Island Packet large enough for extended cruising? Although my wife will be along, most likely I will be single handed since she has a disability. (I'm thinking idiot proof/unsinkable...budget not too important)
2. sea anchor? y/n?
3.Should I learn to use a sextant, or just ensure I bring instructions?
4. Radar with alarm and sleep while on passage or too risky?
5. How do cats do on sailboat? Stick w parrot?lol
6.What replacement/spare parts most important to bring?
7.Should I add airconditioning?
8.Am not intending to bring a weapon, but was thinking to hide a couple k USD somewhere on board to possibly buy myself out of trouble?
I have a million more but thanks in advance if you speak your mind on these.
1. 35' certainly is big enough - i would recommend 40'. a 40' boat is just so much more comfortabale &has more stowage. if cost is not the main consideration for a 35' boat i would definitely go for 40'. a 40' boat is no harder to handle than a 35' boat. island packet is a well known brand, they are well built, solid & certainly capable of this type of trip.
2. yes- even though you will likely never use it. consider a small cone type for ease of deployment & recovery. sailrite sells these.
3. no. have it onboard just in case. more importantly take multiple gps & spare batteries for the handhelds. we kept 1 handheld w/ spare batteries in a pelican case & when we would get into a thunderstorm we put it in the microwave as an added precaution. yes, we were struck by lightning once at sea
4. if you are singlehanded you pretty much have to go this route. if there are 2 people onboard, always have someone on watch. you can go weeks w/o seeing anything, but we did have a couple near collisions.
5. cats seem to do fine (what little i know about it). 1 thing to keep in mind is that having a pet onboard can make arrival in some countris extremely difficult.
6. this list is way to long to go into here. feel free to pm me if you want & i will be more than glad to answer any questions & help out as much as possible via email, etc..
basically if you have it on board you need spare parts for it & an idea of how to fix it, or be able to go w/o it. if it is onboard it will break at some point.
7. no
8. definitely good to have some cash hidden, but it is unlikely you would buy your way out. most likely they would take the cash & then continue robbing you. the cash would be good for after they have taken everything & you need to be able to buy stuff right away.
good luck. you will have a great adventure. like i said feel free to pm me, i will help out any way i can.