Personal Gear- A note from Captain Tom

 Hi Sailors,

I'm looking forward to our upcoming cruise and I wanted to take a moment to say hello, pass along a few comments, and invite any questions that you may have as our departure time draws near.

This cruise will be a "big event" in your sailing experience as it will also be for me. As many times as I've gone to sea in a little boat, I still treat each cruise with the utmost of respect and preparation. We will be out in a big ocean with all of the potentials for challenge, experience, learning and, yes, danger that you have read about and thought about. We will be thoroughly prepared for these challenges to the best of my ability and, I hope, to the best of your abilities. Arrive well rested as the next week will demand all of your energies and mental acuity.

For an Ocean Cruise, we'll spend two full days with in-port preparations dealing with inspection of the yacht and its equipment, heavy weather equipment and procedures, abandon ship equipment and procedures, watchkeeping procedures, food provisioning, navigation and route planning, weather analysis and more. This will be a day of hard work where you'll learn the details and, importantly, get to know your shipmates.

An old Navy adage is "Take care of your ship and your shipmates, and they'll take care of you." And never is this so true as on a little boat at sea. We'll all be in it together and very much dependent on each other. There's no-one else, just the six of us and our ship so whatever the challenges, we must be prepared to deal with them.

I would caution you that most people bring much too much stuff with them on a cruise like this. I've surveyed past graduates and find that most use about 20% of what they bring. The remainder is left stuffed in a bag somewhere, can't be found when you think you want it, or simply is not needed. You'll very quickly learn that there are just a few items that you want and need and the remainder makes a landfill in the quarterberth or elsewhere. I emphasize this point because too much stuff becomes a safety hazard that the entire crew must deal with, or trip over, or need to throw out of the way to clear working room for an emergency.

What do you really need? A basic starting point would be to consider what you could comfortably carry on your back all day long, and then add a few items. So, shorts & T-shirt, deck shoes & socks, long pants, thermal underwear, polar tech warmies, hat, warm gloves, foulies, harness & tether, strobe, flashlight, deck tool are the basics. And you don't need twelve sets of everything!! The reality is that we're all going to get smelly together. I usually put on clean clothes about every three or four days. I've sailed with experienced sailors who never change... they just throw out their dirty clothes when they arrive.

And then there are the sea bags. Many bring these huge duffels with built in wheels that allow you to pack lot's of stuff "just in case." These bags themselves become a storage problem. I suggest that you should be able to pack everything you need into two medium sized, soft duffels of 12" diameter x 24" long. These can be easily stowed in the limited space available with the items that will not fit into the limited locker space available. If empty, these bags can roll up into a little ball and take up no room at all.

Sleeping bags are another encumbrance. Some people bring these Arctic bags suitable for Mount Everest, but these only get in the way on a boat and are too hot down below. I suggest a light sleeping bag, and, if it's cold, sleep with your thermal longjohns and polar tech warmies. I use a light blanket, twin bed size, folded in half lengthwise and with the feet end sewn closed to make an open-sided bag. By the way, the camping stores have a "compressor bag" that will squash your sleeping bag into a little ball for travel. Also note that we do have pillows onboard, so bring a pillow case of some identifiable color so you'll know which is yours.

Harness tethers are sometimes a problem. We use 5/8 inch, 3-strand nylon dockline for jacklines along the side decks and in the cockpit. Check and make sure that your tether hook will fit onto this size line and that it will slide along the line when you tug on the tether.

For a personal strobe, I recommend the Forespar Model 202102 shown in the Boat US 2000 catalog as item 230037 powered by one C-battery. Do not get the ACR Firefly which includes both a strobe and a flashlight; that's a design that makes no sense at all and I hope that I don't need to explain why.

For a personal flashlight, smaller is better. This you'll use to make your way throughout the boat in the dark of night when shipmates are trying to sleep or save their night vision. So it needs to be small and you'll need to develop the habit of covering most of the light while getting about. Some people bring personal lights so bright that when covered by their hand they exhibit a bright red hand from 20 feet away. Try these things out in the dark of night before you come... you'll be surprised at how little light you need to get about.

Towels are another issue. You don't need a huge beach towel. I use a hand towel (12" x 18") for a bath towel. I'd rather bring two of these and have a fresh one half way through the trip, rather than one big one that smells like a garbage scow half way through. These hand towels plus a couple of face sized wash cloths will serve you well.

If you want to bring a laptop computer, contact the school in advance for discussion as we may be able to hook you into the SSB to download weather faxes.

In summary, we have limited stowage space on board for personal gear so it needs to be used judiciously. Specifically:

1. Each crewmember will be allotted two stowage compartments of about one cubic foot each. In these it's best to stow small items such as skivvies, socks, T-shirts, shorts, deck shoes, hand towels, hat, gloves, sunglasses, flashlight and deck tool.

2.    Your toiletries or shaving kit, including personal medications and sun screen, should go into the lockers of one of the heads.

3.    Your foulies, sweaters, jackets, long pants and harnesses should be hung on hangers in the forward hanging locker. This locker is about three feet wide and four feet high and will handle these items for the five of five people if items are in fact put on hangers and nothing is stowed in the bottom of the locker.

4.    Your remaining clothing items can remain in one of the soft duffel bags previously described which will be stowed in the quarterberth or the forward berth behind a lee cloth. In this bag you can leave items that you do not expect to need for the next couple of days; extra pants, sweaters, etc. The other duffel bag should be empty by now and can be rolled up and stuffed into the first duffel.

5.    Sea boots will go into a dedicated sea boot locker.

6.    There's separate stowage space for sextants if you bring one.

7.    If you bring DMA plotting sheets to work your own DR plot, these will be folded in quarters with printed side out and stowed in the chart drawer. Plotting tools can go into the Nav Table.

8.    Do not bring a chart case and do not bring a plotting board as we will not have room for these onboard.

That's all the don'ts, but please do bring your enthusiasm, your joy of sailing and your good attitude about the adventure that we are about to undertake. You will have a wonderful experience and make a new, select group of friends who will hold a special place in you memories.