We're moving from Jacksonville, FL to Norfolk, VA. It looks like we'll be departing in April, so I'm working on the plan to prepare for the trip - it'll be outside from Jacksonville to Morehead City, then inside through North Carolina.
I imagine that I'm not the first person to come up with a plan for this, but I'd certainly like to document the ideas that we had. These are the things that really jumped out at me for planning:
1. State of the boat
2. State of our experience
3. Major risks and mitigations
State of the boat:
Zephyr is a wonderful boat, but she's really a cruiser-racer (with the emphasis on racer). There's a few modifications necessary for her to be bluewater ready, and here they are:
1. Jack lines
2. Safety hardpoints for harnesses
3. Replace standing rigging
4. Replace running rigging
5. Upgrade the running lights (especially to tri-color lights to increase visibility)
State of our experience:
The trip will be sailed by my dad, brother, and myself. It's going to be a family trip. But, admittedly, I'm the only one with real at-sea experience... On destroyers and cruisers. Totally different beast. My brother and I each have a boat, and we've done lake and harbor sailing. Totally different experience. My dad doesn't have much experience besides sailing with us, but he's a great diesel mechanic.
So, to mitigate the experience situation:
1. Take a bluewater sailing course. If nothing else, it will ensure that we have some "formal" training, and the confidence from the course would be invaluable.
2. Hire a boat captain. I have to find one first. But, if we run into something that I can't handle, it'd be really nice to be able to turn to someone with a lot more experience and get a straight, knowledgable answer to the inevitable question: "Now what?"
Major risks and mitigations:
The major risks that I identified are man overboard and loss of the boat. Everything else is really secondary - yes, even injury. We're not going to be too far from land (this is really a coastal cruise), so I imagine that critical medical assistance will be available within a few hours if necessary.
Mitigations we came up with:
1. Man overboard - go with a complete setup: man overboard pole, horse shoe (or ring), man overboard light and drogue. The truth is simple - crew members are always important, but in this case, the crew is my family. They're worth every penny I plan on spending to get the right gear.
2. Loss of the boat - rent a life raft. Again, worth every penny.
3. Medical issues - updated medical kit will be onboard. I already have basic first aid, and the captain does as well.
4. Other minor issues - updated tool kit will be aboard, including bolt or cable cutters for rig failure (deemed very unlikely), lots of through-hull bungs, and of course, a little bit of the special USCG leak-stopper. I can't remember the name, or else I'd put it here. It's pretty much peanut butter that you smear over a leak and it just... stops.
I'll post more as we get ready for our big trip!
I imagine that I'm not the first person to come up with a plan for this, but I'd certainly like to document the ideas that we had. These are the things that really jumped out at me for planning:
1. State of the boat
2. State of our experience
3. Major risks and mitigations
State of the boat:
Zephyr is a wonderful boat, but she's really a cruiser-racer (with the emphasis on racer). There's a few modifications necessary for her to be bluewater ready, and here they are:
1. Jack lines
2. Safety hardpoints for harnesses
3. Replace standing rigging
4. Replace running rigging
5. Upgrade the running lights (especially to tri-color lights to increase visibility)
State of our experience:
The trip will be sailed by my dad, brother, and myself. It's going to be a family trip. But, admittedly, I'm the only one with real at-sea experience... On destroyers and cruisers. Totally different beast. My brother and I each have a boat, and we've done lake and harbor sailing. Totally different experience. My dad doesn't have much experience besides sailing with us, but he's a great diesel mechanic.
So, to mitigate the experience situation:
1. Take a bluewater sailing course. If nothing else, it will ensure that we have some "formal" training, and the confidence from the course would be invaluable.
2. Hire a boat captain. I have to find one first. But, if we run into something that I can't handle, it'd be really nice to be able to turn to someone with a lot more experience and get a straight, knowledgable answer to the inevitable question: "Now what?"
Major risks and mitigations:
The major risks that I identified are man overboard and loss of the boat. Everything else is really secondary - yes, even injury. We're not going to be too far from land (this is really a coastal cruise), so I imagine that critical medical assistance will be available within a few hours if necessary.
Mitigations we came up with:
1. Man overboard - go with a complete setup: man overboard pole, horse shoe (or ring), man overboard light and drogue. The truth is simple - crew members are always important, but in this case, the crew is my family. They're worth every penny I plan on spending to get the right gear.
2. Loss of the boat - rent a life raft. Again, worth every penny.
3. Medical issues - updated medical kit will be onboard. I already have basic first aid, and the captain does as well.
4. Other minor issues - updated tool kit will be aboard, including bolt or cable cutters for rig failure (deemed very unlikely), lots of through-hull bungs, and of course, a little bit of the special USCG leak-stopper. I can't remember the name, or else I'd put it here. It's pretty much peanut butter that you smear over a leak and it just... stops.
I'll post more as we get ready for our big trip!