Boat Prep

Preparing your Boat for voyaging

It is impossible to have the perfect boat before you leave to go cruising since it is hard to anticipate everything. You have to just call it good enough and set off sailing at some point. Experience will teach you about your boat and your needs. Our nearly 2 month long shakedown cruise revealed many issues that we addressed before really leaving the conveniences of home. You may find it helpful to visit the section where we discuss the modificationswe made to our boat before departing. Keep in mind that people have different priorities and each boat comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses, so someone else's advice may not work for you. Our philosophy was to go small and simple so we could go sooner.

Decisions about how to best prepare a boat for voyaging depend significantly upon individual lifestyle choices. We postponed several decisions about buying expensive items and have since added some and decided others were not necessary based on the way we live. Our list of modifications is always evolving. We've found that planning stops once every year or year and a half in places where we can do a major boat overhaul helps us manage many problems until we can properly address our needs and helps keep maintenance from overwhelming us. (For example, we left with a brand new mainsail, but old jibs and staysails, since we weren’t really sure which we’d use. Once we got to New Zealand, we had a very good idea of what we needed and found good quality workmanship at lower prices than the U.S. Had we purchased sails before departing, we'd have made inappropriate choices).

• Power generation
  
• Estimating your power needs
  
• Minimizing your power requirements
  
• Communications and Information
  
• Setting up to get weather faxes
  

Power generation

All the electricity you need for daily living must be generated somehow. You need to become completely self sufficient without shore power since it isn't really feasible to rely on it over the long term once you leave your home marina. Estimating your power needs will be is challenging in advance, but we'd suggest you overestimate your needs and set up a variety of methods for generating that power. Reducing your power use minimizes the power one needs to generate. At one time, all of the four methods we had of generating power: Alternator, solar panels, trolling generator and wind generator didn’t work for various reasons. In general, we were glad to have the redundancy so that when once system had a problem or the weather wasn’t suitable (cloudy or calm), we could rely on another. Most people use a combination of the various means of generating power, along with running the engine or a generator two hours each day. Fuel is much more expensive outside the U.S. A book called “Alternative Power Sources” can be useful for making decisions about meeting power needs, although the book is not written specifically for boats. We've connected all our power generating sources to one regulator, a flex charge 25 and this diverts power if we are topped up. Again, the lower your needs are for power, the less need there is for generating it.

Alternator

We don’t use our alternator for much of our power generation, but it makes sense to have a high tech alternator/regulator to maximize the output and an alternator that will take the stress and heat of operating at maximum output. We have a 50 amp alternator and it generates 35amps at the speeds we run it at high idle. We have a Next Step regulator which works fine. A monitor that allows you to keep track of your power generation helps you figure out how much power each item draws and your current state of battery charge. We like our new Link 10, but for a long while we were using the voltage meter to establish our state of battery charge after our original monitor died. We used to have a monitor that interfaced with our alternator regulator and the system worked well until we had a voltage spike and both were destroyed simultaneously. A general suggestion would be to insure that all systems can work independently if needed.

Solar panels

A quarter of their watt rating equals the number of amp hours per day that solar panels generate on average. Solar panels seem to lose some output over time. The rigid solar panels do better in cooler climates and need air flow beneath them for better power generation. Finding a safe, secure and unobtrusive way to mount rigid panels can be a challenge. Many people mount them to rigid horizontal lifeline poles so they can be tilted, but the edges are sharp and can present the potential for injury when getting in or out of the dinghy in their vicinity and lines can catch on them. They add windage to the boat which can be scary in high wind conditions. Others mount them onto radar arches and still others on pivoting brackets attached to verticle pole mounted aft of the cockpit. Flexible solar panels can offer an option if rigid panel mounting isn’t feasible. They can be stored under settee seats and are more tolerant of shadows (hard to avoid on a boat) than the rigid ones. Flexible solar panels can kink if they are not tied well in windy conditions and williwas can come up at night without warning; Damage to our flexible panels has reduced their output. Solar panels of both types need to be cleaned periodically to keep power generation at top levels. In addition, electrical fittings can corrode over time. We think the ideal solar panel would be the Solara since it could be glued to the deck (and could be walked on), and we would choose this next time, mounted on top of a hard dodger or cabin top.

Trolling generator

Trolling generators that drag behind the boat generate power pretty well when you’re moving, but work best at a hull speed of between 3 and 6 knots. Ours is a homemade 10 amp DC generator fixed to the boat (no gimbal). It has a ring on the end of the shaft to which we tie a 100 feet of 1/2" doublebraid. The line then is spliced to a 3 foot long 5/8" stainless bar, with a ring at one end for attaching the line, and a 6 inch diameter 3 blade outboard prop on the other. The output is run through a 15 amp power diod. It puts out about 4-5 amps at 6 knots of boat speed, but we find at about 8 knots the spinner can jump out of the waves when the swell is large and kink the line, which reduces its effectiveness and creates extra drag. Trolling generators can interfere with radio reception and can be challenging to recover in windy conditions. We’ve found heaving to be the best way to stop the generator from spinning while recovering it. Fishing is incompatible with the trolling generator.

Wind generator

Wind generators can often be quite loud, especially the Air Marine brand (although we hear the blades can be shaved to reduce noise on these). For some generators, it has to be howling in the anchorage to generate much. Our Rutland 910 generates power at lower wind speeds but doesn't generate as much as others at higher speeds. It will generate all the power we need in windy anchorages (above 15 knots) and when sailing to weather. It can increase our stress in windy conditions and sometimes we’ll tie it off for peace of mind, particularly if we don’t need the power. Given a choice, we'd forego the noise and windage and set ourselves up for a higher solar input.

Shore power

Marinas are much more prevalent than they used to be and do offer an option to anchoring for a special treat, for getting projects done (with unlimited power and water if you’re lucky) or leaving the boat for extended periods, but they are expensive. Most marinas typically offer only 220V power except in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. so 110 volt battery chargers as well as many power tools aren’t worth much after leaving those areas. And replacing electrical appliances can be difficult unless you’re traveling home. Installing a 220 volt battery charger will allow you to use foreign power sources. You may need some plugs and receptacles to create your own shore power cable that will plug into your boat. You can always buy the appropriate end fitting for that particular country upon arrival. Some marinas will allow you to use a transformer to convert the power from 110 to 220, but they are expensive, heavy and large, and marinas require an electrical inspection before you can plug in. Dual power transformers are common for many electronic appliances but you might want to have U.S. style plugs on hand to make your own adapters so you can hook into foreign sockets.

Estimating your power needs

Estimating your power needs is hard since you haven't lived aboard offshore before, but perhaps you can learn from our experience. Generally we use less power than most people and we use approxately 20-30 amps per day. Since we do not have pressure water, radar, auto bilge pumps, an electric windless, a satellite phone, or an autopilot, we cannot estimate the draw for those items. We are not using our Adler Barber Coldmachine refridgerator but it was our biggest draw when we did, using 60 amps per day alone. Visit our section on Keeping up with Refridgeration for a more thorough discussion. The following are estimates for items as we might use them on a high usage day. (Usage would be balanced based on charging ability that day and the general state of battery charge):

	Estimated Power Draw
At Anchor
Item	# of units	amps	Time	Amp hours
Lights: Incandescent	2	1.5 amps	4 hours	12 Amp hours
Lights: Flourescent	2	1.0 amps	5 hours	10 Amp hours
Fans	2	0.3 amps	12 hours	7.2 Amp hours
Shortwave radio	1	0.5 amps	5 hours	2.5 Amp hours
Stereo: radio	1	1.0 amps	1 hour	1 Amp hour
Stereo: CD	1	3.0 amps	1 hour	3 Amp hours
VHF: listening	1	0.5 amps	24 hours	12 Amp hours
VHF: transmitting	1	1.0 amp	.5 hours	.5 Amp hours
SSB: listening	1	2.0 amps	2 hours	4 Amp hours
SSB: transmitting	1	6.0 amps	.5 hour	3 Amp hours
Computer: floating	1	2.0 amps	3 hours	6 Amp hours
Computer: charging and on	1	4.0 amps	1 hour	4 Amp hours
Computer: charging and off	1	1.0 amps	.5 hour	.5 Amp hours
Digital camera battery charging	1	.5 amps	1 hour	.5 Amp hours
Cordless drill charging	1	.5 amps	3 hours	1.5 Amp hours
Handheld VHF charging	1	.5 amps	3 hours	1.5 Amp hours
LED Anchor light	1	.1 amps	12 hours	1.2 Amp hours
At Sea
Item	# of units	amps	Time	Amp hours
Lights: Incandescent	1	1.5 amps	1 hour	1.5 Amp hours
Lights: Flourescent	1	1.0 amp	1 hour	1 Amp hours
Fans	1	0.5 amp	24 hours	12 Amp hours
GPS	1	0.5 amp	24 hours	12 Amp hours
Instruments	1	0.5 amp	24 hours	12 Amp hours
VHF: listening	1	0.5 amp	24 hours	12 Amp hours
VHF: transmitting	1	1.0 amp	.5 hour	.5 Amp hours
SSB: listening	1	2.0 amps	2 hours	4 Amp hours
SSB: transmitting	1	6.0 amps	.5 hour	3 Amp hours
LED Tri color	1	0.1 amps	12 hours	1.2 Amp hours

Minimizing your power requirements

There are various ways to reduce your power needs. Keeping up with Refridgeration is the biggest challenge. Using LED lights can reduce your demands. When we sit in the cockpit and talk in the early evening, our power usage is significantly lower. And also lower when we read in bed since we share the same light. Computers can draw a lot of power and different laptops draw different amounts. Running the computer off of its own battery and then recharging it is a way to save power.

Keeping up with Refridgeration

It is difficult to keep up with refrigerator power requirements. Since it is so much hotter in the tropics, it takes much more power to keep a refridgerator going than in more temperate climates. You might want to double or treble your power requirement estimates if you plan to rely on a fridge/freezer. Consider adding insulation or at least placing an insulating mat on top of the fridge area or just inside the lid to help keep the cool air inside. Avoid side opening units if you are installing a new one. You might also want to make sure any air cooled unit has adequate ventilation, which ours did not. We decided to turn our fridge off because we were unwilling to run the engine to keep up with its demands. The engine heats up the boat in an already hot climate and we find the noise unpleasant and the time inconvenient. Plus we cannot carry the fuel to power it. The adjustment was hard for us at first, but we live pretty well without it now. We are among the few who live without refrigeration but our power needs are a small fraction as a result. Visit our section on Living without refrigeration to learn how we've adjusted.

LED Lights

We run LED lights for our anchor light and tricolor which draw less than an amp a day. We bought them off the Internet from a company called Deep Creek Design, but they may also be available from West Marine. Deep Creek Design stands behind their products and has been good to deal with. The bulbs fit into a standard tricolor fixture and the anchor light even has a solar cell so it comes on automatically at dusk. While they weren’t cheap, we have been glad to have them so we can be seen even if we are worried about our power consumption. We also use LED flashlights and a cockpit light, which you can find at garden stores and often feature a solar sensor.

Communications

We initially bought a Sangean short wave receiver for $200 US from a catalog, and through it we listened to short wave and local radio programs and could hear the SSB nets, and receive weather faxes. After traveling for a while, we decided that we wanted an SSB so we could join radio nets and talk to our friends and add onboard email via Sailmail. In addition to the radio programs that we could listen to on our shortwave radio, which help us keep track of what is going on in the world, when we can transmit on SSB, we can keep in touch with other cruisers and give us another way to call for help if needed. We bought our ICOM 735 used via the Ham Radio Outlet on the Internet for about $600US including a tuner. We installed it with a backstay insulator and a copper strap (painted beforehand to prevent corrosion) stretched along the bilge between the antenna tuner and the keel bolts.

Communications with the outside world

Internet Cafes are usually readily available (throughout the Pacific in the larger towns) and affordably priced, although in a couple of places they were very expensive, like in Bora Bora, Vavau (in the northern islands in Tonga), and the resort areas of Fiji. Again, asking other cruisers and planning ahead can reduce the hardship of expensive email facilities. Other cruisers who have onboard email are often happy to let you send a brief email on occasion to let family know you are safe. Many people complain that Hotmail clogs their inboxes with lots of junk mail and closes the accounts after a month of inactivity. We have often been unable to check email for more than a month when we are in remote areas. We have had good luck with Yahoo and Yahoo includes a photo album which we have found handy for sharing images of our travels easily with a large number of people while we are away.

Onboard email via Sailmail

With a Pactor II/III modem, an SSB and a subscription to sailmail ($200 per year) or using Winlink for those with a Ham license (free), one can stay in touch via email on board. As we traveled to more remote areas, we became more interested in getting a Pactor II/III modem. We added a Pactor II/III modem recently and have found it to be very useful. We bought the Pactor II/III modem from the Offshore Store in Seattle, it easily plugged into our ICOM 735 and we didn't need any extra assistance to get it running.

Shortwave and Local Radio Programs

We can get news and entertainment on the short wave radio and have found we can get local radio stations that otherwise we couldn't receive on our auto scan stereo which is programmed for U.S. frequencies. We’d suggest researching the schedules for Voice of America, BBC, Canadian Broadcasting System, Radio New Zealand and Radio Australia, or doing a general search for Short Wave radio programs. They can be quite interesting and informative.

Communications with other cruisers and SSB Nets

Asking other cruisers is the best way to find out about current SSB radio nets in the area. The nets form a bond within our community. It’s a close-knit community that shares information freely and helps cruisers in need. (Caution: There can be a tendency for people to get overexcited about things that ultimately turn out to be non-issues, such as customs procedures for a specific country or for misinformation to be spread like wildfire on these nets.) Exchanging boat cards with email addresses is a great way to stay in touch over longer distances and over the long term. Lots of cruisers email one another via Sailmail to plan a rendezvous, share information and stay in touch.

Weather information

Weather dictates our lives so it pays to understand weather patterns. We can find out from other cruisers, via nets and often weather maps are posted and many useful sites can be found on the Internet. Weather routers like Commanders Weather out of Vermont is another resource. Being able to retrieve your own weather faxes makes you better prepared. Learn as much as you can about interpreting weather maps. One of the most useful sources of information we have come across is the Metservice Yacht Pack put out by New Zealand’s Metservice weather forecasting service. Steve Dashew's "Mariner's Weather" and "Surviving the Storm" are helpful resources as well.

Weather faxes

To receive weather faxes aboard, we also purchased Weather fax for Windows from a New Zealand company called Xaxero, which we found on the Internet. The program included a demodulator to connect the computer to the short wave radio. Another weatherfax program is JVComm which doesn’t require a demodulator. We generally plug the demodulator into the headphone jack of the radio but since we need to be able to listen to the signal to fine tune to the station for the clearest signal, we need an adapter with 2 outlets making it possible to plug in earphones as well as the demodulator. After we are done tuning, we unplug the headphones and turn up the volume for best results.

We found out what stations to listen for weather from an incredibly valuable booklet called the Metservice Yacht Pack put out by New Zealand’s Metservice weather forecasting service. It includes useful information about weather patterns and specific sources for weather information around the Pacific ($29.95NZ or about $15US). Bob McDavitt, who caters to yacht needs, can be contacted through email: mcdavitt@met.co.nz. Russell Radio is a ship to shore net run out of New Zealand, that provides personalized weather forecasting for one’s current location while underway, and the time and frequency details for this and many other nets around the Pacific are included in the Metservice booklet. Many nets offer weather information and can be accessed easily via short wave radio. Grib files of weather data can be requested via sailmail or Winlink (listed in their online catalogs).

Modifications to Velella

Velella was basically a well found boat when we bought her in 1998, but not quite ready for blue water voyaging. Most of the initial modifications that we made follow:
o Replaced 21 year old stainless steel standing rigging
o Rerigged the main sheet for more purchase
o Replaced undersized bow pulpit
o Replaced hatches
o Removed roller furling
o Added inner forestay
o Added running backstay
o Painted deck and added non-skid
o Added bow netting and replaced lifelines
o Added Spade anchor and rode
o Replaced main, jib
o Raked spreaders
o Added topping lift
o Replaced running lights, tri color and Anchor lights with LED bulbs
o Added jib tracks
o Replaced dodger, made sailing and full awning
o Rigged main preventer
o Rigged jack lines for safety
o Cut cockpit window for ventilation
o Replaced wind vane
o Replaced prop with folding model
o Added trolling generator
o Added Rutland wind generator
o Added flexible solar panels
o Installed SSB, Pactor IIEx modem for sailmail, short Wave radio
o Installed weatherfax software
o Made knife rack
o Made crash bar for galley
o Made Sunbrella pouches for clothing storage
o Added seatback tie downs
o Built chain locker for enclosing chain under V-berth storage
o Added ventilated crates for vegetable storage
o Added Snapware canisters for air tight dry food storage
o Replaced speakers with non-magnetic ones
o Added fiddles for shelves
o Built book shelf
o Added Jordan Series drogue and sea anchor
o Added liferaft
o Added EPIRB
o Built 2 part nesting, sailing dinghy
o Added 2 horse outboard dinghy motor

Equipment Evaluation

Cruising Equipment Notes about the equipment we carried and what we thought about it.

VELELLA

Sailed by Garth Wilcox and Wendy Hinman around the Pacific, approximately 34,000 miles.

Velella is a Tom Wylie designed 31 foot cutter rigged light displacement cruiser. Built in 1979 with a shallow canoe body and no IOR distortion she has a transom hung rudder on a skeg and a fin keel, tracks beautifully and surfs easily. Velella is cold molded, strong, light, and very seaworthy. Weighing 8000 pounds, she carries 45 gallons of water and 10 gallons of fuel. Space and weight carrying ability are very limited. Keep this in mind when reading these notes. Most of our equipment choices were limited by what came with the boat, space and our budget. Here is an overview of the equipment we carried and how it worked for us.


MOORING GEAR

Ground tackle
The best insurance you can get.
Primary anchor: Spade A80 (16lb aluminum), 240’ 5/16” BBB chain, 100’ 5/8” nylon. Very good holding, never drags, sets easily, holds in all bottoms, coral, rock and weed, sand, mud. Have seen 50+ knot winds with strong currents. We use very short scope – usually 2 times depth + 30’. Maximum depth of water we have seen is 100’. We try to anchor in less than 50’ to allow free diving the anchor if stuck. We would have liked to have a pony bottle for emergency diving to retrieve anchor. Every time we used a trip line it fouled around a coral head which prevented lifting the anchor or the line got dangerously close to the prop. We always used a chain hook with a 15’ nylon line for a snubber to absorb shock loads. Keep the hook off the bottom. Our aluminum anchor had coral scars, paint blisters, cracking (replaced by manufacturer). We only had a single bow anchor roller, but would have liked another for emergencies.
Secondary anchors: Spade A80, 45lb plow, 22lb danforth, 2-300’ 5/8” nylon rodes with 30’ chain, and 150’ 3/8” nylon rode with 30’ chain. These were rarely used but would have liked at least one rigged and deployable in less than 30 seconds. If we had a bigger boat we would like to have had a roller for an easy to deploy stern anchor though we rarely would have used it.

Anchor Winch
1st winch: Simpson Lawrence Anchorman, manual with vertical capstan. This worked well for 5 years. Difficult to raise anchor in over 50’ although a ratcheting winch handle helped with this. The separate chain pipe was easy to block with clay. (Clay seals well, molds to any shape, and can be removed cleanly. In the tropics it is nice and soft but in Northwest it is hard as a rock. Use oil based clay not play dough. Flower arranging clay works can handle submersion more effectively.)

2nd winch: Lofrans Project 1000 with 1000W motor and vertical capstan. This wasn’t as powerful as the manual winch. Integral chain pipe leaks like crazy and is impossible to seal, even with lots of clay. Manual backup is available instantly but is too high friction for deep water. We used a switch on a cord rather than cutting holes in the deck. This was not available quickly in an emergency. Reverse mode was never hooked up but might be handy. (We only used power for raising the anchor and lowered it manually.)

Next time: Muir 1000/1200 has good manual function which is always available and separate chain pipe. Also good would be the Anchorman with a power winch handle.

Mooring
Rub rails are designed to work directly against vertical pilings which we never docked against. Otherwise they are useless or vulnerable to damage. They catch on things when rolling or with tide. Fenders don’t work with them. For isolated protuberances or vertical pilings a pair of fenders with a fender board works much better.

We carried 3-10” “Big B” fenders. These take a lot of space but you want the biggest ones you can fit. Carry a pump and deflate them. In Japan, with lots of gnarly wharfs, we picked up 2-24” diameter Styrofoam floats on beaches to use as fenders. Round fenders rotate and transfer dirt to your topsides. Square would be better. Fenders can be cleaned with orange hand cleaner – GoJo Brand.

2-5/8” x 75’ nylon lines the same as our anchor rode to allow dual use. 12” cleats were minimal for this size line. 10” was definitely too small. You need to be able to tie 2 lines to each cleat when using spring lines.

RIGGING

Reefing
All reefing is handled at the mast. Worked well for single handing. Stainless tack hooks broke and were replaced by Wichard hooks. Clew blocks on tracks are terrible because they pinch and chafe the sail and chafe the reef line. Spinlock clutches were very nice and we used them for our last 2 years. Reef in jib was vital several times but a hard job to put in.

Stayloks
Worked well. Easy to install and reuse. Rerigged boat once for $100-and replaced back stay in the Philippines with materials on board. (We carried an extra forestay, our longest stay, in case we needed a replacement.)

Halyards
3/8” Vectran worked well. The rest were 5/16 spectra and a bit stretchy. We had a spare main and jib halyard which were not really needed. Mostly these were used to climb he mast. All halyards were terminated at the mast to allow single handed sail handling.

Running Backstays
We used line because wire chafes the sail. Spectra was too stretchy and used to howl in high winds. Polyester covered Technora was ideal.

Preventers
We used them constantly. 2:1 tackle from mid boom led aft to cockpit on each side of boat. Used ¼” nylon with shock cord retractors to keep them off the deck to allow ducking under when walking forward on the deck.

Flag Halyards
Aladdin shroud cleats are a very good product. Parachute cord rots quickly with UV and often needs to be replaced.

Our favorite Knots:
Figure eight usual stopper knot
Oysterman’s stopper a larger stopper - jams
Bowline usual loop
Climber’s loop loop in a bight
Overhand eye loop for shock cord
Buntline hitch compact very secure hitch - jams
Rolling hitch can tie with line under tension, adjustable
Icicle hitch won’t slip on anything, changing sheets, jib wraps
Cow hitch better than clove hitch
Cleat hitch for cleats
Sheet bend different sized lines
Zeppelin bend best bend - strong, symmetrical
Truelove bend for shock cord - jams
Diamond knot for making spectra strops
Jarsling water bottle handles
Constrictor temporary lashing, wire bundles

Note: stoppers are for keeping the tail of a line from pulling through something, hitches are for securing a line to something, bends are for tying 2 lines together.

SAILS

We carried a very roachy fully battened main that overlapped the backstay with 3 reefs and a fully battened non-overlapping jib. For heavy air we reefed the jib or set a storm stay sail on a removable inner forestay. We carried a storm trysail which we never used. We did sometimes rig the storm trysail in case we needed it, but found it was often in the way and a third reef in the main was adequate. For light air we had a 150% light weight genoa and an asymmetrical cruising chute with an ATN snuffer.

Jib battens
Full length battens maintained good sail shape and reduced twist while reaching. These made jibing with the pole more difficult resulting in cracked battens. We removed them when we wanted to keep the inner forestay rigged on longer passages.

Main battens
We had full length battens with BattCars. BattCars worked flawlessly. Flat battens split lengthwise due to twisting. Round battens broke. We finally found a heavy duty diamond shape and this shape worked the best. Main roach overlapped our backstay by up to 18”. UHMW sewn onto batten pockets helped the sail slip past the backstay easily in winds over 5 knots. Under 5 knots, tacking requires a special technique (tighten mainsheet, pop battens, then let out main sheet). UHMW patches lasted about 2 years in UV. We drilled holes in the UHMW where stitching was needed before sewing them on because otherwise pushing the needle through the material was too hard.

Boom angle
We cut the mainsail to raise up the aft end of boom to clear heads and prevent dragging the boom in water when rolling. This caused a lot of strain on the sail and slides as the boom drooped when furling, particularly if the outhaul or reef lines were tight. We ripped some of the grommets right out of the sail and pulled many rivets out of the mast track over time.

Leach line
We couldn’t safely reach the leach line at the clew in rough weather. A leach cord operated from the mast would be much better.

DECK GEAR

Spinnaker Pole
3” diameter with aluminum Forespar ends. These were durable but froze up constantly. Pole was too heavy to handle with one person, would like carbon. We rigged the pole as a temporary bow sprit to hold off mooring buoys.

Life lines
5/16” spectra core (Sampson Warpspeed) with covering. These were large and easy to grip with no metal fittings to corrode, just splices and lashings. The polyester cover protected the spectra from damage but after 6 years was damaged itself by UV and became prone to chafe. Bow netting was useful for keeping people and sails on deck. Parachute cord was too weak after UV damage and occasionally needed to be replaced. 4-5mm is the proper size. 24” lifeline height was too low. Would like as high as possible like 36”.

Jacklines
¼” spectra run inside nylon webbing resulted in no rolling under foot, no corrosion, and no stretching with moisture.

Winches
Stainless drums rust a little. Would have liked self-tailing.

Blocks
Harken: Good, low friction. UV damaged balls after 10 years.
Schaefer: don’t get aluminum cheeked blocks. Stainless cheeks are OK but tend to bleed rust.
Ronstan: Cheaper, effective, and don’t corrode.
Nicro Fico: Snatch blocks are excellent.

Hatches
Started out with Bomar cast hatches but we ripped one off the deck in a gibe and the other would never stop leaking even with new gaskets and standing on the hatch while dogging. We replaced these with Weaver (Maxwell) hatches from NZ and never had a problem although the dogs are flexy. Would add outer splash coamings around the hatches next time to prevent spray hitting gaskets directly.

Wind vane
Cape Horn Varuna model. Good in light air. Adequate in heavy air – a little underpowered. Most reliable piece of equipment on the boat. Replace fabric air paddle with Sunbrella for longer life.

SAFETY GEAR

Life sling
The bag lasts about 3 years and is very expensive. The new design is more compact and fits our boat better.

Inflatable life ring
Easy to throw. Inflates accidentally if gotten wet. Stowed in dodger pocket with heaving line.

Harnesses
We carried combination harnesses/inflatable life jackets. Auto inflated all of them in rough weather. CO2 cylinders are hard to get in many countries and can’t be flown in on an airplane. We switched to manual operation only. One SOSpender burst on inflation due to a corroded snap.

Radar Reflector
Davis 12” Echomaster mounted on backstay was seen by many ships. The symmetrical mounting to back stay allowed the reflector to spin in high winds. This caused the back stay to twist and untwist until it failed. The reflector is now tied off to prevent spinning.

Spot light
1,000,000 candle power very effective for scaring away ships.

Horn
A mouth powered horn met the regulations but sounded like a party favor. It was very fatiguing for long period use in fog.

EPIRB
ACR, the case cracked but was replaced at no charge. Batteries are very expensive.

DINGHY
Started with Avon Redcrest for first year. This was hard to row, hard to motor, and started to delaminate. It was very light and ideal for carrying over rocks and up beaches.

Built a Danny Green Chameleon 2 piece nesting dinghy in New Zealand. This rows, motors, and sails well. Built it too heavily and it is harder to carry long distances. Would consider leaving off sailing gear next time to save weight and work.

The lug rig sails well but next time would use a sprit rig with a boom like an Opti rig. This would allow better control downwind and in heavy air and is self flattening in a puff. Would have liked reef points for longer expeditions.

Oars were epoxy coated with glassed blades and painted for durability.

2 HP Yamaha pushed the dinghy just fine but was little used as the dinghy rowed so easily and distances were usually short. The impellor tends to melt in the heat and sticks to the casing causing ripped off blades.

CANVAS WORK

Dodger
Lexan windows lasted 3 years without covers. Fabric lasted 6 years with one restitch. Pockets sewn on inside were very useful for storing safety gear and other items. Eventually we built a foam and glass hard top over the original dodger frame for mounting solar panels and hand grabs. We still use the Sunbrella fabric and windows underneath for side panels. It needs gutters.

Next time we would build a complete hard dodger. Opening front window is nice for ventilation but leaks and zippers corrode.

Sailing Awning
A cruising essential. Running from dodger to backstay. Used all the time for rain and sun except in high winds in and out of port. Rolled up easily. Lasted 6 years with restitch.

Full Boat Awning
Kept the boat very cool. However it was hard to put up and take down quickly. This meant that we only used the awning for long term stays when there was no chance of the wind coming up, i.e. hardly ever. Covered the solar panels so limited power generation when used.

INSTRUMENTS

Compass
Hard to mount on tiller steered boat. Broke a bulkhead mounted Ritchey by leaning on it too hard and it was impossible to see with people sitting in front of it. We finally used the biggest possible (Suunto) bulkhead mounted in a console over the companionway. We also have a back up below decks. The best card for hand steering is the traditional one with cardinal points but these are hard to find.

GPS
3 Garmin 12 handheld GPS with power/data connection and backup dry cells. The small screen is hard to read in high glare conditions with old eyes. Color might be better.

Speedometer
Raymarine ST40 Bidata: Not accurate and always fouled up. Need easy access to transducer to keep clean. Possibly sonic type would work better. Not reliable enough for dead reckoning. Nice to have it when it worked, but overall it was not worth the trouble.

Sounder
Raymarine ST40 Bidata: Mostly OK, sometimes fouled up. Very important to have for unknown depths. The lead line is more reliable and we sometimes needed it but it limits your speed with only a crew of 2.

Clock and Barometer
Weems and Plath Orion. This is expensive garbage. The case corrodes, the chimes don’t stop chiming, and the barometer isn’t accurate. It’s good to have a clock set to UTC near radio. A digital barometer would be more useful.

LIGHTS

Navigation lights
LED anchor light draws 0.1 Amp; LED Tricolor light draws 0.24 Amp. Deep Creek Designs (1st star) Mk 3 are very reliable and service is good. Low power consumption is essential. Would have liked a strobe, illegal here, these are commonly used for small boats in Asia. Note that the incandescent tricolor bulbs break easily when slatting. Aqua Signal cases can crack over time with UV exposure.

Also used LED flashlights, dive lights, and headlights, and they were excellent, using few batteries.

Spreader light bulbs were always burned out but were too bright anyway. They are blinding and prevent looking up. It is never really that dark at sea. There was always enough ambient light to work on deck.

Fluorescent Lights
The thin lights we used are expensive and low quality but are effective in reducing power use.

HULL

Paint
Antifouling:
All ablative paint sucks. We tried:
International CSC ultra hull covered with soft growth in 5 months
Alcraft No 5 (NZ) no growth for 1 year but extremely soft, bare patches from touching while swimming.
Petit Ultima covered with acorn barnacles in 6 months
Seajet Platinum (Japan) covered with acorn barnacles in 2 months. Later covered with gooseneck barnacles in 1 month.
Hard scrubable paint is probably better. Many cruisers like Petit Trinidad. Others manage to find TBT paint.

Varnish: Bristol finish is quite good. Lasts 3 years in the tropics. You can put on 6 coats in a day. Can be used in marginally dry conditions as long as you have an hour of dry weather. It is difficult to get a really smooth finish due quick drying but it looks WAY better than Cetol.

Polyurethanes: Single part paints last about 1 year. 2 part paints are very tough and scratch resistant. Most marine paints can’t be buffed. Use car paint which is designed to be repaired. Note that polyurethane and many epoxy primers are not waterproof. At anchor the lower topsides are always wet unlike at a dock. Therefore move the waterline up and use underwater primers on topsides.

Nonskid
Awlgrip medium grit was not aggressive enough. Coarse grit is much better.

Bedding compounds
Polysulfide: 3M 101 has poor adhesion and often hardens in tube.
Polyurethane: 3M 5200 can be permanent and isn’t UV resistant.
Lifeseal: very good but leaves silicone residue on paint.
Dolphinite: worked very well for us.

Through Hulls
Plastic through hulls and valves had no problems although the ½” size was too small and got plugged with barnacles and coral worms. At sea on a very long passage (49 days) we had to take the hoses off and to ream out the through hulls to get any water flow to engine or head.

Water tanks
Stainless: very good
Aluminum: Pitting problems
We filled tanks through the cleanout port. These were easy to clean, and we wiped out empty tanks periodically before refilling. Deck fills can leak salt water into tanks. Vents will leak sooner or later and should be led into the sink if possible.
45 gallons lasted us about 3 weeks, though we used often used saltwater for dishes and bathing (up to a final rinse). We carried extra jugs for longer endurance. We used the jugs often for carrying and filling water.

ELECTRONICS

Stereo
Car stereos don’t last long with heat and moisture. For international use one needs: AM tuning steps of 9 and 10 hertz, FM tuning for both odd and even frequencies. Japan uses an extended frequency range. Should play MP3 CDs and have an auxiliary input for the IPOD or a computer for stereo movie sound. Use low magnetic speakers to avoid interference with compasses.

Music
We didn’t carry cassettes. CD’s corrode when damp. We converted everything to MP3’s and stored on hard drives. Multiple back ups are key.

Movies
DVD’s play on computer. Would like auxiliary speakers and a bigger screen. Sometimes we heard of people who encountered problems with regions on when renting or buying DVDs in foreign countries. There is a way to deal with this but we never had a problem.

VHF
Icom 45. The remote mike feature was great for us allowing the watch stander to contact a ship while actively sailing the boat and we could hear it in the cockpit while motoring. DSC controls are hard to operate on a simple VHF with limited buttons. We never used this feature.

SSB
Used old ham set, ICOM 735, modified for all frequencies. This worked well and was cheap but a marine SSB might be more corrosion resistant. You need a very good ground. For email get a line isolator and lots of ferrites. We carried a Sangean ATS909 battery powered short wave radio as a backup but it wasn’t as sensitive.

Computers
We carried 2 for backup. Computer should have a serial port for GPS and PACOR connections (this is changing), at least 2 USB 2.0 ports, a CD burner, and have low power consumption. We used Lind car charges for more power efficiency and no inverter noise. All data was stored on multiple duplicated USB powered hard drives which are more reliable, more convenient, less power hungry, much smaller, don’t need an inverter, but are twice the price of AC powered ones. We had 3 AC powered drives fail probably due to heat. We had 300 GB of space times 2 which was all full of music, digital pictures, and cruising data. All computer gear was stored in Pelican cases. WiFi is very useful in some ports. Get a long range Omni antenna. Skype has a lot of potential if your relatives will buy into it. Software that requires a phone call to activate, like Microsoft XP, can’t be reinstalled in remote locations. There is lots of good, free software available. We would like a printer/scanner and a DVD burner as there were occasions when we would have used them.

MECANICAL SYSTEMS

Tools
Carried a good selection of hand tools adequate to re-build the boat. Battery powered tools are never charged when needed. If a large inverter is available consider some power tools. Would have liked a vise, a breast drill, and a small portable drill press. You can usually find a vise to use somewhere ashore.

Foot pumps
Whale double action foot pumps perform very well for salt and fresh water but are very hard to fix. At sea it is sometimes difficult to stand on one foot while pumping. An additional hand pump would be nice.

Bilge Pump
Henderson Mk 5 like our head pump for redundancy. Not much capacity but never had a problem with this. We rigged a 3 way valve to take suction from the bilge or the sink when heeled on port tack.

Head
We had a Groco head which required semiyearly rebuilds with very expensive kits. We eventually replaced it with a Lavac which never required any service. We would install a pressure release on the intake line in order to minimize the amount of water left in the bowl. The Lavac is also smellier than the Groco was. We rarely found facilities for pumping a holding tank out in any other country. First we bypassed ours and then eventually we removed it to use the space for other things. We actually mailed it home and reinstalled it when we got home.

Refrigerator
Adler Barber cold machine. This worked until we shut it off due to its large power requirements in the tropics. Eventually the evaporator corroded and all the refrigerant leaked out, preventing it from working again. The air cooled model isn’t suited for the tropics as we used 50-60 AH per day.

Heater
Our Force 10 propane heater was never used on the cruise however the weather cap leaked and the controls corroded away. We mounted the weather cap in a screwed deck plate so we could seal it up when not in use. Ours was mounted above the counter which limited its effectiveness for heating the entire boat in cold weather.

Propane
2-10lb aluminum tanks were adequate but we wanted more capacity. We used one tank every 6 weeks which included extensive baking. In 50% of countries we visited we could fill our tanks ourselves from rented tanks using a pigtail. Most rented tanks are 20lb making this size tank more convenient. The American POL fitting works everywhere (except America of course). You can always buy the correct fitting locally and make an adaptor with your pig tail.

Engine
Universal 3-20 18 HP diesel. Basically reliable but we had problems with auxiliary systems:
Long running fuel problem caused by a plugged up Racor filter housing. Racor 120 filters are very expensive and not available in many countries. CAV is half the price and easier to find.
Overheating caused by heat exchanger problems. Once the heat exchanger was partially plugged by broken off zincs. Another time the heat exchanger was overwhelmed by hot air and water and was eventually replaced by a larger one.
PSS shaft seal worked well but traps air bubbles in rough weather and needs a vent even on low speed vessels.

We didn’t use the engine much averaging about 20 gallons of fuel per year. Our 10 gallon fuel tank precluded long range powering. I probably spent as much time working on the engine as running it. The boat would get very hot when running the engine in the tropics and would take 18 hours to cool off after use. We carried minimal spares: impellors, belts, filters, and oil. We considered the sails to be the backup, or visa-versa.

The Martec folding prop was good for sailing and adequate for motoring including in reverse.

Engine controls
Morse 2-lever. Constantly froze up. Steel parts rusted badly. Caught lines and clothing. Next time would prefer one that works with a winch handle.

Engine gauges
We sealed the engine panel behind a Plexiglas panel. We moved the key and buttons to just inside the companionway where they are more protected. This made it more complicated to single hand while motoring, though we did that rarely.

ELECTRICAL POWER

Alternator
50 Amp Prestolite wasn’t used much for battery charging. When we did use it, it charged so slowly that we had to put a modern regulator on it to get it work. The Ample Power Next Step Regulator worked well.

Solar Panels
2-50W BP panels with a Flexcharge 25 regulator provided plenty of power in the tropics even on cloudy days. Outside the tropics, we needed sunshine to generate enough power from these solar panels alone. The dodger top mounting saw plenty of sun even while sailing.

Towing generator
Hamilton Ferris 10Amp. Made about 1 Amp per knot if over 3 knots. Over 8 knots spinner leaps out of waves and tangles line. Recovery requires heaving to or the funnel method which didn’t work as well. Electrical noise interferes with SSB. Sharks try to eat spinner. Prevents fishing. Eventually it died due to corrosion.

Wind Generator
Rutland 910, old version of a 913. Produces 1 amp in 10 knots of wind. Useful for low load boats (no fridge). This is very quiet for a wind generator but we still found it too noisy. Tended to increase our stress level in higher winds. Ours suffered from bad bearings and old UV damaged blades so we eventually got rid of it. Most anchorages are well protected from the wind. In sunny situations, solar is a better choice and at sea a trolling generator works better. Best for stormy overcast places like New Zealand.

Exterior power plugs
Perco plugs were garbage. Amphenol worked great as they were plastic and watertight with o-rings. We wired the 4 pole plugs for 3 functions.

Batteries
House bank: 1 4D at 180 AH. These spent their lives chronically undercharged because of our reliance on non engine charging.
Gel - was old when we bought the boat and was replaced within a year.
AGM - never seemed to hold a charge. We nursed it along for 4 years until we hit significant cloud cover.
Wet – A cheap battery to get us across the north Pacific is still working fine.

Starting bank: 1 Optima charged through a Shotkey diode. 8 years and no problems.

We would probably get lead acid golf cart batteries next time for the house bank since they are more durable.

Shore Power
20 Amp Statpower. Works great but hardly used. We probably had 5 opportunities to use shore power in 7 years. 10 Amps would be enough for our battery capacity. Note that the big, heavy, hard to stow 30 amp marine cables are way more than most people need and are hard to stow. Our 20 amp battery charger if running at full load would draw only 2 Amps at 120V. We use a 15 Amp extension cord with various adaptors. We carried several 3 prong sockets for making foreign adaptors. A dual voltage battery charger would be wonderful.

Voltage Spikes
We had 2 devastating voltage spikes when charging with the alternator. The first was caused when the cables came loose from the battery switch. The second came when I leaned on the new battery switch and rotated it about an eighth of an inch. This occasion caused 100% of the electronics to go up in smoke even those that were not on at the time. Some ideas to prevent this: Put the battery switch in a less vulnerable location with a cover, wire a small battery in parallel with the house bank which can’t be shut off, wire a zener diode across the leads of all electronics including LED’s.

Battery Monitor
Link 10. This is nice to have. Though a digital volt meter is all that is really needed, the Link 10 gave us a better grasp of the state of the batteries by monitoring amp hours in and out, especially useful considering that we were perpetually charging with our solar panels.

Cigarette lighter plugs
Found on most 12V devices. Many are very poor quality and I carry extra Marinco plugs to replace these.

MISCELLANIOUS

Hose
We carried the flat canvas style hose on a reel for compact stowage. We rarely used it, but it was quite handy in some ports. It kinks easily and must be carefully laid out during use and while reeling it in to stowage reel. It is the only kind of hose we had space to carry.

Sponges
PVA sponges soak up more water, don’t dribble, and last forever. Normal cellulose sponges fall apart if left damp.

Wants for next time
Radar, bicycles, sewing machine, weather cloths, chart table, folding cart, beer brewing supplies, hatch board storage location, clear hatch for storm boards.

Food and Provisioning Tips

• Provisioning
  
• Food Storage
  
• Living without refridgeration
  
• Cooking and eating in the heat of the tropics
  
• Things to stock up on
  
• Hard to find items
  
• Passage Meals
  
• Miscelleneous tips for the galley
  
  

Provisioning

People eat all over the world, so provisioning is a lot more like a monthly trip to the grocery store. Many cruisers arrive in New Zealand after crossing the Pacific with food they bought in the U.S. more than 2 years before. Canned food doesn’t last forever and can rust and explode. We haven’t had any problem with exploding cans but it does happen. We're not picky eaters, but if you are, you may need to plan for carry items you need to satisfy your particular tastes. There aren’t very many items we’ve had a hard time finding, except specialty items. Visit our section on hard to find items to find out what has been challenging for us to find. Not everything is available in every major port, but with a little planning of your needs for about 9 months, you’ll have as much food aboard as you really need to carry unless you visit more remote areas for extended periods. When buying products in more remote locations look for best by dates, since sometimes expired items are shipped on to secondary markets after not moving. (Flour, sugar, rice, and dried milk are available in most major ports and are even subsidized in French Polynesia.) Buying fresh from markets where there is higher turnover can help you avoid bugs. Specialty items and mixes that you may think are rare might be worth buying in extra quantities, but we often find them eventually. Supplies of Chinese ingredients are excellent throughout the Pacific since many of the stores are Chinese owned.

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Food Storage

Food storage is a continual issue, since every time you reprovision, packaging shapes and sizes can be different and therefore alter your storage configuration. Having containers in which you can decant many staples can be invaluable and help you avoid issues with packaging sizes and shapes. Also, avoiding cardboard packaging can prevent a bug problem from developing on your boat. Avoid plastic containers with square lids, since the corners warp, and ones without gaskets since they aren’t airtight. Snapware™ containers are excellent for keeping things airtight since they have gaskets. Crackers and chips stay fresh. Plus they come in many handy shapes and sizes. Snapware™ has an Internet site from which you can order items and have them sent directly to you in the U.S.

Don’t be too quick to throw out plastic containers from the U.S., since the packaging most everywhere else is often of a lower quality. You might want to buy some bottles for oil, vinegar, detergent, etc. that you may buy in packaging that won’t hold up. Buy as many shapes and sizes of freezer grade (thicker) zip top Ziploc bags as you can find. You’ll be unable to find good big ones after you leave the U.S. A 2 gallon size is particularly hard to find, but very handy for all kinds of things, so keep searching. (A hardware store near the library in Sausalito had some and I wish I had bought more of this rare size.) You can wash them (with Simple Green or whatever) and reuse them but they will wear out and need to be replaced. Generally, Ziplocs are not foolproof and decanting items into designated containers is often a better idea than just putting something inside a Ziploc for protection, since the bags are actually porous and can easily puncture. Vacuum packing can be a good way of protecting things that don’t get frequent use (frozen meats, mixes taken out of original packaging with a clipping of the cooking instructions). Double bag everything.

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Living without Refridgeration

Without a fridge, we have survived well and don’t miss the high power demands of the fridge. Although we really do miss cold drinks. People lived for many centuries without refridgeration and the techniques they used for food preservation can still be used today. Canning, drying, pickling, salting and other processing (i.e. making yogurt and cheese) were invented for long term storage and we still eat those foods today, but have grown accustomed to storing them in the fridge when it is not necessary.

Annie Hill’s book “Voyaging on a Small Income” has lots of food storage tips for living without refrigeration. Bluewater Sailing has an excellent article about living with out refrigeration that is well worth reviewing (even if you plan to have it, just in case and because cold space is so tight). Few condiments really need to be refrigerated as indicated on the label (as long as you only use a clean utensil). Cheeses keep a surprisingly long time (vinegar helps keep mold off the surface after opening), although they do get oily. We tend to buy things in smaller packages since once things are open we need to finish them quickly. (In the 3rd world, foods don't seem to come with volume discounts anyway, so it isn't costing us any extra.) We have figured out how much to make for a meal to avoid leftovers, but eat any we might have within 24 hours. Storing leftovers in the pressure cooker with the lid on while warm keeps them sterile.

Instead of stocking up on frozen meats that require keeping the fridge going (a nightmare if it breaks), while in port we buy fresh meat the day we want to cook it or buy it frozen the day before and let it melt. (Frozen whole chickens are available most places and good meat was available in major towns throughout Mexico and the South Pacific). Some countries (New Zealand and Australia) require you to declare fresh meats and sometimes confiscate them, so stocking up may be useless unless one can finish it before arriving in those locations. We buy lunch meats, salami and ham, which will stay good for months until the packaging is opened. Cooked bacon keeps a long time and adds great flavor to dishes. (We hear Costco sells packaged precooked bacon.) We also use canned chicken and beef (hard to get outside the U.S.), boullion and gravy to add flavor to dishes rather than making meals centered around a hunk of meat, which we could easily do once or twice a week when in port with a little planning and a visit to the store. When we catch fish we bottle any that we don't eat immediately for use later in recipes or for a quick snack. Canned (tinned) crab, shrimp, clams work similarly. Canned and dried beans make can also form the centerpiece for a meal as well and we've found lots of tasty recipes. We eat a dhal curry that’s delicious and filling.

The fridge is useful for dry storage, but moisture does get trapped in there since it sits under our drain board. We air it out each evening by hanging or propping the door open to prevent mold from growing in there.

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Cooking and eating in the heat of the tropics

In the tropics, the heat changes the way you want to eat. Cooking outside on a BBQ or in a pressure cooker to reduce cooking time can help reduce the heat of the kitchen. Fixing meals that are cool to eat and don’t require heating up the galley become more common, like salads (usually without lettuce or spinach but rather various combinations of carrots, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes), sandwiches and snacks. Clean raw veggies well with soap before eating, especially lettuce and spinach (on the rare occasion when you get it). Jello, applesauce, yogurt, jerky, dried and fresh fruit are great snacks that are cool and refreshing in the heat. Many people make their own. Bread with humous and Baba Ghanoush, tabouleh salad, salads with beans and meats (crab, shrimp and clams) make for filling meals without much cooking. Instant mashed potatoes are quick to make without heating up the galley and they taste quite authentic with butter and milk added. We often top the potatoes with warmed meat in gravy from a can. Couscous is another quick cool meal that requires only heating water to prepare. We add garlic, sundried tomatoes, and dried mushrooms to flesh it out. Instant refried bean flakes and black bean flakes are the base for another quick meal, which we toast a tortilla and serve with cheese, tomatoes, and salsa. Avocadoes available in Mexico, vanuatu and the solomons were a base for great salads. We often have cheese and crackers with sardines, smoked mussels, oysters or clams. Popcorn is quick to prepare, cools quickly and can be topped with many interesting toppings.

I have enjoyed cooking more than I had time for at home so really am getting a lot of use out of the recipe books I carry – Choose wisely which to bring along. We see many fruits and vegetables that aren’t as common at home, so a wide variety of options makes it easier to work with what’s available in the more remote areas (taro, cassava, squash, papaya, coconut). Someone suggested a cookbook called “Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables” although I haven’t seen it. I have enjoyed “Hot and Spicy” and “100+ Vegetarian Pasta Recipes” both by Marlena Spieler have been great ones. “Joy of Cooking” is an old standby that can explain measurement conversions, substitutions and recipe adaptations, as well as menu suggestions for a wide variety of ingredients.

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Hard to find items

Some notable items we’ve had trouble finding more frequently are canned chicken (only available in North America) and canned beef of any other type besides corned and meat with gravy, canned seafood (besides canned mackeral) and good quality canned ham. Baking items like dark brown sugar, molasses, corn syrup, tapioca, shortening, baking spices, baking powder and baking soda, corn meal and corn flour, powdered eggs (handy for baking when you run out of fresh) are often hard to find. Specialty items like dried wild mushrooms (like morels and chanterelles, although Shiitake are available in the many Asian groceries throughout the Pacific, along with many other Asian food ingredients), fancy condiments like pine nuts or pesto and salsa sauces. Just add water pancake mix and just add water cake and other mixes are very handy when we're out of fresh items (like milk, cheese or eggs) but can be hard to find. Cheeses besides cheddar are basically unavailable as well as many dairy items like cream, ricotta cheese and sour cream. Herbal tea is also hard to find in most places. Fine coffee beans were rare, although instant coffee was available most places. The availability of candy besides hard candy was variable at best and is great for passage treats.

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Things to stock up on

It’s best to buy in quantity only when the market looks like it has high turnover and watch expiration dates so food is as fresh as possible. Paper products, aluminum foil, plastic bags, food storage containers and cleaning products are often a lower quality outside the U.S. and so are the Ziploc plastic bags so we'd suggest stocking up on these items. Shrink wrapping toilet paper, napkins and paper towels can protect them for longer term storage. Film and batteries don't tend to be as fresh in remote countries, so we tend to stock up on these in major markets, although they'll only last so long in the heat. Ziploc bags and sponges are other household goods we make sure to have in abundance.

We like to have a good stock of canned chicken, canned ham, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, mushrooms, artichokes, olives, red peppers (dried or canned) and sun dried tomatoes, and dried mushrooms, so that we have meat and vegetables when out of fresh stuff. Pastas and pizzas are good with these items and are surprisingly good even without any cheese. Cheeses besides cheddar are basically unavailable so I like to load up on these (especially parmesan and Romano) and salamis. I like to stockup on ready to eat meals for passages. It helps to taste things before stcking up to avoid getting stuck with stuff you don’t like. (For example we’ve found that tomato sauce and ketchup as well as mayonnaise in New Zealand to be incredibly sweet to the point of being inedible. Peanuts in New Zealand were usually stale when we bought them there.) We try to have a lot of instant hummos, baba ghanoush and tabouleh salad mixes since they can be quickly made and are cool items in the heat of the tropics. And also canned (tinned) crab, shrimp, mussels, sardines, salmon and clams which are great centerpieces for cool, hearty salads. Whenever we can get tortillas, we stock up on them since they usually last a long time and make for lots of quick meals. We make sure we have lots of just add water pancake mix, cream of wheat and oatmeal since it is handy for breakfasts when we’re out of almost everything. We carry a bit of smoked salmon from home. We also buy a bunch of flavor packets like Thai,Indian and Chinese seasoning for easily prepared meals. Instant mashed potatoes, canned stir fry vegetables, dehydrated vegetables, spaghetti and sauce are other favorites. UHT box style juice concentrate, canned fruit, several long life breads and crackers are other staple items. We buy a number of instant soup mixes in packets since they are light and stow well and can be enhanced with fresh items to make a more hearty meal. Chinese instant noodle dishes are handy for quick meals.

Specialty items we stock up on are pine nuts, olive paste, often used herbs like oregano, cilantro/coriander, Thyme, Basil, cayenne, minced ginger and garlic in jars, anchovy paste for a few examples. We like to have lots of nuts on board for recipes and snacking and availability is unreliable. Dried fruit is also nice to have in quantity for recipes and snacking and is often hard to find, but does not last longer than 9 months. We stock up on beef and fish jerky for snacking.

Good duty free ports were Mexico, Rarotonga, New Zealand, and Vanuatu, as well as Hong Kong and various places in Japan.

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Passage Meals

For passages, we often make ready to eat food in advance, like bread, a bacon cheese quiche, a pot pie, chili or dahl that we can enjoy the first day or two (we keep it in the cool oven, using the oven much like a breadbox or keep it in the pressure cooker and reheat.) Instant foods like mashed potatoes, bean flakes are quick and easy to make as well as filling as a meal base. Rice is a staple on passage. Precooked pasta, which you can make or buy, is handy when you want pasta to avoid sloshing hot water under way. We always have beef jerky and fish jerky on hand to munch on. We also make sure we have lots of canned meals at the ready. We found the packaged meals we could buy in French influenced areas, while expensive, to be delicious, especially the cassoulet.

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Miscelleneous tips for the galley

• People sometimes microwave flour and any baking mixes to minimize the possibility of bugs growing for longer life storage. Bay leaves or peppers in flour are rumored to chase away bugs.
  
• Can openers bought in the U.S. may not work well on international cans. We often had to use our Swiss Army knife to open certain kinds of cans.
  
• Pressure cookers are handy to use underway because they feature a locking lid. They can reduce cooking time to a third of the original cooking time. Do not overfill since they will explode if the vent gets blocked.
  
• Sometimes it is difficult to find appropriate places to dispose of garbage so we end up carrying it longer that we might normally expect. Separate food scraps from the rest of the garbage and dispose overboard when appropriate. We'd suggest washing food residue out of cans, bags and plastic containers so that the garbage doesn't stink if you are unable to dispose of it for extended periods. (Simple green can remove even the odor of fish and other items from plastic containers.) Flatten boxes and crush cans for compact storage. Separate bottles, cans and paper from plastic garbage. Sometimes bottles are useful to locals for bailers or food storage containers. See if you can recycle.
  
• Baskets are handy for holding vegetables and snack foods away from other items to avoid crushing.
  
• In the tropics, the heat will melt rubber bands and cheap plastic bags and sometimes distort cheap plastic: Also the markings on grocery bags, bread bags, etc will rub off onto other things, so watch where they are sitting.
  
• We found making ginger beer to be easy and fun, and we sure enjoyed consuming our refreshing product. Making drinks, including beer and wine can allow you to have these items without having to buy, transport and store these heavy items before you're ready to drink them. Kits are available in the U.S. and New Zealand and we met lots of cruisers making them. And it's duty free.