Lessons Learned and Essentials

LESSONS LEARNED

Below I have noted some things that I learned along the way that may be helpful for other crazy sailors out there. Enjoy!

Coming over I had a lot of canned drinks with cubed ice. Going back I had the bright idea to freeze five one gallon containers of water to make block ice but to also provide me with plenty of drinking water - double utility! This seems to be keeping the coolers much colder. The only additional improvement I would add in the future would be to salt the cooler to keep things even colder when the ice turns to water.

Use cockpit cover as sun shade. The sun this time if the year in this latitude is brutal. Honestly, I don't see how people sail without some sort of Sun protection. The worst parts of the day are 0700 to 1100 and 1600 to 2000 when the sun is low on the horizon and it's difficult if not impossible to find protection from the Bimini. In these situations, I use the cockpit cover as a sun shade. The photo above shows the afternoon blocking the West Sun coming across the bow , and the photo below shows the morning blocking the East Sun coming across the port stern.

Use spare halyards as extra stays. Ever since I almost lost my forestay on my Lagoon 37 in Mexico, I've been constantly suspicious of stay integrity. So, whenever possible I use spare halyards as "stays". In the photo above, I'm using the jib halyard as a port side stay because I was doing a lot of port tack reaching.

Bag on tiller pilot. Another "Duh"! I knew I needed to do this from reading various things online, but I'm not sure how it never made it in my preparations list.

Sport-a-Seats (dark blue seat) don't dry easily when wet, but Sport Floats don't even absorb water! Coming over sailing closed hauled, the boat was very wet. As a result the Sport-a-Seats were soaking wet and they're still not completely dry - need to bake them in some Texas heat! I was too tired to think about it coming over. So, I sat in wet seats for days. Let me just say that sitting in salt water for days doesn't do wonders for your skin. It took me until cleaning out the boat in Marsh Harbor to realize that I should have been sitting on the Sport Floats! The picture above shows using both in tandem for the best dry seat.

Put all nonessential gear in 2 plastic bags. Again, coming over was very wet. Everything in the bow locker got soaked. Even if things are designed to get wet like sails, it doesn't mean they should get wet. Water proof containers like I have for my critical gear would be ideal, but costly.

A DeLorame Inreach with two way satellite texting would have been a great help not only in communicating with Bill regarding the tiller pilot, but also in communicating my status with Carmina. She was very worried about me. Apparently, the "I'm OK" messages from the SPOT Tracker were not confirming enough for her. In addition to knowing WHERE I was, she wanted more detail on HOW I was doing.

Enable your phone for international communications before you leave the U.S. On AT&T, you can add international calling for $30 per month. I called my office on Skype once I arrived in Marsh Harbor and had then set it up retroactively.

Local knowledge is key. You have to talk to people along the way to get advice on where to anchor, snorkel, fish, etc. You will save countless hours by just being friendly with the locals. Take the time to meet them.

Take more photos and videos. You can never have enough of these.

ESSENTIAL TOOLS AND PARTS

Here's a list of repairs made:

Waterproofing USB outlets - I wrote extensively about this on the day after the stream post. Check there for details. On further reflection, I think this problem would be easily solved by the addition of an inexpensive waterproof outdoor outlet cover from Lowe's or Home Depot such as the one shown below. The opening is just the right size to fit over the 12V outlets, and the clear cover allows you to easily see if your plugs are still seated properly.

Stern Bar Rotation - the stern bar was under a lot of rotational stress due to the weight of the fishing rods and the constantly bouncing boat. The rotation of the rod was only being held in check by two little 1/4x20 set screws. I had this issue previously and had drilled indentations in the bar for the set screws to penetrate slightly into the bar. However, this we still not enough because it is had to get enough torque on a set screw before the hex socket on the screw starts to strip. So, I got some 1/4x20 x 1/2" bolts and cranked them onto the bar with a socket wrench! That seem to do the trick.

Outboard Alternator Wiring - there are two small wires that come out of the outboard and go forward to charge the battery. I did not have these wires going through any protective cover as they came out of the outboard, and they chafed through on the trip over causing the charging circuit to blow. I picked up some very small tubing in Marsh Harbor to fashion some conduit for these wires and protect them from further chafing.

Blown Fuses - as mentioned above the charging circuit blew due to a short circuit on the outboard charging wires. This circuit also had the solar panel charging input on it. So, when the circuit blew, the battery was not getting charged. This must have happened on the last few hours coming into Marsh Harbor because I never saw a big drop in the battery voltage. Fortunately, I had plentey of spares onboard and could easily remedy the situation after the circuit was repaired.

Engine Oil - I knew I would probably be motoring a lot on this trip, and I remember to bring some engine oil along. The oil level was down a bit after the trip over, and I top off in Marsh Harbor.

WORTH THE COST AND WEIGHT!

Serious Anchor, Chain and Long Rode - after you have spent enough time out sailing on the ocean and anchoring in some questionable anchorages, you come to understand that good ground tackle is worth many more times the weight penalty it adds. I had an suspicion before the trip that things might not go as planned getting to West End, and I might end up anchored on the Little Bahama Bank for the night. It turns out I was anchored out on The Bank for two nights! I was sooooo glad I thought to buy a bigger, better anchor along with more rode for this scenario.

Tiller Pilot - maybe this journal should be titled "The Saga of the Tiller Pilot" since much of the story revolves around getting a replacement for the one that failed the first day of the trip. For a single hander to do this or similar types of trips, I personally believe that an  autopilot is an essential part of the equation. This is for several reasons but they all boil down to safety and comfort. In addition, the tiller pilot will always give you better VMG for two reasons - more accurate steering and ability to continue forward when something else besides the tiller needs attention. I'm constantly scanning the boat for things that may need attention. If I have a tiller pilot, I can address things right away. On the other hand, if I don't have a tiller pilot, I need to heave the boat to in order to address the issue. For example, when I was coming down the Sea of Abaco on the way to Marsh Harbor, I had to heave to in order to refill my gas tank. This is too long and complicated of a procedure to do while trying to steer single handed.

iNavX on iPad with detailed Bahamas charts - I was on the fence about buying the $50 detailed Bahamas charts for iNavX, and I only ended up purchasing the charts a couple of days before I left Austin. This was BY FAR the best decision I made regarding equipment for the entire trip. After I gained some confidence in the accuracy of the charts, I was able to do some things at night that there is no way I would have attempted without the charts including transiting Don't Rock Passage and coming down the Eastern Shores channel at 1am! Now, some of you are thinking these are stupid things to do, but if you understand that the Tramp can use its kick-up centerboard and rudder as "depth sounders", then you'd understand that these were less risky activities even at night.

Solar panel - this trip would have been a lot harder without solar charging. The 100W panel got the battery charged back up quickly after the evening hours, and allowed me to run a lot of equipment during the day including iPad, iPhone, VHF, Lowrance chart plotter, and the tiller pilot. When it got dark, I'd turn on running lights too. At some point along the way, it would have been nice to pllay my stereo as well if it hadn't died. Yes, many have done this trip without all of these modern gadgets, but I like to have all of these things for safety and comfort.

THINGS I DID NOT USE AND SHOULD HAVE LEFT AT HOME

Boom Tent 

Shore Power and Electric Fan

THINGS I DIDN'T USE AND GLAD I DIDN'T NEED TO

First Aid Kits

Emergency Ditch Kit

Hopefully this post will give the sailors out there some inspiration for how you can better prepare for your next adventure!