Other Equipment
Safety gear, comms, comfort items and the tools that quietly make ocean life work.
Or similar. This is a must have regardless the size of your vessel. This avoids having to shout at each other to be heard, whilst dropping an anchor, whilst on the dock tying up the vessel. These have been the best purchase overall (and maybe a marriage saver 🤣)
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There are many sailors out there that have the home dish and say it works well, We were not willing to take that chance. We purchased the marine dish, which did not fail us regardless of sea state, heard from a friend that his home dish lost signal in rough seas.
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This we use on every port entry, there are even some places that require you to scan your documents through before arrival!This is a well used item. Make sure you have toner cartridges spare or that they are common worldwide. Another option is to get a smaller printer and the TurboScan app (See Useful Apps)
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As long as you have internet on the vessel, then these cameras work really well with no monthly subscription. You can view, take pictures, record, talk over the camera, sound an alarm and get notifications of movement. We have already found people on our boat whilst in a marina.... well they got a shock when a voice came over to tell them to get off the vessel before the police arrive. Many variables, these ones have solar to charge, the batteries last 3 months from a full charge
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We have these as in some places getting around is difficult as Uber does not exist. So we do use these to get around. They are a little heavy, but fold down for storage if you can store them. Max speed is about 30km/h. In hindsight we probably would have bought fold up bicycles as they are more versatile, especially if the terrain is a little more challenging or bumpy which is often the case if you are in remote places. Then of course you would get some exercise as well
This we purchased as an additional safety beacon should one of us go man overboard. The signal can be tracked from the boat so that the person can be located and collected.
This has been used on a few occasions. It boosts any battery and is big enough to help start the 80hp diesel engines we have. Things go wrong and our Sterling went faulty (the item that makes sure your engine battery charges) and we had no battery power = voila no problem!
My favourite item, a luxury, because yes you can use a hand pump, but try pumping up your dinghy or your SUP in the heat with a hand pump, neh, plug into 12V socket and pump it up to 3,5 psi. quick, and guess what? The Noco can be used to supply it with 12V power
We chose this hand held radio. Mainly because it has your co-ordinates, the perfect item to throw in your grab bag and a good backup for incase we have a lightning strike. It is also taken to land in case we have an anchor drag and other boats are trying to call us on channel 16.
The RAW Pro 2 is the sailor's choice, with white light output up to 265 lumens providing excellent visibility, or a red-light output of up to 75 lumens allowing for good night vision. What we like about this lamp, which many others do not have, it turns the RED lamp on first. Also really handy when you need both hands and light! To be fair we have not used it as much as we thought but who knows the time may still come.
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A good torch! This is an essential and we have used it often for various things. We chose this one as it came up as one of the best diving torches, so water proof and chargeable.
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The bible for cruisers and a bestseller for over 25 years, World Cruising Routes is the indispensable guide to nearly 1,000 sailing routes across all the world’s oceans, geared to the needs of cruising sailors. It provides information on winds, currents, regional and seasonal weather, plus suggestions about optimum times for routes. We’ve read the sections relevant to us and used his routes as guidelines when planning ours. Google in your region to buy the book — it’s also available digitally.
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We chose these as our life jackets as they are just easier to move around in and come highly rated, we then fitted our PB1 into each jacket. Remember to service your life jacket once a year.
We read about this and had bought a roll to put under each mattress in our cabins. I heard that the mattresses "sweat" and then mould grows under them. Placing this under the mattress allows air to flow under it, thus keeping it dry. Has worked for us. Try search "anti moisture underlay"
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We had one made as someone said in some places they want copies of your documents, but they need them to look original and with a stamp on them they look more formal. We use this on all our official documents, when clearing customs and immigration.
We opted for the Echo Tech water maker. Ours makes 150 litres of water per hour, due to this volume it works on high voltage only and requires a generator to run, whilst making water. There are many brands out there and many that run on 12V systems they just make less litres per hour. But a must have as it will make both long passages and anchorages far more comfortable.
For those of you who are readers, you definitely want to get yourself a kindle. Now I know most people still like to hold an actual book, but at sea you need to save space and books really do start to pile up and sometimes getting new books to read in foreign countries is a challenge. So get used to working with a kindle once you get one you will love it.
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We bought this for two reasons. One was mainly so that our friends on land could track us live as we crossed the ocean, however we also have it as a backup in case something goes wrong with our Raymarine Navionics. Lighting strikes are a big worry for us, but when we see lightning we put this Garmin into the oven as the oven will hopefully protect any electric item against a power full lightning strike.
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