Sunday, November 7, 2010

BACK AT SCHOOL

                Each day in Hampton included seminars.  Weather, Gulf Stream analysis, Health, medicine and safety at sea, provisioning, island basics, fishing catching fish, diesel review, SSB radio communication and daily radionet at sea, etc.  So each day we had time to catch up on daily life chores, special boat chores, and a bit of socializing under the classroom/tent at Bluewater .  Monday evening, Pete, one of the veteran, volunteer inspectors came aboard and asked to schedule an inspection.  He was expecting twenty boats a day to arrive in the next few days.  We said, “We’re not 100%, but how about checking off what’s done now, and we’ll let you know when we’re all finished.” So we postponed dinner, his and ours, and went over our check list.  Type I life vests with lights and whistles; safe and sound life-lines and rigging; fire extinguishers; life raft; ditch bag with first aid kit EPIRB, VHF, GPS, fishing kit, signal flares, smoke and parachute signals; single side band radio, redundant compass’, GPS, bilge pumps, meds, food, water, etc; jack-lines, tethers and personal harnesses; cabinet latches, Hatch board tie-downs, sturdy buckets with lanyards, MOB pole with light, horseshoe, drogue and whistle; food,  fuel and water; plans for the crossing;  emergency plans for fire, MOB, flooding, sinking, rig failure or dismasting and on and on.  We did well, but still had items to complete.

1 comment:

  1. It's nice to prepare for the worst, but if you paid attention to the weather forecasts, you'd never leave the dock.

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