What I will be taking is what came with the boat.
Radar does come in handy, but I would not buy it to leave.
I have 4 GPS. 2 handheld, 1 wall mounted, and one usb port Maptech.
I have an EPIRB, but it came with the boat also. I would not buy one if money was tight.
A 170gl. watermaker came with the boat, and I truly appreciate it. Once again if money was tight I would not buy one. I have a large bimini that will catch water. There is a hole in the rear bulkhead where a hose funnels down to 6 5gl. cans that we can fill quickly. We carry 180 gallons of water, and that will go a long way with only 2 people.
I have a small 2k Honda generator that fulfills our needs plus some. This I would want no matter what. It is perfect for power tools. I have fixed a hole in my bow when I was hit in the middle of the night. This while at anchor, and I painted the boo boo too.
Solar & wind to me is a necessity. They served me well during our cruising. 4 6amp solars, and a KISS wind generator served our needs.
We have refridgeration with a small ice box. It will make 6 trays of cubes in several hours in the Caribbean. I would not want to do without this, but I would if it made a difference of me leaving, or not.
We have a house freezer that's 2.1 cubic feet, and this will run off of an inverter with the motors running. For a couple of years we used this successfully running it in the middle of the day for a couple of hours. Of course this varied if we had to motor from spot to spot. This I can take, or leave, but it is nice being able to carry more than a month's worth of meat. Before I bought the house freezer we did use the little one by repackaging all meats, and stuffing the poor thing like a turkey.
SSB is great for getting weather, but I would leave without one.
I have been carrying around this sextant since 92, and have never learned to use it. This time I will take it with us, and use it properly as a tool for navigation. Hopefully soon the GPS will be just a backup.
My harness goes where I go. I love my harness it saved my life. I was thrown off my boat as I typed before, and then drug back up onto the house.
Extra sails are needed. I will start with recent headsails, and a new main. Keeping the old main as a backup. I do have a couple of old headsails already, and 2 spinnakers of different sizes.
Barometer is useful if there is no SSB to gather weather.
I carry no life raft, because my boat will be the most stable life raft I can have. Plus it is all wood with collision bulkheads. The deck, roof, and side walls to the windows all carry 1 1/2" floating insulation.
What I want is to build a sailing dink just in case the boat burns to the waterline, and I need to sail out of there.
Paper charts for intended destinations with detail. Paper charts for passages of oceans with a wee bit of detail. This in case the laptop dies. I love the chart plotter, becuase of it's instant knowledge. I did Mexico with GPS, and paper. Paper charts a must, and chart plotter a luxury.
Frolic taught me how to get by with nearly nothing. I had no windlass, watermaker, chart plotter, refridgeration of any kind. I had radar, because S.F. Bay can be pea soup in the summer. It did allow me to sail around weather a couple of times, and pick out a reef in a dire situation.
NEEDED
paper charts
sextant
GPSs
large water tankage,
extra sails
2k generator
manual windlass
autopilot
harness
proper PFD's
/ what am I forgetting?
If I had the money I would buy a liferaft, sea anchor, and drouge. I wouldn't add anything else, and as you can read I can do without many of the luxuries, at least luxuries to me, that are now on board.
Imagine was built with no access to shorepower. She had no hot water heater. There is a funnel in the vanity to pour hot water from a tea kettle into a seperate shower tank for a warm shower. She was built to be on the hook, and to have very few needs for power.
She is large, but she is a simple & modest boat. I like it that way
Even her crane to hoist the dink is only a 1" piece of stainless tubing that attaches to the main halyard. I am sure more will come to mind......i2f