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Choosing the top 10 pieces of cruising gear continues, based on our last adventure from the East Coast through the Caribbean and back to the West Coast. It’s an impossible, incomplete and hopelessly subjective task, but if you missed last month’s installation, click
here for the previous five. And in some kind of general, meandering way, here we go:
6. Nesting Sailing Dinghy There’s nothing like zipping around the anchorage around sunset in a small sailing dinghy, trolling with a fishing line for dinner and then executing a perfect docking maneuver over at a boat that has invited you over for a sundowner. Small boats are unforgiving and are a great way to keep your skills sharp.
Storing a full size sailing dinghy on the deck of a modest size cruiser would ordinarily take up too much deck space and make going forward for sail changes or weighing anchor a crowded affair. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and thus the advent of the nesting dinghy. Our 11-foot dinghy breaks down into two unequal size pieces. The smaller bow piece nests into the larger stern piece. It’s an atypical approach to getting ashore and about in today’s inflatable dominated dinghies that are most commonly seen on cruising boats.
Our dinghy received a fair bit of second glances as we launched first one piece into the water, then the second piece, and bolted the halves together with four bolts and a set of gaskets. But the his and her half jokes that came from neighboring boats aside, we found our nesting sailing dinghy fun, practical, as well as envy inducing. The boat was a great rowing boat, even against the often boisterous trade winds. We had a five-horse power outboard engine that pushed us merrily along, although never at planning speeds. Sure, fiberglass dinghies are a bit heavier, and there’s some extra gear to contend with—the sail, rudder, dagger board, and mast all need a home—and putting the dinghy together in a chop is a tricky affair. But the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Dinghies take a beating in the cruising lifestyle and our fiberglass nesting dinghy is more robust and easier to repair than the average inflatable. It’s worth noting that despite the performance and convenience of inflatables, sooner or later all inflatables end up being paddled and it’s an ungainly affair for participants and spectators alike. There’s a redundancy in backup systems to get to shore, oars start on the first pull, and if you get tired of rowing, you can hoist the sail.
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7. Inverter Cruising with an inverter was a step up for us this time, and it made cruising a lot less like camping. Our 1000-watt Heart inverter/battery charger with the Link Remote got rid of a lot of the guessing as to how many amps we were drawing, the charge state of our batteries, how many amps we could expect from our beleaguered solar panel (the previous owner had unwisely decided to clean a fish on its surface), and in short take a lot of the guess work out of the mumbo jumbo that can accompany marine electrical systems.
But the real benefit was in the creature comfort area. No longer were boat projects a hand-tool affair (although I kept my grandfather’s hand-powered drill just in case) the age of cordless tools made the inevitable and various boat projects that crop up a little easier. We could run the sewing machine aboard and at times took on the look of a floating sail loft. In one instance we had a job sewing a genoa for a 45-foot Island Packet aboard, which pushed the realm of what was spatially possible as the sail was bigger than our deck. The computer could get charged, pictures printed out and given to locals, to say nothing of having a blender, fresh island fruits, and being able to take advantage of distilled liquid products found in the Caribbean.
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8. Tricolor Light "Once you get out of US waters, all that stuff about navigation lights goes out the window," a friend who just got back from cruising told me. From rickety island traders to cruise ships that seem to have every light lit except the ones you’re looking for, and to that crazy kind of sailor that only turns on the running lights when they happen to see another boat, there are some, well, interesting lighting configurations out there.
The best defense against the confusion is to make sure that your own vessel is seen early. Especially for new cruisers or those apprehensive about sailing at night, having a tricolor light at the top of the mast helps ensure that you’ll be seen, and that can take some of the stress off when you happen to cross paths with another boat at night. The higher the light is off the water, the earlier you’ll be seen, and the earlier both boats in any crossing situation will be able to take action. Lights on the bow, or even lights mounted on shrouds can dip below ocean swells and render your course and position invisible until the last moment.
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| "A tricolor on in conjunction with a steaming light and a lower set of running lights can send the wrong signal. Viewed from the port side, the lights would illustrate red over white over red, or the lighting configuration for a vessel restricted in its ability to maneuver. " |
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There are some things to note with tricolors. For one, the tricolor should only be on by itself. Here’s why: A tricolor on in conjunction with a steaming light and a lower set of running
lights can send the wrong signal. Viewed from the port side, the
lights would illustrate red over white over red, or the
lighting configuration for a vessel restricted in its ability to maneuver. Viewed from the starboard side, the
lights would be green over white over green, the light configuration for commercial trawling
. And viewed from the aft, should a lower stern light be on, the white of the aft view of a tricolor would display a white over white, which could give the impression of a boat behind you that a ship was coming at them. So if you use a tricolor, use it by itself. Not only will you not confuse anyone, but you’ll be saving amps as well by only running one light at the top of the mast instead of three, one for the port, starboard, and stern
lights as you would be running
lights down below. Use the running
lights at deck level when approaching a harbor or anchorage.
9. SSB The ability to pick and choose your battles is one of the key factors in making cruising more of a enjoyable and horizon expanding lifestyle and less a battle for survival on the high seas. While I’m convinced that there are some people that go cruising so they can talk on the radio all day—and with the number of SSB and Ham radio nets this is indeed possible—being able to access weather information, both real time and forecasts several days out is a key to picking your weather window. Getting weather forecasts has never been easier with NOAA weather updates, Herb broadcasting from Canada, David down in the BVIs, and a host of other major, minor, amateur, and professional weather routers and enthusiasts. We additionally used a weather fax program on our computer for a visual representation of what the weather gods were bringing.
But just because everyone is pulling up their
anchor and heading out for that infamous weather window that has arrived doesn’t mean you should. While sailing from Mexico’s Isla Mujeres near Cancun to the Dry Tortugas off of Florida, we were informed of a weather window which some boats had been waiting for to make the jump back to the States. Well, we figured we’d go as well. Three days later of nearly nonstop motoring
—and hand steering over glassy seas, since our tiller pilot had recently given up the ghost
—we arrived bleary eyed, light on diesel, and a bit wiser. Someone’s idea of a weather window might not be your own.
10. Spotlight Sometimes you need one or two million candle power. These instances can include looking at schools of brightly colored fish that congregate around your boat at anchor in crystalline waters to diagnosing an engine or wiring problem in the recesses of the bilge. Shining a bright light on your sail can also reinforce your position at night should there be an approaching ship who doesn’t respond on the VHF, and of course it can be helpful to make your way into an unfamiliar harbor at dark if the conditions allow you to sneak in and drop the hook.
There is also a security factor that comes with such a blast of light that gives the impression of authority. We were anchored off the touristy town of Huatulco on Mexico’s Pacific side . Sometime around four in the morning I woke up and heard something—or someone—swimming by the boat. Still half asleep, but wondering what it was, and not a little concerned about the prospect of someone trying to swipe something off the boat, I grabbed the spot light and blasted its blinding beam on a man and an inner tube. He blinked his own flashlight back at me twice, and held up a spear gun, apparently the international signal identifying him as merely a diver on his way to work who was hoping to get a jump on the fish and to avoid the zooming jet skis that would be zipping across the harbor in a few hours.
By no means is this a comprehensive list of what we had on board, it’s merely some of the gear we appreciated. A vessel heading offshore should have an EPIRB, liferaft, several types of flares, as well as tethers, harnesses, life vests, and on and on as budgets and personal risk management allow. There were many other times when our 35-pound Delta anchor and its all chain rode would have surpassed all on this list to be catapulted to the top, and still more times we were glad we’d changed the rigging before setting out to sea; hopefully this finds you preparing to head out and develop your own list of top 10 favorite pieces of cruising gear or to get reacquainted with those you already know and love.
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