The Hard stuff and Easy stuff of Trip Prep

The electrical system on my sailboat was dead. Nothing came on. That was not a good start, but it turned out the main fuse had blown. Once that was taken care of I was relieved to see that there was power to the cabin. That means all the hidden wiring from the battery in the stern to the bow was live.

When my lovely wife and I bought the boat, it didn’t have any electrical system at all. The first thing we installed was the running lights and then the radio. Over the years other things were added: solar electric power, 12 volt outlets, interior lights, depth gauge, and so on. The main battery was moved over to the gasoline locker when the old two stroke was replace with an electric motor. The electrical system was more a product of evolution than planned design.

One the things just upgraded was the power panel. Corrosion had taken its toll on the old one and the new one is 50% bigger. It was great fun sorting out the wires and installing the new panel. Much to my surprise, I actually eventually remembered how I’d done it in the first place. By the end of the afternoon most of it was up and running again.

As convoluted as the electrical stuff was, it was the easy part of preparations.

The hard part of the trip involves where and when we plan on going. I planned on doing the first part alone. Now my lovely wife is thinking of joining me right off. That’s wonderful, but she doesn’t want to spend too many days on the cramped little boat. With that in mind we have to plan a mix of sailing and camping.

I long for the simplicity of rat’s nest wiring. The logistics have gotten out of hand. Campgrounds, boat ramps, anchorages, marinas, mooring fields, boat storage, shuttling the tow vehicle. The are a lot of factors involved, a tiny budget being one of them. Add in things like squeezing in visits to relatives and it’s like three dimensional chess.

Just to make things interesting, we can’t have a firm schedule. Boat travel is heavily dependent on weather and other factors. There are no guarantees that campgrounds will have openings for us when we are ready to camp. With that in mind, we have to have a lot of backup options.

It can be complicated enough just camping or just sailing. Combining the two really makes things a tangled mess. On the bright side, we’ve been to most of these places before. That helps as the on-line guides don’t always reflect the real world situation.

We are compiling a large pile of notes. It feels like planning the invasion of Normandy. Just wait until we get to the gear list.

-Sixbears