If you are headed to the Caribbean, Bahamas or Mexico and Central America this winter aboard your own boat, you will be finding yourself from time to time far from marinas, chandleries and handy riggers and mechanics. So, you need to be self sufficient and need to know how all of your gear, equipment and machinery works. This is especially true if you plan to strike off across the South Pacific and venture into Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.
One of the most important lessons I have learned over many years of passagemamking is that if you can’t fix whatever is broken out there, then you’ll have to learn to live without it. That can make life difficult if it is your only source of charging batteries, or your marine stove, or the boat’s only head. So, as you learn how to repair all your essential equipment on your own, you also have to equip yourself and your boat with the spare parts and useful tools, fasteners, goops and so forth that will allow you to get the job done. Your aim is to have multiple backs up for everything essential on board…redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
Here’s a good article by BWS columnist Bill Biewenga on getting yourself and your boat ready to be self-sufficient offshore. Read more.
