A Quick Insight to...
Pre-voyage thoughts !
Voyage Planning for Small Boats
“For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze.”
Richard Bode “First You Have to Row a Little Boat”
Good advice! But before one “raises sails and dips and soars in the breeze” there is the rather mundane chore of ‘passage preparation’ to complete. The vision of lying under swaying palm trees on white sand beaches while sipping pina coladas makes a nice dream but getting there and back in a comfortable state - both physically and mentally - remains paramount.
The old, perhaps trite, adage “preparation and planning prevent piss-poor performance” is very applicable whether one is going coastal cruising or blue-water ocean voyaging. So where do we start? Let’s assume a well-found boat, suitable for the passage, and focus on some of the key preparation features:-
Navigation
Charts (paper) for the area of your passage including anywhere you might end up. Check charts for off lying dangers and associated clearing lines. Tidal movements – when favourable? Light lists and tide tables. Tide heights when you leave and arrive. Potential bolt-holes should extreme weather be encountered. Make a detailed passage plan – compass courses to steer, distances to run, cross-track tides to be allowed for.
Weather
Access forecasts and build up a picture of developing weather patterns in advance. Wind strength and direction, sea state, predominant features of the weather system eg highs, lows, fronts, etc. Updating forecasts en route.
Radio communication
Although their potential emergency role should not be forgotten, radio transceivers are far more often used for routine purposes eg communications between vessels, receiving weather forecasts. All cruising vessels should carry a marine VHF radio and if offshore an HF radio for long distance communication.
A Quick Insight to...
Pre- voyage thoughts ! (2)
Supplies
Requisite food provisions and water. Operating supplies including fuel and gas and various spares.
Clothing.
Conditions at sea can vary considerably over a few hours. Clothing appropriate to a range of conditions is required. Good quality foul weather gear an absolute must.
Safety
Appropriate life jackets, harnesses, hand flares, EPIRB, lifebuoys and lifesling, fire extinguishers - all up-to-date where applicable. Life raft in service.
Medical
First Aid kit appropriate to the type of cruise together with medical guides/book. This must include dressing/wound care materials and medications including prescription drugs eg antibiotics, strong pain-killers.
Standing Orders for Crew
Crew members needs to be aware of certain rules that are inviolable when underway eg no crew on foredeck after dark without wearing a harness and clipped on.
The famous yachtsman Adlard Coles once said that the secret of a successful cruise is to make a “smart seamanlike passage with the minimum wear and tear on both ship and crew.”
One way of doing that is to carry out ‘passage preparation’ in accordance with a pre-cruise checklist similar to the above.
However, when all is said and done, it should be noted that passage planning only assists in “avoiding the avoidable” – always keep in mind that Murphy was a seaman!
Many of the images here were taken on our last trip, all of which highlight the vicissitudes of cruising in a small boat ! They depict a range of cruising experiences - tranquility in the Duke Islands, trepidation while tying up in croc infested waters to mangroves during a cyclone, the pleasure of a picturesque anchorage Hunter Is and foul weather off Fraser Is. At the end of the day, sailboat cruising really comes down to enjoying the good times while enduring the bad times within your “allotted time” !
Since our last trip, "Cracklin' Rosie" has had her bottom painted, (a beautiful seafaring colour), with new antifouling and her topsides polished - ahh ..a thing of beauty is indeed a joy forever.
