Preparing for the ocean
- Prepare the boat for weeks at sea: rig and sails, self-steering, water, fuel, spares, and redundancy in navigation, power and steering.
- Plan the route by season and routeing charts, with a realistic daily run and passage time, and set the watch system and provisioning for the crew.
- Carry celestial-navigation capability and paper charts as an independent backup to the electronics, with an accurate timepiece.
- Know the long-range communications and weather sources: SSB/HF, satellite, the GMDSS sea areas, NAVTEX and weatherfax or GRIB downloads.
Communications, safety and self-sufficiency
Offshore, the GMDSS sea areas (A1 to A4) define the radio equipment a vessel needs, and beyond VHF range the boat relies on MF/HF or satellite for both distress and weather. The passage plan therefore includes a communications and reporting schedule, an emergency and abandonment plan the crew knows, distress equipment (EPIRB, liferaft, grab bag), and medical self-sufficiency with a means to get radio-medical advice. The theme throughout is self-sufficiency: the boat and crew must be able to cope alone for days.
NOTE — Keep a backup you can navigate by On an ocean passage the electronics and the power that feeds them can fail. Celestial navigation, paper charts and an accurate clock are the independent backup that gets the boat to landfall regardless.
WARNING — Beyond VHF, help is hours or days away Outside GMDSS sea area A1 there is no coastguard a short call away; distress and weather come by MF/HF or satellite and rescue may be distant. Self-sufficiency and an EPIRB are not optional on an ocean passage.