Cross an ocean in a dinghy?

both good points.

Have a look at the attached article. If you can sail or row in South African waters, you can sail anywhere. With two currents meeting each other, the Mozambique current is one of them, the vertical waves which can be expected are enormous. 30 feet is often the norm. Here is a youngster who decided, like you, the world is too small, lets go and see it.

 

Alright if you want us to take this seriously, then I will try, but no promises...

A small radar antenna is going to eat significantly more power than you are going to be able to reasonable provide on a continuing basis, So unfortunatly it is out. Instead there are sails that are made from retro-reflective material so you will show up like a beacon on anyone elses radar. Not a great solution, but a start. there are also cheap radar reflectors, but to be honest they don't work very well, so your next option is an active radar responder, but again you are looking at significant power consumption while it is on.

You may also want to take a look at the mini 6.5 class equipment rules to pick and choose from, http://www.minitransat650.com/html/safety_equipment_list.html you may decide to not take some of it, but at least it gives you a starting point.

The general recommendation is that you need to consume 3L or water per day. So since we estimate an average crossing of 80 days, or 240L of water + a reserve of 20% = total onboard storage requirement of about 300L of water. so about 700 pounds of your departure weight needs to be water. Now in survival situations you can stretch your freshwater by using it to dilute sea water, it depends on the exact salinity, but you need to dilute the water down to about 1% salt. this will add about 25% to your water stores, but it opens you up to all sorts of infections and possibly diarrhea which can kill.

Here is where it gets tricky, if you plan on bringing freeze dried or dehydrated foods, they can get expensive quickly, but are all around the best bet in all other respects. MRE's are an option, but aren't very good for you, can go bad, and taste like crap. If you can find them through military surplus the Cold Weather MRE's are actually pretty good, basically they are dehydrated then packaged to keep for ever. Either way figure you are looking at about $1,500 for a 90 day supply of whatever you bring.

I know you are thinking you can just fish for food, and in some areas this may work, but you need to have enough supplies to get there in the worst case, then hopefully supplement your supplies as you go. So basically as you leave port the entire boat becomes a grocery cart with you packed as the sardine. It is doable, but the boat has to be designed from the get go to hold this quantity of supplies.

 

Cool article Bert.

Still have to research radar and solar.

As for food, i will be storing oats, whey protein powder, baked bean, tinned meat and peanut butter.

Also growing a cup of sprouts per day using a water feeder and a tub of seeds.

That way i can get fresh greens everyday, plenty of fiber from the oats and beans, recommended daily proein from whey and meat plus plenty of calories and good fat from peanut butter.

It isnt that hard to get cheap, nutrient dense foods that are light and easy to store.

Also a multivitamin per day just and case. Might have to supplement calcium also.

But nutrition is basic.

Navigation is basic.

To me, if you look at each problem on its own, they are all easily solved. So it all comes down to luck.

Will i get hit by a tanker or not. Will a freak wave come out of nowhere and pitch pole me or not. Will i get typhoid or malaria, kidnapped by pirates or drown.

Only so much can be planned for, but at the end of the day, acheiving it comes down to luck. Its russian roulette on the high seas

 

Don't forget to pack a few energy bars. It is dry, packed small easy storing packaging and basically gives you a meal per bar. My wife had a look at your list and at this stage only suggested a number of extra energy bars. She assumed that boiling of water would be a problem, thus some nice instant soup would have been a good choice. (even if the packet gets wet, it does not matter. It is sealed alluminum foil)

Radar: Of what I still remember of my Airforce days, you need a system which can be at a flick of a switch put on full power and has a sleeping mode, which wakes up at pre-set intervals. You have to set it in such a way that the alarm is early enough to make an early detour for a large or any ship.

Stumble has some good points there.

For solar panels, a flexible will be the best. You don't want glass in your already small environment. Refer: a reply by CDK in "batteries and new battery technology"

For that reason your design may have to be more like the one previously designed for you in one of the previous threads. (lewisboats, thread no 53)

Bert

 

If Stoned takes his laptop with him, with a special see through splash waterproof plastic envelope, he can at any time have some special video's via the Internet.

But your doll is a nice one.

Bert

 

Hi StonedPirate,
Here is my list, if I had to do the same.

1) Satellite Cell phone with Internet access
2) Radio
3) Laptop
4) Splash waterproof plastic envelope for laptop
5) Blue tooth laptop module, if not build in.
6) Sonar system, if too expensive, a handheld one for 180 Dollar
7) Radar system with sleeping mode
8) 300 liter of drinking water
9) Pills for water, in case contaminated
10) Swiss army knife
11) Sterilization pills
12) Small gas stove with extra gas bottles (or paraffin)
13) Food as you suggested with extra energy bars
14) Once per week a cup of hot soup i.e. 10 packets (it has little nutritional value
15) Some alcohol for cleaning a wound
16) 1st aid kit
17) Rechargeable batteries, torch,
18) Shaving kit
19) A few sunlight soap bars
20) Flexible solar panel 50 – 100 watt
21) Sealed Lead Acid batteries. Quantity depends on consumption of appliances
22) Toolkit
23) Ryobi Electric rechargeable drill with a set of drills
24) Pump
25) DC soldering iron with solder or gas soldering torch
26) Standard ocean safety devices
27) List of all places with emergency numbers and yacht clubs
28) Personal clothing and towels
29) Will (In your will you state what to do with your boat in a unfortunate situation. Otherwise they may ship it at the cost of your family back. Not always appreciated)
30) General repair kit. This depends on what boat you build
31) Repair kit for clothing, scissor, needles, cotton etc.
32) Some books to read
33) Sextant

Bert
P.S. Make sure you have all the injections received, like yellow feever, etc.

 

some form of life vessel would also be in order
a epirb and a survival suet

as well as that jar you were talking about

once fully developed this list is going to be interesting
cant wait to see what it adds up to and it there is enough flotation for everything

 

It would be interesting if someone with experience with solo sailing chipped in on this subject.

I know that people planning to spend long periods of time in the jungle or other remote areas far from medical treatment sometimes get their appendix removed before they go. Does anyone ever do this before solo crossing? It might be a good idea.

This is only on my mind because I had my appendix removed this winter. It is amazing how quickly it can happen. I was fine one day, had pain in the night, and my appendix was ready to burst the next evening. It had to be removed right away, and I spent several days in the hospital afterwards.

You just never know. I have no idea what the odds of something like this are compared to striking a submerged shipping container, but it is a pretty much guaranteed death sentence if you don't receive medical treatment pronto.

Just more food for thought. Not much you can do before hand to prepare, except go under the knife preemptively.

 

Luckily i had mine removed when i was 9.

Had my wisdom teeth out last year.

Teeth are in good order. No health complaints.

I will create my list shortly.

 

I was thinking along the same lines as Stumble. Stoned, you want to focus on something equally challenging but more fun:
http://www.classezero.com/detallegaleria.asp?id=22

Somewhere on this site theres a thread about a guy sailing round the world in a Mini Transat yact, why not go out and beat his time?

 

Cool.

Speed records are for the rich.

I'm struggling to design a hull that floats, never mind compete with PhD naval architects with hulls using materials designed by NASA.

I think i'm more attracted to the travel and adventure side of it rather than simply setting sailing records.

 

All else aside, the Australian goverment, like many governments, require a certain standard of boat, equipment and crew knowledge/experience of any boat leaving its shores.
I'd suggest that you contact a yacht club and ask where you would get the information as to what those minimums are otherwise you could be spending a lot of time and money getting ready to go, and then find that you are not allowed to leave.
Just a couple of points.
"Ill go anyway" is a common response to that situation.
"I'll register the boat in another country so they cant stop me " is another.
Both of those mean that one way or another you will arrive at your next destination without outward Customs clearance, and if you do that you'll spend ages looking at the stone walls in some noisome jail while some totally disinterested Australian diplomatic official doesnt try very hard to get you out .Their attitude will be something along the lines of " its your fault, you got yourself into this by willingly breaking the law, we're not going to try very hard to get you out."

John Welsford

 

Good point.

I still have to research the beaurocracy of it all.

Sometimes you have to bend a few rules though.

Does fafnir qualify?

 

Do it before you go too much further, it helps immensely if you know what hurdles you will have to jump over before you start running the course so to speak.

Yes, Fafnir can be made to comply but its not easy. You'll get a lot of resistance from officialdom.
Note that Fafnir has close to twice the load carrying ability of Gimli so can carry SSB Radio, a liferaft, full offshore safety equipment, and enough food and stores at 6lbs a day for about 50 days.
Total load, about 600 lbs plus the boat.
Note that its very difficult to get a boat to work at all well with much more than about 30% of total departure weight in the way of load variation .

John Welsford

 

Very valid point.

When I tried with a plan reduced by 13%, the first question was from the Authority " Please may I see the various calculations, like buyoance, centerpoint of gravety etc.". If not produced, please see a local Naval Architect and get that for us before we will even consider your case".

They will only accept very small variations. If it is designed by StonedPirates himself, he has to produce a certificate from an NA. He may aswell get a plan from NZ or from a local boatbuilder.
Bert