Medical Kit

I've been very preoccupied with putting together First Aid Kits - for the boat, the house and the cars. The photo below is of the current contents of our boat kit. There are countless sources online that will help in putting together a great medical kit for every imaginable use - ranging from weekend to offshore use. We certainly don't plan on going offshore in our tiny vessel, but someday, when we have "The Big Boat", we will need all the advice we can get and it helps to plan ahead. S/V Hello World has a great spreadsheet that details the contents of their offshore medical kit. Dr Mark Anderson put together a website which gives "basic knowledge for those that are physically isolated from access to professional medical care, such as sailors at sea". Below is a list of links to some of the products I'm adding to our kit. I also purchased a pelican case so we can keep our boat first aid kit orderly and water tight.

 

General First Aid Supplies

• Marine Medicine Guide
• Hand Sanitizer Towlettes
• Tylenol
• Aspirin
• Benadryl -  in case Captain V eats too much fresh fish.... hives!
• Nyquil Sinus
• QuickClot Silver
• No-Sting Liquid Bandage Spray
• New-Skin Liquid Bandage
• Cold Compress
• Hand & Body Warmers
• Emergency Blanket
• Oral Rehydration Salts
• Exam Gloves
• After Bite Wipes 
• Antiseptic Cleansing Wipes
• Band-Aid Bandages Water Block Plus
• Sterile Gauze Pads
• Waterproof Medical Tape
• Gauze Roll Bandage
• Bandage Scissors
• ACE Bandage
• Butterfly Closures
  

The Greatest Cleaner

I scrubbed my little hands raw this weekend cleaning the boat after a long, wet Oregon winter. Webfoot was covered in green slime and I've been dreading cleaning day. After reading about Bar Keepers Friend on S/V Sea Bungalow's website I got the inspiration I needed to get me going. First I tried it on our kitchen sink and shower in the house. After noticing that the stuff appeared to keep on working after I hosed it off I was sold. The sink just kept on getting brighter and whiter! And the stuff is supposedly not harmful to the environment! Here is a picture of Webfoot's cockpit. Note the dirty floor and bright, white seats! Next sunny weekend the captains are going to wax the entire boat and we'll be ready to set sail. If only it weren't for all those other projects....

Our Favorite Boat Snack

Meals on board are always a nice time to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the sail or scenery. One of our favorite boat snacks (it's a meal really) is crackers with cheese and salami. It's quick and easy, creates hardly any dishes, and the "consumer" can get creative in decorating their crackers. Add a variety of yummy mustards or dips to make each bite unique!

TIPS: 

• If your plates don't have rubber bottoms lay down a moist towel to discourage the plates from departing the table.
• If you buy a whole salami there is no need to refrigerate it until you open it.
• Mustard and mayo do not need to be refrigerated if they don't get contaminated with used utensils (squeezable works great).

Be sure to visit GalleySwap for more great boat recipes!

Garbage Can Potatoes

We love potatoes! Yes, yes, I know, waaaay too many carbs. I try to replace them with mashed parsnips or celery root but my captain won't hear of it. Must be his northern European roots. So this year we are trying to grow our own. In a holey garbage can! Basically you are supposed to fill the can about half way with some nice organic soil, add seed potatoes, some more soil and then keep it watered. Every time new shoots come up, add some more compost around the stem but not the leaves. When the flowers start to fade you can start the harvest! I'll keep you posted on our progress. 

I'll leave you with a shot of last night's sunset from our house

The boat before The Big Boat

Our current boat is 26 feet long and sits on a trailer in our driveway. This is our (second) practice boat. The one we can afford to make more mistakes on. We bought it with the name of Webfoot which suits us just fine. It is a sail-/motor-boat, which means it doesn't do either one of those functions very well. It has a 50 horse power outboard which doesn't quite get it up on a plane and two sails which propel it forward but not with any astounding speeds. The advantage is that we can trailer it all over the place rather than be stuck in the same marina year in year out. The Columbia River can get somewhat monotonous... shall we go up or down river today?! So we like to explore nearby lakes or, if time allows, trailer it up to Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.

Webfoot has a king size berth under the cockpit which was one of the big selling points. Lots of space to stretch out!

The galley has standing headroom for the chief steward (that's me!) and a nearby table provides lots of space on which to prepare food. We have a portable cooktop, a BBQ, and a Jetboil. We get pretty fancy with our meals on board. I will share some ideas on cooking in a small space in the future.

In the small bathroom we installed a composting head! The boat came with a porta-pottie which is just disgusting! Having a head that is private, doesn't smell, and doesn't need to be pumped out was very important to me. On our old boat we used the bucket-method, but that's a whole other story....

Hawaii...

We stayed on the island for ten glorious days, but my favorite day was spent renting a kayak and paddling across Kealakekua Bay to go snorkeling. It is said that below the Captain Cook Monument is the best snorkeling on the island. Here is our favorite photo taken with our underwater camera.