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20 Tips For Provisioning For A Long Sailing Trip

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Provisioning a boat can seem like one of the most overwhelming jobs when preparing for a long passage. There’s quite a bit of pressure on the person stocking the boat with enough food, water, and necessary ancillary products (think toilet paper) to survive.

What foods are best to have? What veggies will last a month and what won’t? What can and can’t be frozen? How can you make food prep, while under passage, fast and easy – especially when the seas are sloppy? And how can you ensure that all the passengers are fed and watered properly?

After your first week-long or month long passage you’ll surely be much wiser as to what to do and what not to do. Wouldn’t it be invaluable, however, to learn from those that have already done it? Wouldn’t it be less stressful if you could make that first passage a massive success rather than a mediocre learning experience? With the following 20 tips, you’ll certainly have a greater chance of enjoying provisioning success. Read on. 

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Provisioning Dry Goods And Freezer Inventory

Sometimes the best way to learn is to see exactly what someone else has done, take what you want, and then customize it to suit your needs. Before we crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and an 18-day passage from Gran Canaria to St Lucia, Caribbean, I created several inventory spreadsheets. These spreadsheets were created to help remind me, and our guests, as to what and where meals, dry goods, beverages, and paper goods were located. I called them my provisioning dry goods and freezer inventory spreadsheets.

Within the ‘Atlantic Crossing Dry Goods Inventory’, you’ll find a list of all the shelf-stable items I packed including canned goods, kinds of pasta, grains, jars, sauces, beverages, mixes and so forth in addition to the quantity and the place where I stored the goods. 

On the ‘Atlantic Crossing Freezer Inventory’, you’ll discover what meals I pre-made in addition to all the other items I chose to freeze. This spreadsheet also has instructions as to how to cook some of the meals. 

Furthermore, I’ve also included a document that you can use as a basis for a shopping list. It provides all the meal provision groupings to ensure you cover all bases. Download these spreadsheets and change according to your specific needs…

To access this post, you must purchase The Britican Club.
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After Passage Checklist

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Onboard Britican we have laminated checklists to help our guests learn the ropes. One of our shorter yet still valuable checklist’s is the After Passage Checklist. This checklist helps our guests have a role and know where to help out. We also use other checklists including Below Deck Pre Passage, Saftey Pre Passage, Above Deck Pre Passage and Systems On Pre Passage checklists when heading out to sea. Copy this checklist, alter it to suit your needs and use it on your boat 😉

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Sailing Terms You Need To Know

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Are there sailing terms you need to know? And if yes, what are they? Allow me first to step sideways for a moment before I answer that question…In London, over the course of eight years, I built up a successful company. To quietly grab market share from the top three competitors in my marketplace I simply did one major thing that my competitors did not. My competitors all used industry lingo while trying to sell to ‘normal’ people. While researching my rivals marketing materials and sales pitch I realized that the everyday person would struggle to understand what the company was truly offering.

I changed the industry lingo to everyday plain language and watched my market share increase exponentially. Normal people, like you and I, like to understand the environment we’re in. We like to feel at home with the language being used.

Similarly, in the sailing world, there is a massive amount of industry lingo. 

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Liveaboard Experience On Sailing Britican (Video)

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Our Liveaboard Experience charter offering is now fully up and running! Come join us on Britican for a week-long sailing adventure. Not only will you learn about sailing, but you’ll also discover what it’s like to be a full-fledged liveaboard. You’ll see what it’s like to provision in the Tropics, do routine engine checks, troubleshoot the latest breakage, run the watermaker, create passage plans to new islands or countries, reef the sails and much more. The Experiece is customised to what you/your family need to help you hit the waves running. Jumpstart your path to living the dream – get a headstart by joining Simon, Sienna and me this year.

But what’s a Britican Experience like?! To get an idea as to some sights you’ll see and some things you’ll learn, watch the following video about Andy and Ene Stewart’s Britican Experience. This delightful couple have sailed a bit in the past but never in the Caribbean. The enjoy sailing and wanted a closer glimpse into what liveaboard life is truly like. Find out what they discovered…

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The Secret Benefits To Becoming A Liveaboard Sailing Cruiser

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You only have to submerge yourself into a bunch of YouTube sailing videos, read the book, Dove, or experience a week-long sailing charter to gain a glimpse into the benefits of becoming a liveaboard sailing cruiser. Most people would agree that sun-filled days, tropical white sandy beaches, daily adventures, new friends and an amazing variety of free anchorages are truly a dream come true.

But are those the only benefits to becoming a liveaboard sailing cruiser?

If you’re on the path to break ties with ‘normal’ land-based life and sail off into the sunset what should you expect? Is it just sand, sea and adventure or is it more?

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Sailing To A New Country

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Sailing to a new country can be daunting for the first few times. It’s best to understand the process and learn tips and tricks before you go. So, what’s the procedure to book in? How about booking out? What information to do you need to supply? Where can things go terribly wrong? Are there any tips to make the process easier, faster and less painful? What about spear guns, real guns, and pets? What about booking into the US of A?! That’s a big topic in its own right. Watch the video and then read below for a checklist on what we bring with us every time we enter and leave a country.

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Clearing Into Countries Cheat Sheet

You’ll be surprised by the different questions that you’ll get asked when booking into foreign countries. Some require very little information and others want to know everything down to your blood type. Some countries have a couple forms and others have several forms and want three carbon copies of each form. And I’m not kidding when I say ‘carbon copies.’ In Trinidad they still use that blue carbon paper rather than a photocopier! Here’s the template that we use on Britican. We have a display book that holds all our documents mentioned in our Sailing To A New Country Checklist. On the front page, we have our easy reference Clearing Into Countries Cheat Sheet.

To access this post, you must purchase The Britican Club.
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What fears are causing you NOT to live the sailing dream?

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Are you totally 100% up for living the sailing dream or do you have some niggles or fears that are causing you concern? Do you lay awake worried wondering how you’re going to make your plans a reality? Are you more specifically worried about health matters or what will happen if you get sick/injured – perhaps speculating worst case scenarios? Maybe you are thinking, ‘it’s a great idea to set sail but it won’t work for me because of ________’. It’s amazing how fears can cause us to put our life on hold or make it very uncomfortable. 

Recently I had what seemed to be a serious medical scare. I appeared to be having a heart attack while anchored off a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. After a series of events (dinghy ride, ambulance, hospital stay, private plane ride, another ambulance, another hospital, another plane ride, another hospital), I discovered that my issue was minor and there were easy solutions to ensure good health. I’m now back on the boat and feel great. 

But the question I want to explore is whether or not the experience has caused me to become more or less fearful about sailing around the world. And what lesson might you learn based on my experience? Read on…

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