Offshore Medical Kit Contents

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Last Updated on September 13, 2023 by Amy

I completed our offshore medical kit and am super proud of it!

In our offshore emergency medicine class, we covered a lot of important topics regarding health and safety at sea.  The professors provided us with an example inventory.  We also had a good discussion during our class on what we should have onboard. Our book outlines various medicines and uses of each medication. We also got to have “labs” with some of the medical equipment, including the Aqua-C, stethoscope, and using needles on grocery store meat.

Building Your Offshore Sailing Medical Kit

What Do You Have?

Go through all of your medicine cabinets and pull out anything medical related.  Check expiration dates on all of your items, and toss accordingly.  You may already own items that would be beneficial.  We had a few grocery store medical kits that had some surprisingly useful things in them.

Visit Your Doctors

You should have all of your routine exams done just before you go traveling anyway, so take the opportunity to explain to your doctors what your plans are and discuss concerns.  At the very minimum, go see your GYN, dermatologist, and PCP.

The biggest take away from our dermatologist was, of course, sunscreen!  We discussed the best kinds to use and what to look for when purchasing sunscreens.  A really cool dermatologist will send you home with a bunch of free samples to try out, which is especially good if you have sensitive skin.

We also got really lucky with our new primary care physician. She is a sailor herself and has her own offshore sailing medical kit. We presented a list of our inventory to her, and she gave us tips about various medications and even added some to our list. She wrote prescriptions for us for everything we asked for.

Where to Shop

I ordered most items for our offshore sailing medical kit online, using our Amazon Prime account. A lot of items on our list come in larger quantities than we need. For example, I ordered large transparent bandages, which came in a pack of 10. As a result, we have an excess supply of items, which I have put into a box to give out to (hopefully) a needy clinic somewhere. As items came in, I unpacked them to fit better in the medical kit and put everything in plastic zip-lock bags to keep it dry.

Dehydration Solutions for Offshore Medical Kits

Aqua-C hydration needles are a subcutaneous IV system to deliver fluids to a dehydrated patient. Neither David or I have experience placing an IV, but the AQUA-C is much simpler to use, which will enable us to easily treat dehydration.

Hard-to-Get Items

Fentanyl – Fentanyl is a quick-acting, schedule II opiate. Our class discussed Fentanyl as a way to provide almost instant pain relief in an extreme case. Our class also discussed that it would be difficult to acquire. I tried my best to get some, but we are not going to have any onboard. Our doctor wrote a prescription for Fentanyl, but we had to find a pharmacy that can fill the prescription.  Pharmacies must be enrolled in a special program to dispense Fentanyl.  The pharmacy we found told us that our doctor needed to be enrolled in the program as well in order to get the prescription filled. In addition, if our insurance didn’t cover it, the Lazanda (nasal Fentanyl) would have been almost $500.

IV Fluids – Finding a pharmacy to fill the IV fluids prescription was also difficult, as most pharmacies don’t provide IV fluids to the general population.

Additional Kits

Quick grab bag – We will have a quick grab medical kit just inside our companionway, which will have our Epi-pens and our NuMask CPR tool for emergency use.

Excursion kit – In our medical kit, we have a small “travel” size medical kit, for treating things such as scrapes and boo-boos on the go during hiking or town activities.  This is stored in our hiking backpack.

Seasickness

Seasickness – While David and I have never had bad seasickness (other than lethargy for me) we are going to be in more extreme conditions than we have ever been in. There are many methods to combat seasickness.  Our professors recommended having at least 3 on board, as you don’t know which one may work best for you. We will be carrying:
– Meclizine (OTC pill)
– Ondansetron (RX pill)
– Scopolamine (RX pill)
– Promethazine (RX suppository)
– ReliefBand Motion Sickness Band (OTC electrical device)

Inventory for Offshore Medical Kit

I put together a detailed inventory of our offshore sailing medical kit.

You can get your own copy of our medical inventory here. 

Or, you can download a .csv here. 

I censored this list a bit, but our real inventory has a column for uses and directions, as well as the location where we can find each item. In addition, in the medical bag, everything is separated out by type of medication. OTC ointments are in one pocket, prescriptions in another, excursion kit in the top, most accessible part, etc. Our list also has expiration information, so that we can easily determine which items have expired and need replacing. The inventory will be kept near our medical kit, for easy access in an emergency.

50+ Medical Items in our Kit You Can Buy on Amazon

Name	Link
60 cc Cath Tip Syringe	https://amzn.to/34uvHb9
ABD Pad	https://amzn.to/2PTibun
Acetaminophen	https://amzn.to/2ZWTgG0
Adhesive Tape 1″	https://amzn.to/34qinVr
Alcohol Hand Gel	https://amzn.to/3141D41
Alcohol Prep Pads	https://amzn.to/2LvCjxi
Amerigel Wound Skin Care Wash, 7.1 Ounce	https://amzn.to/2PTLjC0
Amoxicillin (AMOXIL), 250 mg chewables
Anti-septic Cleansing Wipe (sting free)	https://amzn.to/34tDKVN
Aqua – C Hydration Needle
Arm sling	https://amzn.to/2HRNmQC
Azithromycin (ZITHROMAX Z-PAK), 250 mg tablets
Bacitracin Ointment tube (labeled Neosporin)	https://amzn.to/2PTUORE
Benzonatate, 200 mg
Butterfly Wound Closures	https://amzn.to/2HSSiEB
Cefdinir 300 MG
Cefdinir 300 MG
Ciprofloxacin, antibiotics, 750 mg tablets
Ciprofloxicin (CILOXAN) ophthalmic, eye drops
Cold Compress	https://amzn.to/2A4B0zX
Cotton Tipped Applicators, sterile	https://amzn.to/2PTctJ9
Curad packing strips	https://amzn.to/2ZHN75h
Dental Kit	https://amzn.to/2ZJEUOb
Dental Wax	https://amzn.to/2ZTXq1q
diphenhydramine tablets, 25mg (name brand: Benadryl)	https://amzn.to/2PTXr5Y
Disposable Scapels	https://amzn.to/34yC6Cr
Dressing Forceps	https://amzn.to/2ZEseHF
Elastic Bandages 4″	https://amzn.to/2ZJGgsf
Elastic Bandages 6″	https://amzn.to/2N0NYr6
Epinephrine (EPIPEN) .3 mg/.3 mL
Erythromycin (ILOTYCIN) ophthalmic, ointment, 3.5g
Eye pad, sterile	https://amzn.to/2ZULHnC
Face mask	https://amzn.to/2ZJXvtg
Fiberglass Casting Tape	https://amzn.to/2PW8efQ
Fluconazole (DIFLUCAN), 150 mg tablets
Flurandrenolide (CORDAN LOTION), 0.05%, 120 mL
Foam Dressing 4″ x 4″	https://amzn.to/2PPIi5s
Gauze Dressing Pad 4″ x 4″	https://amzn.to/2ZLT6oR
Gauze Dressing Pads, 2″ x 2″	https://amzn.to/2ZVRmpf
Gauze, non-sterile 4×4	https://amzn.to/2ZMlibp
Gloves Pair	https://amzn.to/2PSv6Nj
Hydrocodone-acetaminophen (NORCO) 5-325 mg
Hydrocortisone cream 1% (labed Cortizone 10)	https://amzn.to/2ZIjilk
Hypothermia Thermometer	https://amzn.to/311Ekry
Ibuprofen	https://amzn.to/2HTM2wx
Israeli Bandage	https://amzn.to/2PSoxuc
IV Fluids, .9% NACL, 1000 mL
Large waterproof bandaid 3M, assorted	https://amzn.to/2LzpZvT
Lidocaine 1% (XYLOCAINE), local anestetic, injection, 5 mL
Lidocaine 2% (LIDOCAINE VISCOUS), local anestetic, topical, 100 mL
Loperamide (IMODIUM), 2 mg tablets	https://amzn.to/2N2cjgj
Lorazepam, (ATIVAN), 1 mg tablets
Lubricating Eye drops 0.5oz	https://amzn.to/2LyPfT5
Meclizine	https://amzn.to/2LBpKQX
Medical Bag	https://amzn.to/2A4ENxb
Mefloquine, 250mg
Miconazole 3 day pack	https://amzn.to/2LzYnH4
Moleskin with padding	https://amzn.to/311FtPS
NuMask
Ondansetron (ZOFRAN-ODT) 4 mg
Otoscope and specula	https://amzn.to/2HRXuZg
Povidone Iodine, 8 oz	https://amzn.to/2HRKjaZ
Promethazine (PHENADOZ) 25 mg suppository
ReliefBand	https://amzn.to/2Q8MIEX
SAM splint with 3″ cohesive wrap	https://amzn.to/34vSu6o
Scopolamine, patch
Silver Sulfadiazine (SILVADENE) 1% cream, 50g
Small bandaids, assorted, Curad
Small bandaids, assorted, latex-free, Curad
Small waterproof bandaid 3M, assorted
Sphygmomanometer	https://amzn.to/2HShtY9
Splinter forcep	https://amzn.to/2ZIlU2C
Steri Strips 1″	https://amzn.to/312pjWp
Stethescope	https://amzn.to/2A0HsrW
Stitch Scissors	https://amzn.to/2UI2DIH
Syringe and needle, 3 mL with 25 G 1″ needle	https://amzn.to/2LyDlZy
Telfa Pads 3″ x 8″	https://amzn.to/2PS04oV
Terbinafine Cream (labeled for athlete’s foot)	https://amzn.to/34pgatj
Toothbrush
Transparent dressing, large 6″ x 8″	https://amzn.to/2HS4c1M
Transparent dressing, medium	https://amzn.to/2N322R6
Transparent dressing, small	https://amzn.to/2ZPm6gF
Trauma Shear 7.5″	https://amzn.to/2ZEUY3D
Urinary Catheter, straight 12Fr
Waterjel Burn Jel Packets 3.5g	https://amzn.to/2PUfTLO
Xeroform 5″ x 9″ e	https://amzn.to/314FnqC

Ideally, you want everything to be in one place.  If something goes wrong, I want to be able to pull the whole kit out.  Also, it needs to be easy to grab and go.  Part of our abandon ship procedures would be to grab the medical kit.  Here’s the bag we chose that fits everything.

Traveling with Your Offshore Medical Kit Supplies

Now all that’s left is to get it to the boat.  I called British Airways to confirm its medication policies.  They said to keep the paper prescriptions with the medications and to check the bag. I have moved most OTC items to a separate bag.  The prescription items are in a different checked bag.

Additional Resources

WebMD – I used WebMD to look up the various uses and directions for medications, in addition to what was on the prescription.  WebMD also allows you to make a digital medicine cabinet, to essentially bookmark all your medications for quick reference.

Total Cost

And the total cost for our offshore sailing medical kit….$1,365 (as of the writing of this post).  When you consider all the items we are buying for safety gear, which we may never use, this is a small drop in the bucket.

** Standard medical disclaimer here. I am not a doctor nor do I play one on tv. Your med kit may differ wildly from mine based on your own health needs and concerns. I would be interested in getting feedback, of course! **

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