Outfitting a boat to cruise – or circumnavigate – is really hard work. We finished our circumnavigation in 2020, and have learned what works on a cruising boat – and what doesn’t.
The number of items you can order for your boat off Amazon is amazing. Many of the best items on our boat are ordered from Amazon.
Boat Gear: Fun & Active Stuff
- Snorkeling Off Your Cruising Boat
- Exercising While Cruising
- iPaddleboards v iKayaks
- Fishing Gear for Cruisers
- Set Up and Review of Sea Eagle Inflatable Kayak
- Video Gear & Cameras for Sailing Videos
- A Year with our Drift Paddleboards
Boat Gear: Galley Equipment
Boat Gear: Miscellaneous
- Flex-o-fold Folding Propellers
- Using the Marie Kondo Method to Tidy Our Boat
- Cruise RO Watermaker Review
- Tools for Cruising Boats
- Liferafts
- Communications While Cruising
- Marriage Saver Headsets
- Five of our Favorite Things
- Offshore Medical Kit Contents
- Books for Cruisers
- Foul Weather Gear
- Our Mantus Anchor Unboxing
- Man Overboard
- Book Review: Care & Feeding of Sailing Crew
- Boat Cards
- Our First Christmas Gifts as Cruisers
Boat Outfitting
Our boat outfitting was a 3-step process. We started in La Rochelle, where we picked up our new Fountaine Pajot Helia 44. We did the barebones work needed to make us comfortable bringing her across the Atlantic double-handed, working with Uchimata. When we arrived in Miami, our broker completed the commissioning and we did some projects there. Then, we sailed around to Palmetto, Florida, where we spent three months getting the final big projects done.
- Selecting Factory Options
- Electrical Systems for Cruising Boats
- Outfitting a Cruising Catamaran
- Palmetto Projects: Enclosure and Hardtop
- Palmetto Projects: Solar
- Dropping the Temperature
- Anchor Chain Upgrade
- Custom Silverware Organizer
- Headsails
- Choosing our Trampoline
- Our Dinghy
Haul Outs
- November 2015: BVIs – at Nanny Cay
- February 2016: Grenada Marine
- December 2016: Whangarei, New Zealand at Norsand Marine
- June 2017: Vava’u, Tonga
- January – March 2017: The Boat Works, Australia
- January 2019: PSS, Thailand
- February 2019: G&T Boat Yard
Boat Projects
- Running Lines Through the Mast
- Swapping and Cleaning a Transducer
- Converting Heads to Freshwater
- Swapping a Windlass Gypsy
- Re-bedding Deck Hatches
- Resizing Battens
- A Perfectly Executed Boat Project
- DIY Bottom Job
- Repairing our Quick Chain Counter Sensor
- DIY Dyneema Lifelines
- Replacing our AGM Batteries with Lithium-Ion
- Three-Year Maintenance
Offshore Medical Care
- Medical Books to Keep On Board
- Offshore Emergency Medicine Course
- Vaccines for Cruisers
- Offshore Medical Kit Contents