Health Care Experiences Far From Home

Preparing for stitches in Guatemala

(photo courtesy of Matt & Jessica's Sailing Page)

If you're out cruising, it's pretty advisable that you have a good First Aid kit at your disposal.  We aren't always lucky enough to be near a health care center if something goes wrong, or even if we are, standards may not be what we were used to back on land.  When things go wrong, it's not as easy as a quick drive down the road to the med center.

Whether it's a virus traveling around, a finger caught or smashed in one of the many areas possible to do so on a boat, or a lift threatening emergency, health care can get a little bit tougher out on the water.  If you have any experience or stories about health care far away from home, send me a post describing it.

Advice for Freshman Cruisers

Whether you're leaving because you've finally retired, or you're leaving because you're young enough to not care about health insurance, YOU'RE FINALLY LEAVING!  And anyone who has given it even an ounce of thought, knows that the amount of planning is insurmountable.  There is just no way that you can think of every detail and plan for every mishap.  This topic was created to use our MoFi resources and ask for tips.  If you have a post already written about the most important things you learned your first year cruising, great, we'll take it!  If you want to write one dedicated to newbie cruisers (remember, you were a freshman once!) please do!  We are looking for your best tips and tricks anyway you want to hand them to us and hopefully you can save a newbie from a little stress once they set sail.   (Please :)

Sailing Life Hacks

Cruisers are hardy folks. We have to be, because we live in a space the size of a small garden shed, and it galumphs around like a mechanical bull. Let's just say, it's an environment that's not big on creature comforts. But we cruisers are also creative and crafty sorts, expert life hackers, who like to share our ideas.

This Monkey's Fist topic started when I blogged, as part of my Tammy's Top Ten Things series, about things that make my life onboard easier, things like a good, old-fashioned ice pack, creative use of hair bands and static cling window film. I posted my Top Ten on the Women Who Sail Facebook page, and others decided to play along. We've ended up with a brilliant sailing hacks starter kit for new cruisers and some fresh ideas that even the saltiest among us can adopt.

Young Cruisers

A group of 30-something cruisers, enjoying the spoils of Jamaica.

(Photo courtesy of s/v Tamarisk)

This topic is all about the 40 and under crowd.  The ones that said, "I'm not going to wait for retirement before I fulfill my dreams of sailing off into the sunset.  Nay, I'm not even going to wait for my 40th birthday to roll around before doing it."  All of us that have done this fall into the 'young cruiser' category, and sadly, the least represented one out on the high seas.  Being so young, we're usually the newbies out there.  The ones just figuring it out for the first time.  Making mistakes and learning, but hopefully, having a ball while we do it.

This topic is meant to inspire new young cruisers.  Telling the how and why of, well, how and why other young cruisers are out or getting ready.  Have any great stories of being the odd one out due to your age?  We'd love to hear that too.

Boat Names

“Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is the Master Baitor.  We are taking on water.” 

As we sailed along, listening to this distress call and the interaction with the local Coasties, all I could think of is if this boat owner ever envisioned having to call in a mayday with that boat name.  Sure, he probably got a couple of laughs from his fishing buddies about the name.  He may even have giggled a little to himself when he calls a marina or a friend calls him on the VHF.  But did he ever consider how his boat name would sound in this situation?

Collecting bad boat names has become something of a hobby for my Bride and me.  We like to snap a quick photo of them.  Here are a couple of our favorites:
 

When we purchased our Catalina she was named “Norm’s Place”.  We knew that wouldn’t do for us plus the seller wanted to keep the name for his next boat.  When we started to come up with names we had several concerns in mind:

·         How would the name sound over the radio in a distress call.  We didn’t want the name to add to any confusion in an already stressful time.
·         We wanted a traditional name in that it was named after a woman.
·         We wanted the name to be fun and have meaning to us. 

Here is the story of our name: s/v Smitty.
__________________________________
Topic coordinator: Jesse, s/v Smitty