Guns

Nearly everyone asks if we are taking along a gun, and most are convinced that I am (You're taking a gun, right?).  Actually, I have read a number of articles on the subject, each describing some experience they have had with robbers (most people like to call them pirates, because they are robbing you at sea).  Almost always, all they want is your money, jewelry and electronics.  They do not want your boat (it would be kind of hard to sell), and they don't want to kill you.

Also, the general opinion is that if robbers come to the boat with the intent of robbing you, they will probably bring guns.  If I were to shoot at them, they would most likely shoot back, and be better armed than I am.  So, if we give them our stuff, they should leave us alone.  At least, that's the plan.

Piracy is rare in this part of the world - I have had my car and home broken into several times in my life, and I feel like I may be safer at sea than at home.  

Food

We have stocked up most of the food we will need on the boat.  We plan on taking advantage of local foods to some extent, but we felt more comfortable not being dependent upon the availability of food in some of the more remote locations.  We also hope to catch some fish along the way, and purchase some local lobsters and such from fisherman that reportedly come to your boat and offer you them for about two bucks a piece.

We have a watermaker on the boat, and can make fresh water out of saltwater at a rate of about 8 gallons per hour.  More importantly, we have about 7 cases of Diet Pepsi for me, and about 5 cases of other worthless softdrinks for everyone else.  This will likely only last about a month, so I am expecting to be able to pickup some more in some of the larger towns.  Leslie has packed about 2  cases of bottled water.  

Communication

We have a VHF radio on board, which is a marine radio capable of transmitting and receiving signals about 30 miles.  We'll have a cell phone, but it won't work at sea, and may not work at port either.  We'll only be at sea for no more than 3 days at a time, so it's not like we'll be cut off from the world that much.  When we come to port, most places will have some form of phone system for us to plug into and send and receive e-mail. The only thing is, it may take a week for us to respond to an e-mail, so it won't be real timely communication. Both our kids will have their laptop computers to do their homework, so we can use one to to take care of our e-mail. 

We plan on keeping our website somewhat up-to-date with what we have been doing, including some pictures (but they really take a lot of time to upload, so we'll keep it to a minimum) but also look forward to hearing from our friends and coworkers about goings on in the civilized world. 

Medical

Leslie and I have some medical knowledge, and we have stocked the boat will just about everything we could think of in the way of medications, prescription drugs and first aid supplies.  We have medical books, and we're not afraid to use them!  I'm personally looking forward to putting some stitches into someone for something (as long as it's not me).  Again, we'll never be more than 2 days away from medial treatment, so short of acute appendicitis, we should have time to deal with anything serious. 

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at abston@msn.com, and I'll add it to this page.  It's likely that others have the same question.