Top Ten Suggestions for Tropical Sailing

[Stonecutter36]

wow Im surprised I ever left !!!! Just Go and dont try to change things till you have to. Dont bite off more than you can ._._._. Ok from ME the first year is the hardest you spend money like your on VACATION and a visa card is gong to have a difficult time to keep up. Year 2 will be an wakening as the bills show up and you haven't left your home sailing grounds and the boat needs some adjustments like solar panels or a practical dingy , maybe the old engine isn't up to the job . year 3 is the real test as you try to live to a cruising budget. You realize that its a life style not a vacation and you don't have to do everything in one day or year. YOU SLOW DOWN ...You sail and save fuel you fish , there are lots of things available to you to live the cruising life style .You need to find out what you can live with and without . A lot of this is up to you listen to others and see if you can do without a fridge it does more than keep beer cold. can you live without constant news or communication home. This list is your to compile but first you have GO and experience cruising.

[mausgras]

All too true

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Stonecutter36

wow Im surprised I ever left !!!! Just Go and dont try to change things till you have to. Dont bite off more than you can ._._._. Ok from ME the first year is the hardest you spend money like your on VACATION and a visa card is gong to have a difficult time to keep up. Year 2 will be an wakening as the bills show up and you haven't left your home sailing grounds and the boat needs some adjustments like solar panels or a practical dingy , maybe the old engine isn't up to the job . year 3 is the real test as you try to live to a cruising budget. You realize that its a life style not a vacation and you don't have to do everything in one day or year. YOU SLOW DOWN ...You sail and save fuel you fish , there are lots of things available to you to live the cruising life style .You need to find out what you can live with and without . A lot of this is up to you listen to others and see if you can do without a fridge it does more than keep beer cold. can you live without constant news or communication home. This list is your to compile but first you have GO and experience cruising.

+1!

Welcome to the forum!

b.

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by Stonecutter36

This list is your to compile but first you have GO and experience cruising.

Thanks for all the replies. As the title of the post says it is 'tropical' cruising suggestions that we are looking for.

Cruising and sailing - well I have 8 years full-time experience and getting on towards 100k miles - been to Rio once but otherwise all mid to high latitudes. Tropical is very different to high latitude as I have learnt in my brief excursions into tropical waters.

[Goosebumps]

Originally Posted by Stonecutter36

wow Im surprised I ever left !!!! Just Go and dont try to change things till you have to. Dont bite off more than you can ._._._. Ok from ME the first year is the hardest you spend money like your on VACATION and a visa card is gong to have a difficult time to keep up. Year 2 will be an wakening as the bills show up and you haven't left your home sailing grounds and the boat needs some adjustments like solar panels or a practical dingy , maybe the old engine isn't up to the job . year 3 is the real test as you try to live to a cruising budget. You realize that its a life style not a vacation and you don't have to do everything in one day or year. YOU SLOW DOWN ...You sail and save fuel you fish , there are lots of things available to you to live the cruising life style .You need to find out what you can live with and without . A lot of this is up to you listen to others and see if you can do without a fridge it does more than keep beer cold. can you live without constant news or communication home. This list is your to compile but first you have GO and experience cruising.

Great post! To think that going to liveaboard is going to resolve all the negatives, probkems in your life is very dangerous. Liveaboard is exactly that living aboard a boat adding the problems that come with that life to the others. I am sure that is why so many liveaboard attempts fail. The point you make about being able to go without a fridge. A point that is extremely valid for us poor liveaboards. I find I hardly ever use fridge, although I have a 50 liter freezer and a 50 liter fridge and very good charging of batteries systems.

More than fridge/freezer your boat's ventilation will be important in the tropics, my Cata,ac 10m has 8 removable windows and 4 hatches, 4 mounted 12V ventilators and two mobile ones. Capture the wind to enter via the hatches and push out that hot air. Airconditioning is only for those large yachts with washing machines or fir those liveaboards who mount a common cheap house unit and plug into AC in their marina.

So why on earth does anybody go liveaboard? it is one of your ten tropical liveaboard requirements to answer that fir yourself and cope either in marinas, applies even more when you live on the hook in isolated tropical environments.

[El Pinguino]

I was just passing through... I don't do hot... however...
I didn't make a lot of changes... the dodgy Westerly fridge insulation - designed to keep beer warm in an English winter - served well enough... always had cold beer, never had to run engine to make lectricity.
Bought a 2nd fan... still haven't fitted it.
Planned to make a windsail... never got around to it.

What I did do was buy a bimini in Anto.... about $2 or $3 ... worked good... trim for time of day... ( looks a bit RG but it was the only colour they had )

Apart from that....... long sleeved loose fitting shirts... lots of pisco sour ( still have 2 x 1 litres ).... big hat ( Araphats are good).....nada mas.

[JPA Cate]

After all this time, i"m wondering where "little chay" is???????

Sorry to be brash, but we're leaving soon, and I want to know where all my chicks are!

Ann

[El Pinguino]

A few weeks ago he was in Puerto Aguire.... probly somewhere in Corcovado just now or maybe Valdivia... he called in today..ask him....

[El Pinguino]

and also... Araphats... ARPANSA - UV Resource Guide - Frillneck UTE Products

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

After all this time, i"m wondering where "little chay" is???????
Ann

Hi, We are in Valdivia. The plan had been to leave from here for Polynesia this month but we have to haul out and do some engine / transmission repairs. So now the plan is to stay here for the winter as I have to go to Cape Town for a refit job to make some pennies.

We'll remodel the plan after I get back at the end of August.

We did make a kind of binimi whilst holed up waiting for some good weather. It has done an excellent job of keeping the rain off, hopefully it'll work well for the Sun too. Otherwise the heater has been excellent

Never had a warm beer problem either, until now as the water here is about 25 C!!!! But here in Valdiva there are a couple of excellent German style breweries and the red wine is fine at room temperature !!

Where are you off to Ann?

[RuskinDiver]

Originally Posted by SailRedemption

We use this at our yard in New Orleans, South Lake Pontchartrain to keep the gnats off. Also, Victoria secret love amber or love romance or whatever it's called(it's a gold amber body spray) works well too. These don't work for our mosquitos too much, good ol DEET spray is better.

But Skin so soft is the best! You can get big bottles of it at dollar stores I believe.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

If I am not mistaken, skin-so-soft now also comes in bottles with DEET.

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by RuskinDiver

If I am not mistaken, skin-so-soft now also comes in bottles with DEET.

Is Skin-so-soft available anywhere outside of the US (and Europe?) I've never seen it.

Chris

[Hudson Force]

"Skin So Soft" is an Avon product. You might look for it under that manufacturer's name. I always found it effective with the gnats ("no-see-ums") and not much at repeling the mosquitos or biting flies.

[kas_1611]

Avon Skin-so-soft is the product of choice of that tough bunch of soldiers HM Royal Marines who have found it extremely effective against the Scottish Midge. The Midge being the particularly vicious cousin of the "noseeum" that is found in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland between Jan 1 and Dec 31.

If it's effective against the Highland Midge it will be effective against most other beasties in warmer parts of the world.

DEET has the unfortunate side effect of melting plastic and synthetic fibres plus the West African Mosquito appears to have developed a taste for the stuff. Well that's my experience having only been bitten once in Angola whilst coated in DEET based repellent. Damn things were swarming around me but left my untreated colleague alone. Stopped wearing the stuff and never bitten again in 3 years.

Keiron

[El Pinguino]

A diet of garlic and curry gets rid of mossies.....they'll bugger off and bother some lesser mortal....