I sailed a Hobie 18 Magnum (with wings) from Galveston to
Mexico Solo, and for any long open
water trip I highly recommend the wings. They save my back and also give you a place to lash down things you may need and can't get to on the other side or middle of the boat. I also mounted a
compass on a board (wood) and drilled holes at each corner to tie it clear of any metal. I wish I had had one on each wing. It was a real help when I could not get to my
Loran...like
GPS today. Another thing I highly recommend is to install a second set
of stays on your
mast. I have de-masted from bad stays twice and didn't want to repeat this out in the
Gulf of Mexico. A new
mast tang mounted above the one that is there, then run a stay to each bow, making a spare on each side if the
jib fails and the others just aft of the existing ones on the
hull. I left these a little loose so the original
equipment was supporting the load...but if on broke, the mast would stay erect. I also got a
radar reflector and had it at run up a separate line, just incase I was out after dark (which I was for over 6 hours one night). Another neat thing I came up with was a Dry bag to carry all of my survival
equipment. This was an old waterbed. It, when cut up fit across the front of the trampoline and with a dozen or so grommets and parachute
shroud lines, well it worked great, keep everything dry for just over one week, and my lines didn't get tangled up in it. One other thing, that really saved me a lot of headache was a hole drilled in my
dagger boards. With a piece of
wood Dow you can insure your boards will not drop down if you are crossing a reef, or running up on the beach somewhere. I used 2
solar showers for
drinking water and had them tied on to the boat, as was everything that could get dumped in a
pitch pole event, and kept them inside the waterbed. You might also consider a
capsize event and how to right the boat alone if one person gets injured. I sailed alone, so I figured a way to drop the mast while capsized and could recover it and the
sails. Luck was with me and I did/t have to do it...but I could in a survival mode if necessary. If you have any questions I can sure try to answer them from my trip. Just think every move through, and plan on an average speed of 4*5 knots...anything more is gravy but pushing the envelope could ruin a great trip.
Good luck and I wish I were sailing with you.
ps. Check your cross bars...I found a major crack under the rear cross bar which had it not been found could have ruined my trip. You will have to pull both cross bars off the boat to inspect them. The crack was between the hull and on the bottom of the crossbar.
Dwane
dwane@towersafe.com
I was just camping two weekends ago with my 
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