What necessary (Or comfort/luxury) supplies do you suggest for a blue-water passage?

[argonauta1]

Hi, your approach is really not the way it works. As you are new to sailing, you need to learn as much as possible from someone else's experience. Best way is for you and your partner to get down to the Caribbean or indeed the Annapolis area and take a course on a keel boat. At the same time you need to take a basic sailing course on a sailing dinghy (maybe a 420) It has a foresail, and get your White Sail Level 3. Now all of a sudden, you will have experience controlling a vessel at all points of sail without an engine. Once you have done this prep stuff, you will know the answers to most of the questions you pose here. As well, you will have developed sailing contacts and indeed friends who will provide more guidance. Good luck.

[marcus02]

About the longest passage available is Panama to the Marquesas-40 days(ish). But the odds are you aren't going to ever do that passage and depending on where you start 5 day day non-stop will be it. You need lots of power (amps) and water. That requires room-45ft boat.

[DHLyman]

Learn to sail before you invest in any boat. Charter. Sail OPB. On Other People’s boats, read, sail with experienced skippers on as many different boats as you can. That way you’ll learn what boat and what gear to bring along. You may find one or both of you are not cut out for life aboard.

[Sofa King Fishy]

As you’re using US measurements (feet), I’m guessing you’re stateside? Sign up with OPO and do a week long sail. That’s like going to Bluewater boot camp, and you’ll have a much better idea as to what the experience entails.
I do not work for them. I am a member, and also a fulltime liveaboard sailor.
Google Offshore Passage Opportunities

[Auspicious]

"The big boats get the glory but the small boats make the sailor."

That doesn't mean you have to buy a small boat, but spend some time in classes on boats like J/22 before buying something. Small boats respond more quickly so you learn faster.

I don't think you are up to asking good questions yet. That's okay.

"Supplies" connotes things like provisions and spares which I suspect is not what you mean. Your watermaker example suggests you mean systems.

My list for me:

Good integrated navigation with an architecture so that one failure does not take everything down. Back up navigation or two. "If we get lost we'll just pull in somewheres and ask directions" is not a good strategy. Pay special attention to autopilot.

Good fridge and separate freezer with its own compressor. For long term cruising we find freezer space is more important than fridge space. We have two freezers and one fridge.

Heat. Forced air diesel is our choice. We aren't trade winds sailors.

Cooling. Realistically means a generator for A/C. Cruising doesn't have to be camping.

Good beds and good bedding.

Reliable heads.

HF/SSB/Pactor. Satellite comms are not yet measuring up.

Really good DVM.

Skills:

Learn to cook - not just heat things. You can't find mayo but have oil and eggs. What do you do? No frozen fries but there are potatoes? No boneless skinless chicken breasts but you can buy a chicken dead and plucked; now what?

Line handling - splice at least three-strand, the four or five most helpful knots/hitches, care.

Boat handling - not just sails but warping, anchoring, close quarters maneuvering under power.

Basic mechanical and electrical skills. Read manuals. What, for example, is the basic function of a fridge thermostat?

I know I've left out a lot of things.

[redhead]

Hi - what you want can be done - hell, I've done it - just not in the order you'd like.

When I was sitting in my living room wanting to live aboard and sail around the world, I had a long list of things I needed. That's a good thing, it meant I read all the material available, almost never a mistake.

When we bought this boat and rented the house and moved across the continent to start the dream, I had a long list of the things I needed. That's also a good thing, except my list was based on other people's lists, so not all of my list fit me or my boat.

Now we've been aboard for six years and I have (yep) a long list of things I need. But wait, the list has changed. I now have practical knowledge of my boat, of myself as a sailor, of my unexpected strengths and unexpected limitations.

Guess what? Instead of a circumnavigation, I could spend the next 20 years (fingers crossed) finding out all about the Pacific Northwest from the Columbia bar up to Alaska. I no longer dream of Vanuatu, OK maybe a little, but am living my life watching the seasons, working on our old boat, sailing north most years seeing bears, and eagles and whales.

We bought a little camper and will go get warm this winter.

Dreams change. Right now yours, like mine was, is based on other people's dreams. There is one huge difference though - I already knew how to sail when I started this. I know it's not what you want to hear, but you must learn to sail or you will never, never, never leave the dock. Many boats in our marina haven't left the dock in the six years we've been here.

You absolutely can do this. But if you made the list today of essential things, I can almost guarantee it won't look anything like your list once you're aboard. Good luck to you!

[caffel]

Baby Wipes.
Never go cruising or camping without them.

[thataway41]

You are getting a lot of advice, but have a very long way to go before you can ever think of "casting off". I have to ask one question: are you hands on to repair any system on your boat, or do without it? Then you can answer what is essential to take. You have to be able to have all essential systems working. I followed an older couple who had less than $10,000 "invested" in boat about 25 feet long, and sailed it to the South Pacific. No engine--they fitted oars. A simple set of two sails. I think they even carried water in jugs. Not my idea of cruising, but they made it. (some other boats that same year disappeared, so this is not without some risk)

You have already shown yourselves to be adaptable and comfortable with minimalist living, so that is in your favor.

What I would do (I have been skippering boats for over 70 years, and about 200,000+ miles at sea, but there are many who have more experience than I have), is to buy a trailerable sail boat, which can safely make coastal passages, but large enough to "live aboard for several weeks". Bring this boat to Lake Meade and begin to sail and learn about systems on boats. As you do this read as much as you can about long distance sailing, include heavy weather sailing, and include books on boat construction and maintenance. After some time of sailing, then trailer the boat to the coast, and start exploring the Channel Islands. We used to take our "new to us" sailboats up around Point Conception and spend a couple of days at sea "shaking down" after spending a few days on the way in the Channel Islands. Then you might want to try the Inland Passage to AK--easy to do in a small trailerable boat.

The ideal boat for this might be the Nor"Sea 27. Unfortunately the cheapest one of these is about $25,000, well equipped , but no trailer. There are a number of trailerable sailboats, such as the Coronado 25, original Cal 24 (centerboard) or Lapworth 24 (Fixed keel--the Boat Robin Lee Graham started with when he was 16 for around the World) which are 8' beam and trailerable. These are often in the sub $5,000 range in reasonable condition. There are a lot of other trailerable boats, such as McGreagor, Venture which have swing keels or water ballast and I don't consider as "sea worthy" but can do fine on Lake Meade and get you into sailing at a reasonable price. Any boat with over 8 1/2 foot beam will require a permit to trailer. There are a number of other cheap available sub 30 foot boats which can be trailered.

Finally there is a real bargain in sailing material: That is dated by timeless books by Steve Dashew for free in PDF version: http://https://setsail.com/free-books/. Read and study these epic books.

[gamayun]

Not having read all the posts this might be redundant, but two pricey items to get from a safety standpoint are a good EPIRB and 4-man liferaft. The latter you don't want to pull the trigger on until you're absolutely certain of going more than 100 miles offshore. Athough they're not a bad item to have for sailing closer to land, the EPIRB would likely ensure a speedy recovery if the boat should flounder. Unless you have crew, anything larger than a 4-man capacity would be too much raft.

[Oceanspirit1]

Hi
Like you I did a lot of dreaming before starting out. I started late in life so missed the dinghy & trailer sailers & my first boat was a 34ft monohull that I bought off my sailing teacher. She was a great teacher, with the course pitched at cruising rather than racing. I learnt a lot from her which gave me the basic knowledge which I built on in a good safe place to learn to sail, in Central Queensland. I progressed to a 40ft which I used for charter work, again sailing in the same area.

I wanted to get further afield & do some blue water sailing. I now have a 34ft blue water boat that is strong, simple & sea worthy & on to the next stage, building experience as I go.

As JPACate says there are lots of books available & I can suggest a few that I found useful for finding the information you want or at least point you in the right direction. For an overview and some good pointers have a look at Get Real Get Gone by Rick Page which has got some great ideas on how to achieve the dream particularly if you are on a tight budget (disclaimer: I met Rick after I bought my boat here & have become friends but I don’t get a cut &#128522. Any of Lin & Larry Pardey’s books, Tom Cunliffe’s books have some great information pitched at different levels & Nigel Calder for maintenance.

What boat to get depends a lot on what you want to do with her, your budget & level of comfort you want amongst other things. Remember the more things you have on board the more there is to break & as someone else pointed you being able to maintain whatever you have is important.

Good luck with your quest & follow your dreams 😊

[CatNewBee]

The necessary stuff is easy. A boat, safety gear to the code for offshore cruising, food, water, fuel, first aid kit, medicaments you need, documents to cross borders.

It is a long list, what gear a boat must have. PFDs with lights and whistles, harnesses for all person on board, life raft, grab bag, signalling stuff like flares, mirror, light, dan buoy, fire extinguishers, manual navigation gear (charts, hand compas...) leak plugs, buckets to drain the bilge manually if necessary, rigg cutter, sailor knive to cut lines if necessary, SOLAS electronic aids like EPIRB, communication devices... The list is really long.

Comfort is another beast. Watch some YT sailing channels and decide what you like to have too on board.

[Curryfrog]

It's a common enough question, but I really think you have this the wrong way round.
For what it's worth...
Learn how to sail in a dinghy. If you make a mistake in a dinghy, you will know about it. This is not the same in a keelboat. Likewise, when you get it right in a dinghy, you will feel the exhilaration and satisfaction - you won't forget how to do that when you sail a keelboat.
I have watched people sailing in and out of berths. You can spot dinghy sailors. They just get it right.

Basically, learn how to sail. It's all about sailing. The rest is camping.

[GerryL]

I don’t have an answer to your question, but I wanted to comment to agree with those that suggested to start sailing with a small boat now. 2 years ago when my wife and I were both 55, we decided that we might like to sail in our retirement. But alas, neither of us had any experience. So we researched, bought the books, read online. Then we bought a Montgomery 17 with a broken rig. We brought it into our shop and had it almost like new by June of last year, then sailed every day we could into October. I believe we had 60+ days out sailing in that timeframe. The weather cooperated for our self learning; it started off gentle in June, and by September we were sailing off the mooring with 2 reefs in 18-20mph winds. But the Montgomery is a very stable boat. And this was fresh water with no swell or big waves. The next step was to see if we liked ocean sailing. Yesterday we just got back from a 6 day coastal Maine sailing course. This was a live aboard course including an overnight sail with 3 hour watches. We loved the experience and found it invaluable. Any way, that’s where we are at. I think you will have more chance of success if you learn the basics of sailing on a small boat with low risk. Learning on a big boat may be a bit overwhelming, not to say that it can’t be done or others haven’t done it. I just prefer to try to set my stage for success and stack the deck in my favor. And part of that also involves trying to not let my wife get scared off. Good luck with the plan! ⛵️

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by TheNomadicAspie

Ideally we would like to spend no more than 20-30k including the boat, repairs, and whatever supplies we would need to get started. If we could get to the point where we lived on the boat spending no more than that, we would be happy.

We do have a lake nearby (Lake Mead) and were thinking of getting a boat and bringing it there to learn and work on over time. Just not sure though because from what I've read, Lake Mead has some strong winds and I've heard mixed things about sailing on it. A lot of people say not to do it, so I don't know if it would be a good environment as a beginner. We live in Vegas, so California isn't too far of a drive to buy a boat, but it wouldn't be convenient to drive back and forth all the time since it's a 4-5 hour drive each way, and it's not possible to sail from Lake Mead through the Colorado River without a 10 year wait to get a special permit, so I don't know if it's worth spending thousands of dollars to transport it back and forth and haul it out.

What we wanted to do is buy a cheaper boat for 5-6k and learn to work on it over the next year or so, we're just not sure if we should bring it to Lake Mead or just commit to driving to California occasionally. We figure if we end up deciding sailing isn't for us, we'll know before we spend too much money and should be able to recoup most of our costs.

We may just do what others have suggested and buy a cheap 1-2k smaller boat, but we'd really like to invest our time and money learning how to work on and sail the boat we will end up living on long term. We're not sure though, a smaller/cheaper boat may be a possibility if it would be cheaper and easier to get one on Lake Mead. We're just not sure yet what the best option is.

Thanks for the link, I'll read through that now.

As others have suggested, you have a great deal to learn before you can even ask the right questions. Your budget seems unrealistic if you want to get into things like watermakers and a boat large enough to have such things. We had a watermaker for our circumnavigation but rarely used it. Most boats that circumnavigate don't even have one. Water conservation goes a long way and water is available everywhere and either free or cheap. You can even catch rainwater for most needs. Unfortunately budgets are a reality and you need to shape your boat choice to your budget rather than the other way around. Best to find a boat that has the gear you need/want rather than add it. A watermaker, liferaft, and EPIRB would easily be $10k and there are lots of other things you need.

Get a copy of Jimmy Cornel's World Cruising Routes book to get a sense of when you can go where in the world, i.e. don't be in particular chunk of ocean during these months when cyclones happen. Look for a used, early edition, not too many changes between editions. Once you know that you can start to decide where you might want to go and how much it might cost to go there. Some places are quite cheap and some pricey, Australia is a good example of the latter. In most areas you can anchor for free (need good ground tackle which can be expensive). Planning really helps.

[NormanMartin]

Hello. Lots of good advice here, in my opinion.

My parents were lifelong cruisers of the US East Coast and Bahamas. They always marveled at the variety of boats and people out cruising. That is/was part of the charm. Mom used an expression, "high hopes cruisers" to describe those who bought a boat up North, cruised South and dumped the boat in Florida to return home saying, "never again." Failure is possible. Success, it probably helps to like camping.

The cost of cruising is a very important aspect. You should have a budget, Plan A.

You can look the topic up on YouTube and the current edition of Latitudes and Attitudes has a good article by the couple on s/v Florence. Mom and dad used to point out that it is pretty much like your expenses in a house.

Hope you have a grand adventure.