Best boat for extended quarantine

[BlackHeron]

Wish we had a watermaker and refrigeration. But we can easily go 3 weeks+ without touching land if we needed to. This boat has crossed the Atlantic a number of times. But so far we have found places to get water and ice in lockdown here on the hook in SC right off the AICW. But we don't really need ice. It is a luxury. If it weren't for keeping the almond milk cold after opening the shelf-stable cartons, the leftovers from meals, and helping fresh veggies last a little longer we don't really need it. We don't eat meat here. People sailed the oceans long before refrigeration was invented.

Pumpout has been available too since this all started. But we could always go to the bucket "composting toilet" backup system, since we have the media just in case. Thank goodness it hasn't come to that.

We just bought groceries today for the first time in a month. Have been out of fresh veggies for a week now, but we could have gone much, much longer if we had to. Things could very well get much worse in the coming weeks so why deplete the stores unnecessarily?

[contrail]

A comfortable place to sit and lounge.

[Telemark43]

I keep two electric blankets, one full size, one much smaller, takes care of that time when below and want to just read before sleep, and then sleep... power draw is minimal and just heats that area just by you...

Originally Posted by Chotu

I think having everything above is good. Large tankage and the water maker. Because that water maker may malfunction. And then you are done.

Sitting here at anchor on my 50 foot Gulfstar Sailmaster now loaded to the gills with non-perishable food, a super reliable northern lights generator, solar to power the refrigerator and freezer Above regular electrical needs, 350 gallons of water, 200 gallons of diesel, and this thing just sits here like a rock no matter what comes at it. I’m kind of enjoying it.

Brand new sails Means I don’t need to motor anywhere so the diesel can go to the generator instead. When needed. And it is needed right now. It’s going to be 35° tonight and I don’t have a diesel heater. LOL I have electric oil filled radiator heaters for the moment on this thing. That’s the one place it’s falling a little short. Ha ha

But I was thinking, this thing could really be a great extended quarantine boat. And that’s exactly what I’m using it for. I have enough to go half the summer right now. I have to make one stop this summer for diesel and water and to replenish whatever else. The rest of the time I don’t need to go ashore.

I grabbed my small portable gasoline generator to add in case the diesel is down, instead of the 30 pounds of propane it already has, I added an extra 30 pounds for a total of 60 pounds propane, I have 25 gallons of gasoline for the small generator, two Outboards for the tender that don’t work. LOL I need to get onto that project first.

Composting head so I don’t need to worry about pump outs and all of that stuff.

The Internet, books, games, fishing equipment to pull in fish while on quarantine.

The knowledge to make nearly anything available to eat from scratch here in the galley. And here is what my galley storage looks like. There’s a lot more of it, but here are some pictures.

Just made that bread yesterday because I ran out of store bread already. Only had one loaf on hand and ate a lot of it because I was moving all of this stuff into the boat.

I have about 10 pounds of meat to can over the next couple days as well.

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by CaptRehab

Missed one.
Plenty of cooking gas

Correct that solar/wind for power and a watermaker reduces the need for tank storage. Having both is luxury

Agreed that the Kindle is a fantastic thing to have aboard and saves weight too!

You forgot the rum and beer

[Lake-Effect]

Some quarantine boat ideas:

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Telemark43

I keep two electric blankets, one full size, one much smaller, takes care of that time when below and want to just read before sleep, and then sleep... power draw is minimal and just heats that area just by you...

Yeah, that’s a good one. Good idea.

This 1200 mile journey and all of this provisioning was a little bit rushed. Sleeping bags work very well also.

I’ve been just sleeping in a sleeping bag without any heat. I can go down to 35° no problem. It’s just those early morning moments or a little bit in the evening before bed.

Plus I came up from 90+ degree weather to this only a couple days ago. LOL trying to adjust, thankfully this is where I am from originally. Easier to adjust for me than the heat.

[jmschmidt]

The Pacific Princess. All the food and booze is free.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

The Pacific Princess. All the food and booze is free.

And all the COVID you want...

Jim

[Hoodsail]

Boat with good ventilation when it begins to heat up here in New England. A small fan at each birth too...a place to safely store my highly processed food (eg twinkies, hostess cupcakes, energy bars, and pudding cups). I love stuff that wont expire until mid 2020’s...so a Bristol 35.5...all manual so get my exercise by raising/lowering the main, tacking the gennie, pumping out the head, and pulling up the 15 kg anchor...oh, and a CNG stove, my tanks are about 2x size of a scuba tank. Happy staying in place to all...

[Island Time O25]

A nice electric knife sharpener. Don't leave (land)home without it.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by dwedeking2

Zombies can't swim... just sayin'

Zombies don't get or give COVID-19 either.

Okay, so how about a cozy home with a moat during the quarantine. Pull up the draw bridge for maintaining social isolation.

Sailing is my favorite pastime but would not want to be stuck at anchor or mooring, like a bump on the log, and not being able to transit or disembark; there comes a time when you got to stretch your legs and reprovision and walk a beach.

Actually, considering going to our remote mountain retreat cabins by have to wait for the snow to finish melting and will need to bring a chain saw to remove some downed trees blocking the roadway and fire up the bulldozer to push out some large boulders that have fallen from the cliff onto the gravel roadway. The rocks are too large to move by hand or tow with my 4X4 truck. Have to wait until the end of May to launch the larger sailboat so as to have adequate depth in the marina from the Spring freschet.

Would rather to be chartering a sailboat in the tropics in March then spending late winter in Montana but with the lockdown that didn't avail itself.

Stay safe and healthy all.

[letsgetsailing3]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Some quarantine boat ideas:

Not enough social distancing.

[chris mac]

Well, we are in our first season of cruising. We are aboard a lagoon 42 tpi. Our interior storage space is fantastic, we stocked over 3 months worth of food before heading to Bahamas. With restocking, we still have at least 2 months on board. New 840 amp battery bank with 750 watt solar, means power is no issue. Rainman watermaker (110 volt unit) supplies 37 gallons per hour and will run off our 3000 watt inverter.(plus Honda 2200 generator) 6 months of propane on board. And deisel and gas tanks and Jerry cans full.
Plus I bought a case of bahamian rum just 4 days before the first curfew.
We also added a composting toilet just before crossing, it has been essential for reduced movement (pun intended)
We have self isolated for a month now, with only 2 excursions to town for supplies.
Im feeling pretty good with our boat choice, especially with covid thrown in.
However I do need to clean the hull before we attempt to start moving again
Although this is a cat that sails very well, including close hauled, and fast enough that we can catch some mahi on our way back to canada[emoji16]

[Firstbait]

Fresh bread being made is sure-way to attract zombies be careful.

[Auspicious]

Some people keep adding failure modes and more fragile systems. The last time I looked at ARC after-passage reports the two biggest failures were generators and watermakers. I'm by no means a minimalist. I do prefer to build so I can do without a system until I can fix it.

That certainly means no induction cooking. I have absolutely nothing nice to say about that idea.

Originally Posted by BlackHeron

Pumpout has been available too since this all started. But we could always go to the bucket "composting toilet" backup system, since we have the media just in case. Thank goodness it hasn't come to that.

You're fortunate. Lockdowns chased me up the US East Coast on my last delivery. We had no trouble finding fuel. Water and pump-outs were closed.

I have another trip coming up in two weeks (apparently I count as transportation infrastructure for this one - who knew?). Advance research indicates we can expect the same between NC and MD.

It's very possible that I'm missing some pump-out services - I'm only checking facilities with fuel docks. Extra stops on delivery are bad. We're going to be able to pump out before we leave the dock. We may find we have to head offshore specifically to empty tanks.

Long way round to staying on top of the situation where you are so you don't get surprised if pump-outs go away. If you can't dump or pump you might want to reconfigure so you can head out beyond three miles.That may well be more attractive than your bucket option.