BVI trip with 10 month old

[glunden]

Hello everyone,

I am a weekend warrior and generally do day sails on the weekend in New England. My wife is wonderful and agreed to head to the BVIs this winter for a Sunday-Friday cruise with our daughter who will be 10 months at that point. We will be going with my brother in law and his girlfriend. So 4 adults and one baby.

Many relatives/friends think we are crazy to bring her, but we want share this vacation/adventure as a family.

We are chartering a 42' mono-hull.

Does anyone have recommendations of what to bring to keep the baby happy, cool, protected from the sun? Any recomendations on chairs, life jackets, etc.?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Garrett

[MarkJ]

If you have a baby you should remain in hospital in till its old enough to survive. 18 to 20, but maybe 30 years old with modern coddled children.

[glunden]

Considering I didn't get much help here I started a YouTube channel for this. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDc...tgViTTQbM42yfQ

[kcj]

We did it 25 years ago-- took our then 9 month old to Greece bare boating. It was great! Nothing special, food water and diapers, as I recall. You do lose a crew to the kid sitting duties. Kid is all grown up now, but refuses to acknowledge having been to Greece. Key was she was not walking yet. Did a Bahamas trip 9 months later that did not go so well--cling-on stage. But live aboards do it all the time.

[Larry Florida]

What is your plan if the boat Sinks?

All I can say is be very conservative. All is good until it ain't

[Sailmon]

Our girls - now 25 and 27 years old both started sailing with us on Lake Erie (know for unpredictable weather and turning ugly very quickly due to shallow depth) at age 4 months. At that time we were doing annual 2 week vacations on a Tanzer 25 - loaded with diapers, bottles ,formula... We all have great memories of those years - the places we visited, the people who offered us their car keys...
In terms of equipment and preparation - it's the usual hat with chin strap, SPF 50, diapers, food, treats, toys... We also took along a rocky seat (fabric over plastic frame) that we strapped down in companion way. Life jackets at all times above deck of course. They make really cute baby size PDFs. Once the girls started walking, we added harness and teather. Rule was "you are not allowed to go forward of the shrouds while under way". They were pretty independent and developed wonderfully natural sealegs. Chartering in the BVI, you will be towing a dinghy - which can serve as lifeboat if heaven forbid you lose the boat from under you. Good to keep waterproof VHF and cell phone in dry bag handy. Rescue is always close at hand in that area (probably good idea to skip Annagada). Have a ball.
Bob

[glunden]

Originally Posted by kcj

We did it 25 years ago-- took our then 9 month old to Greece bare boating. It was great! Nothing special, food water and diapers, as I recall. You do lose a crew to the kid sitting duties. Kid is all grown up now, but refuses to acknowledge having been to Greece. Key was she was not walking yet. Did a Bahamas trip 9 months later that did not go so well--cling-on stage. But live aboards do it all the time.

Thanks KCG!

[glunden]

Originally Posted by Sailmon

Our girls - now 25 and 27 years old both started sailing with us on Lake Erie (know for unpredictable weather and turning ugly very quickly due to shallow depth) at age 4 months. At that time we were doing annual 2 week vacations on a Tanzer 25 - loaded with diapers, bottles ,formula... We all have great memories of those years - the places we visited, the people who offered us their car keys...
In terms of equipment and preparation - it's the usual hat with chin strap, SPF 50, diapers, food, treats, toys... We also took along a rocky seat (fabric over plastic frame) that we strapped down in companion way. Life jackets at all times above deck of course. They make really cute baby size PDFs. Once the girls started walking, we added harness and teather. Rule was "you are not allowed to go forward of the shrouds while under way". They were pretty independent and developed wonderfully natural sealegs. Chartering in the BVI, you will be towing a dinghy - which can serve as lifeboat if heaven forbid you lose the boat from under you. Good to keep waterproof VHF and cell phone in dry bag handy. Rescue is always close at hand in that area (probably good idea to skip Annagada). Have a ball.
Bob

Thanks Bob, really helpful!

[glunden]

Hello everyone,

I realized that I never reported back on this trip from 2017. It was amazing and we have wonderful memories of visiting the BVIs with our daughter who was 10 months old at the time (before the hurricanes later that same year) .

We even had pretty heavy seas (4-8 ft) the whole time we were there with 20-30 kt wind. The monohull we chartered was awesome and had 2 reefing points for the main and furling head sail.

Keys to a successful sailing charter with <1 year old:

- Extra adults to share holding the baby (we had 4 total including my wife and I)
- summer weight baby bjorn carrier. she was always with someone in the baby carrier when we were under way
- guava family travel crib with camping straps to lash the crib to the berth
- infant life jacket (people thought we were crazy but we actually floated her in to the baths)
- inflatable rubber ducky bath tub for evening baths
- baby hats and rash guards for sun protection
- lots of baby sunscreen

Let me know if anyone out there has questions! We now have a 2nd daughter and are thinking about another trip for winter 2019.

[john61ct]

Inspiring!

[belizesailor]

Did a charter with friends years ago with a 20 month old. GF and I had no baby-sitting responsiblities....I learned that one 20 month old versus 2 adults is just barely fair odds...it was amusing for us, but not so much for them! Good idea that you brought along reinforcements.[emoji28]