Cruising gadgets, knowledge, and ideas for the cruising sailor
Essential boat items like a siphon hose, a bucket, screen material, and so forth.
Sun Shower – You’ve seen plenty of people recommend this in the past, and that’s because they really work well at both providing warm water, and saving water. My wife likes a warm shower every evening. If we are sitting in an anchorage for days, our hot water that was heater by the engine has gone cold. So we can
» Read moreSandbags for scuppers – This idea came from Ginny Martin aboard THE ABBEY. When it rains, many of us try to catch some fresh water. Sometimes we need to block up a scupper up forward, or, in my case, towards the stern. I’ve made do with rags in the past. Certainly not perfect, but they did ok. Ginny’s idea is
» Read moreYou will find it very useful to have a boat card. Most cruisers out there have these. You will meet so many new people, and you’ll want to recall their names, and their boat names. This is how we all do it. We keep a stack of cards rubber banded together in our nav station. We met one gal who
» Read moreLuggage Scale – Ok, this is not for weighing that huge fish you caught. It’s for weighing your propane tank. We weigh our propane tanks to see how empty they are. This really helps us as the tanks get below half. We “know” instead of “guessing” how much propane is left. Our luggage scale is a handheld digital one, with
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Jiggler Siphon Hose – This ranks near the top of my list of boat gadgets. It is truly a must have. I keep one for fuels, and one for water. I use one to transfer gas or diesel and the other to transfer water. Because there is no balancing act involved, I can even transfer fuel while underway. The
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Propane Transfer Value – This is a small brass value that allows you to transfer propane from your larger 10-20 lb tank to those small green one pound bottles that fit the grill. It means that you don’t have to carry a bunch of these small bottles to last you for the entire cruise. You can buy a few full
» Read moreThe bucket I like is actually one I discovered while “ranch sitting” for a friend in Texas on the Burning B Ranch. It is really a “feed” bucket for hauling chicken or livestock feed. It has a flat side to it so it can be hung on a wall hook back on the ranch. Here’s why it’s the best .
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