When sharing news of our upcoming trip, we are met with enthusiasm and support, and sometimes with a good dose of worry. We have gotten concerned questions about all aspects of safety regarding our journey. I will try to allay some of those fears by addressing the various concerns about:
-Piracy/Theft
-Health and Wellness
-Man overboard/Loss of ship
-Food/Water/Electricity
Today, I will address everyone’s second most pressing concern after piracy – our health and wellness. There are two main situations with which we are dealing. The first is getting reliable medical care while we are in the remote islands of the Caribbean. The second is dealing with medical emergencies during our two long passages (a 650 mile leg – around 6 days- from NC to Bermuda and an 850 mile leg -around 9 days- from Bermuda to the British Virgin Islands). While cruising the US coast, we will have the same access to American doctors and pharmacies as those who live on land. Each night, we will be anchored in a protected harbor and will be a short dinghy ride away from the land, where we can easily get transportation to a hospital, doctor, or pharmacy as needed.
Half of Our First Aid Kit
In order to deal with the other scenarios, we have worked closely with our doctor friends to create a ridiculously thorough first aid kit, some of which is shown here. We started by using the first aid kit list from “Whatcha Gonna Do”, a boat that has been cruising for 2 years in the Pacific. I contacted the owners and they sent me their spreadsheet, which listed every item in their boat having to do with first aid. Their list was exhaustive due to the fact that their long distance passages were up to 22 days at sea, with no land in sight. When you are that far into the Pacific, rescue helicopters can not reach you (no place to refuel), and commercial shipping becomes much more sparse than in the Atlantic. In addition, the islands they visited in French Polynesia and the South Pacific are not known for their state-of-the-art medical facilities…
- A Hospital in Grenada that we will NOT be visiting
I edited their list by taking out all the supplies necessary for performing open heart surgery, treating rare tropical diseases, and other unlikely scenarios. There is a fine line between “prepared” and “overkill” and we don’t have room on our boat for the latter. Our doctor friends then edited the lists further, adding and subtracting items based on our itinerary and our family’s medical history. For example, we will bring charcoal tablets to deal with ciguatera, a food-borne illness contracted from fish found in the Caribbean. We will also bring a glucose monitor to deal with my hypoglycemia and lots of allergy-related items due to Bryson’s history of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. While these issues are very unlikely to become a problem, it was easy enough to add a few items to our arsenal to deal with them if necessary. If you REALLY have nothing better to do, if you are getting ready for a similar trip, or if you are a list-geek like me, click on our page “Provisioning Lists/Reference” for our full list of first aid supplies: http://www.conwaysailors.com/provisioning-listsreference/
Overall, we are very healthy, so we hope to only utilize the hundreds of Band-Aids and bottles of sunscreen we have been stockpiling! Even so, we have included items to deal with seasickness, jellyfish stings, snakebites, broken bones, dental emergencies, and severe infection, in addition to typical “medicine cabinet” items to help with cuts, stomachaches, colds, and burns.
Finally, we met with our acupuncturist to learn how to perform acupuncture on each other. These skills will be incredibly helpful when dealing with pain and trauma due to cuts, muscle strain, bites, stings, and more, including the emotional stresses of life (at sea or not). The lessons put our minds at ease, knowing we would be able to comfort each other while dealing with a minor illness or while seeking professional medical treatment for a bigger issue.
While my CPR and First Aid certificates are now expired, I remember it all well and have the additional training of being a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) member in Ho-Ho-Kus. Our CERT training included first aid and triage as well as firefighting and dealing with chemical and toxic spills, severe weather, and terrorism.
Many people have wondered how we will keep fit. If they only knew how physically demanding sailing and maintaining a boat can be! In addition to working hard while sailing, we will be eating much healthier. Fresh fish, tropical fruits and vegetables picked that day… Yum! Our limited storage space prohibits keeping junk food on board and sadly, our freezer won’t be reliable enough to keep up my “half a pint of haagen-dazs a night” habit. I guess that is a good thing…
We will exercise by swimming, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, rowing, hiking, walking on the beach, doing yoga on deck, paddleboarding, and kayaking. I am especially excited about trying paddleboard yoga. Imagine the balance that can be cultivated by practicing headstands on a floating board! Chris and I will run and we will rent bikes as often as we can.
So take this item off your worry list and keep thinking about pirates until my next installment of ….”Safety At Sea”.
I can’t wait for the food blog :)
I am looking forward to the pictures of paddleboard Yoga….
I have also started to compile a list of “must have’s” for when Dad takes the passage onboard in November. First item: large bag of ” 3 muskateer bars” (for medicinal purposes only), then a box of at least 100 bandaids,a large tube of neosporin, and whatever else he is sure to forget, left on his own to pack. LOL, Kathy
Makes me feel guilty that I can’t even last more than a month or two on Weight Watchers…you go Conway Family….keep inspiring me!