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Packing for a Sailing Adventure

September 5, 2013 •

After much antic­i­pa­tion and email plan­ning, we’re head­ing to Des­o­la­tion Sound for a week of sail­ing with friends. One is an expe­ri­enced cap­tain, so we’ve bravely signed up for a bare boat char­ter. (He’s also a for­mer crab fish­er­man!)

Photo of deck shoes for sailboat

Non-mark­ing deck shoes

Com­pil­ing our shop­ping and “must bring” lists has been an adven­ture in its own right.

We’re food­ies, so the generic pro­vi­sions stocked by the char­ter com­pany don’t appeal to us. Instead every­one will bring food and spe­cial ingre­di­ents from home, sup­ple­ment­ing them with fresh meats and veg­eta­bles pur­chased locally. Or crabs we catch while sail­ing off­shore.

Some of us don’t sail on a reg­u­lar basis, so we’ve had to shop for non-mark­ing boat shoes. In the process we’ve learned that the boat­ing apparel indus­try focuses pri­mar­ily on men, with few real choices for women. What’s pro­moted for women as boat shoes, more often than not, are moc­casins designed for fash­ion rather than func­tion. Find­ing and then buy­ing grippy boat shoes (rather than fash­ion moc­casins) on short notice has been a chal­lenge.

We face a 30-degree tem­per­a­ture range in British Colum­bia, from highs around 80° to lows in the 40’s or 50’s. With weather that spans late sum­mer to fall, from sun­shine to rain pro­tec­tion, pack­ing lightly is almost impos­si­ble.

We’re techies, so our elec­tron­ics list is daunt­ing. Beside DSLR cam­eras, binoc­u­lars and marine spe­cialty items, we’re bring­ing:

  • Solar bat­tery charg­ers
  • Sine wave invert­ers (for DC to AC con­ver­sion)
  • Smart­phones and e‑readers
  • Charg­ers for mul­ti­ple devices
  • Blue­tooth key­boards
  • Garmin GPS nav­i­ga­tion devices to get us to the marina in time for our map brief­ing

For leisure activ­i­ties we’re also bring­ing:

  • Yoga mats
  • Snor­kel­ing gear
  • Kayak­ing gear
  • Bird­watch­ing resources

And foul weather gear, just in case.

Wish us luck!

Sadly, my new deck shoes are fuch­sia. Not my pref­er­ence, but the only grippy boat shoes avail­able online in my size. Why is it that male-ori­ented brands default to offer­ing wom­en’s ver­sions in pink? When will brand man­agers wise up to the fact that women are more nuanced and sophis­ti­cated than lit­tle girls?

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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