36mmthick

For me an electronic charting system is necessary today. I depended on oursystem many times, generally when visual and radar observations were notadequate. The key is to use charts that you believe are the most accurate. As aresult, I now favor British Admiralty ARCS charts. You know you are seeing all theinformation that there is on the paper chart (like depths). I use the MaxSeaprogram, but several programs will handle ARCS charts. I also have paper chartsas backup, just in case. To minimize complete duplication I try to get theelectronic charts in as much detail as possible, but depend upon chartlets in pilotbooks to provide the paper details, assuming good pilot books are available.We made as many arrangements as possible in advance: reservations with marinasfor berths, yards for haul-out, and our airline flight tickets for home. One of themost tricky aspects is arranging for crew to join and depart. This requires acommitment to a schedule, but we never caused anyone to miss a flight. Arrangingall of our affairs at home so they proceed without our attention for months on endrequires planning and many strategies. I did not figure a way to avoid going hometo do income taxes, however! We chose a marine insurance company that kept usinsured all the way around the world.I created my own passage planning and daily log forms. These provided me witha wealth of information. For every day sail or passage I developed a passageplan in advance with all the waypoints identified from start to finish and thenentered them into the GPS. These were adjusted while underway if theconditions required. It also assisted many times in entering ports in difficultconditions (at night, rough conditions and even sand storms).Provisioning for one to three months is an art into itself. Heatherdeveloped her skills well, and we always had plenty to eat and drink,even in the most remote areas of the world. We depended upon localstores and markets, but these vary widely in what is available. So weprovisioned when we could, and calculated usage requirements well.We carry clothes and gear for all weather conditions and shorerequirements. Plus, as Escapade has been our house for half thetime, we have all the things that make her a home. I had to raisethe waterline, because of this and all the spares.Often non-sailors ask if we had any bad weather or if wewere ever afraid. In general, the weather was greatmost of the time. We even had minimal rain.Remember, the typical route is in the tropics andin the good seasons. Once, we did get into aforce 10 storm between Fiji and Newwww.oystermarine.com 13