With multiple demands, all important to our trip, priorities have been categorized into three ranked groups: 1) Kandu preparations, 2) skipper and crew skills training, and 3) multimedia production.
Kandu Preparations: Getting Kandu ready, is divided further into three ranked categories: a) below deck necessities, b) above deck necessities, and c) nice-to-haves, things to work on as we have time between now and October. The only other aspect of Kandu’s prep is an August haul out when we’ll replace the through-hulls (bronze ball valves that let seawater in or exhaust waters out) that are freezing up due to age and corrosion, and we’ll add a couple more coats of bottom paint to help inhibit marine growth on the hull. Anything floating in the ocean becomes host to a myriad of sea life, all of which negatively impact Kandu’s ability to glide through the water, slowing her down and making ocean passages longer.
Skipper and Crew Skills Training: Sailing Kandu’s various sails, navigation, anchoring and docking, safety drills and first aid, marine weather, radio and satellite communications, port departure and arrival documentation (vessel documentation, liability insurance, crew list and doc’s, ship’s inventory list; all in English, Spanish, and French) and creating a boat maintenance calendar. Safety drills include; fire, water entry, medical emergency, crew overboard recovery, and abandon ship. First aid training includes learning how to stitch an open wound, administer an IV, and administering a catheter. Communications includes email via high frequency radio and single sideband radio, and text via satellite messenger.
Multimedia Production: Producing and maintaining a YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram feeds, trip blog, and educational partnerships with various middle school classrooms as well as youth chapters within the American Numismatic Association. As part of producing our YouTube channel, we’ll have to learn how to use our quad-copter (drone) to capture compelling establishing shots.
We hope to have Kandu ready by the end of June, have our skills ready six weeks after that, and use the remaining time to get our production channels up before our October 28th San Diego departure with the Baja Ha-ha Rally. One step at a time, day by day, first things first, everything is going to be okay . . . .
On preparation; yes being ” lucky” is where preparation and opportunity meet ~ anything else is pure chance. Having good old common sense can help us wing it as life really is a series of glorious opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations!