She's an Allied Luders 33, 33' long with a 10' beam and a 5' draft built in 1971, hull 98, so there's not a lot of space for stuff. That's especially true when you consider all the gear I need to take for an extended voyage. I'll write more about the gear I'll be taking later, but right now I'm working on getting rid of all the stuff I can't take. I'm going to send important papers, photos, etc., to my sister for safe keeping, and will send my brother a bunch of books -- he's taking a programming class in C++, so I'm going to send him most of my library. I'm going to end up giving away most of my furniture and excess clothes. I have to be out by next Thursday, so I'm running out of time.
I'm living in Manhattan right now, and the trip out to Huntington on the LIRR takes about an hour and a half, each way, so other than going down occasionally to bring stuff out to the boat and pickup gear that I had shipped to the boat yard, I try to stay in town and do what I can here. Basically, that consists of some packing and sorting, but also making sure all my accounts and paper work is in order, e.g., passport, Coast Guard Documentation for the boat, FCC licenses, etc. I'm also doing a bunch of research to make sure I have everything I need and ordering a few things, like charts and and safety gear.
Some recent purchases include, an EPIRG, Jordan series drogue, survival suit, Windpilot self-steering wind vane, Autohelm autopilot (to attach to wind vane), AIS, new VHS radio with AIS display, portable kerosene stove, video camera, etc. There are a few more things I need, but until I have time to make a list, I won't really know how close I am to being ready. I already have most of the gear I'll need from the last time I prepared the boat -- before I ran out of money and had to go back to work -- so I hope to make it all the way to Texas this time. I would have bought all/most of this back then if I could have afforded it, but fixing the deck and the bottom took too long and wintering (on the boat, in the water) in Marion ate up all my cash.
In addition to gear, I'm also going to get a ham radio license so I can use Winlink's email network while out at sea. I've got a SSB and a Pactor modem, and was planning on using Sailmail, but Winlink would be better. It will also allow me to automatically post my position, which is really cool. The only catch is that I have to have a real operator's license, not regular marine one you get for use offshore. That's actually a good thing since it will help me learn more about my radios -- you never know what's going to happen when you're out there all by yourself, and knowing your gear is an important safety step.
I spent some time yesterday and today reading about it all and studying for the test. There are three classes, technician, general, and extra. Technician is all I need to get a license and call sign and sign up for the service, but it's pretty basic and doesn't allow you to use as many frequencies. The general will take a bit longer, but the information I learn will be invaluable, and the bonus is that I can pretty much use any of the available frequencies. Basically, there are a bunch of stations all over the world that listen for and relay email to and from the internet. It's free and accessible from anywhere, depending on signal strength of course. Sailmail uses the same sort of system, but on marine only frequencies and users don't need a ham license. However, you do have to pay for the service.
