Camp on your boat? Give me your tips

[Ranger Tim]

Yes, I use the anchor drag alarm. I usually set the limit for 2-3x the swing and sleep easy. It will still worry you the first few times. Then it gets easier to sleep.

We use a large cooler on the deck as our eating table, and we carry lots of wet wipes for cleanup and sponge baths if necessary. Sometimes it's too cold to shower in the winter!

I love anchoring in a safe location and being able to wake up in the middle of the night and take a short stroll around the topside without having to worry about the rest of the world. It is truly a liberating feeling.

Don't let the Admiral pack too much stuff. Go minimal if possible and you'll have less clutter. Take a couple of nice deck chairs for sure.

Perhaps the worst problem is interior condensation from breathing. Have some towels to wipe down the windows or a fan to clear the windshield when you want to get underway. A bottle of windex is nice to cut the crud that builds up over a few days on the outside glass surfaces.

Raw water washdowns are nice when on the boat for more than a few days, so be sure to bring a bucket and sponge (unless you have the necessary pumps and hoses). Staying on the hook in sheltered waters usually leaves a lot of muck on the anchor - I station a mate at the bow to wash it off as I retrieve to keep the mud out of the locker and off the boat.

Staying overnight is why I chose the type of anchor I did (Delta fast-set). It does a remarkable job of resetting after a wind direction change. Two anchors will do a lot to eliminate swing and prevent ground tackle from pulling out if they are placed correctly. I am usually too lazy to pull out my spare Danforth.

 

[jeffnick]

If you're in a sheltered anchorage you might consider two more things.

1) anchor from the stern so the wind blows into the cockpit. You can do this by setting the anchor as you normally would, then reach over the rail and grab the rode and 'walk' it back and drop it over a stern cleat. No need to tie it off back there, 'cause when you want to haul it back in you'll just turn it loose from the stern. This is also a good way to keep the noise down in the cabin while sleeping as the ripples/waves are lapping at the transom instead of the bow where your head is. I love the soothing 'glub glubs' but most folks new to anchoring overnight can find them annoying. Oh, that's right, you fishermen don't allow stern cleats so you'd need to drop a loop down thru the 'hawser hole' around the aft cleat.

2) take the chain off your anchor. Personally I never use chain, but it's not a popular practice. Chain rattles coming and going and always seems to come up dirty and nasty. Removing it for your protected anchorage is just one less complication for you and the family.

 

[jeffnick]

Now that you've got me thinking, here's some other stuff.

Go to:
http://www.activecaptain.com/
Register and poke around here to get first hand information on anchorages, ramps, marinas etc. If you can get internet on your phone you can also get NOAA maps for your phone and if your phone does GPS you can do real time navigating on your phone.

Another neat thing if you have a smartphone is:
http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html
From here you can 'broadcast' your position to your family realtime. Great if you're out fishing and your wife wants to keep track of you...not so good for clandestine meetings with the girlfriend.

Baracuda Gnats or No-See-Ums can bring you to tears. I hate the stuff but Deet (the stronger the better) is the only thing that works for me. Take some along as a last resort.

We use 2 sheets sewn together like a sleeping bag. These 'sleeping sheets' are just the ticket for the warm nights. For nights a little cooler, those fleece sleeping bags are good.

There's something else, but I forgot what for now.

 

[Megabyte]

http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html
From here you can 'broadcast' your position to your family realtime. Great if you're out fishing and your wife wants to keep track of you

Better than a float plan, except for "coming soon to iPhone and iTouch".

 

[Mokee]

If you use an ice chest to keep food and drink cold over several days, we found block ice lasts longer than cubes. Better yet, freeze tap water in gallon jugs and use it for drinking water when it thaws. Same vein, plan on burgers or chicken on the grill? Buy it frozen and let it help keep the cooler cold.

LED lights of any kind are good. I even keep a $5 Wallyworld LED lantern on board in case the anchor light craps out. Also got a couple LED headlamps tucked here and there.

 

[jrannestad]

A sunshower is a good thing to have. A fan is essential if you sleep in the boat and you dont have good ventilation or its just real hot.

 

[Luv2fish]

We will vacuum seal "real already cooked food" such as sliced pork roast, turkey breast, bacon, etc and then freeze them. They work as additional chunks of ice in the cooler. When it comes time to heat them up just put the vacuum seal bag in a container of boiling water until warmed up to eating temperature. Works great for us.

 

[gray duck]

IMO a big NO on the deet for gnats. I didn't believe it when I was told this but now I'm a believer - avon's product Skin So Soft is the fragrant ticket that gnats can't stand. I don't know what's in the stuff but in an act of desparation this spring I cracked it open and they were gone! :shock: Who thunk that up?

 

[Megabyte]

FWIW... The USMC repackages skin-so-soft and issues it to their troops.
It works.

 

[jeffnick]

Mosquito Tips - Avon's Skin So Soft

I was an Avon lady for a short while, and heard many stories about Skin So Soft fighting off mosquitoes. Unfortunately, this was just an urban legend.

Research studies on mosquito bites (I would hate to be a volunteer for that study!!) show that while DEET creams can keep mosquitoes at bay for 5 hours or more, Skin so Soft barely lasted 9 minutes before the mosquitoes decided the person was fair game.

Avon has now come out with a version of Skin So Soft that has a DEET-free pesticide in it. That is at least better, but DEET has been shown in a wide number of studies to be by far the best way to prevent a mosquito from landing on you.

You might consider getting the DEET-free Skin So Soft for your hands, but the long sleeves and long pants you wear should be sprayed with the DEET repellents to ensure that mosquitoes truly stay away during your birding adventures.

from: http://www.lisashea.com/birding/mosquito/skinsosoft.html


Skin-So-Soft®
The bath oil Avon Skin-So-Soft® is often used
as a mosquito repellent and is discussed here
because of its widespread use. Apparently,
Skin-So-Soft® does have some transient
repellency for mosquitoes, but not much.
Skin-So-Soft® is not nearly as effective as
DEET (gram for gram).

from: http://www.healthyms.com/msdhsite/_static/resources/1683.pdf


or here:http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/skeeters.asp


I'm making this point because I am allergic to insect bites, and if some of you out there are too, it's good to know what REALLY works. IOW if you want to try the 'home remedies' fine, just take some real DEET as backup.

 

[Megabyte]

Maybe they mix some deet in when they repackage it.

 

[B-Faithful]

be careful if the skin so soft gets on the deck. :shock:

 

[Scott-MD]

I wonder whether that experiment was limited to mosquitos? I grew up in SC and we used Skin So Soft all the time but for "no see um" gnats, not mosquitos. It sure seemed to work at the time! (But of course placebo effects are a powerful thing).

 

[DougP]

If you travel in the hot summer buy an extra sun shower and keep it in the ice chest. Cold fresh water on the face to help cool you down. If you are thinking of extended trips look at the yeti coolers. http://www.yeticoolers.com/ my buddies bought one each. the 1st one put a bag of ice in the yeti and put in his car, left it on the back porch with his kids getting in and out of it, the ice lasted 5 days. the 2nd buddy put a bag of ice and a small brick of dry ice in the ice chest and used about the same way his lasted 7 days and kept it cold enough for his adult beverages. Of course now i have to get one. Ohh, we have had record 100 plus degree days the last few weeks.

I second the freezing 3 litre bottles of water and using the melted ice for fresh water.

 

[Porkchunker]

Will the change in tide or a wind shift cause your alarm to sound, thinking you are dragging when you are only swinging on your rode?

I ask, because I've never used my alarm thinking I would be getting false alarms for this very reason. Nothing worse than being awakened in the dark of night thinking you are in peril, when it's only the tide changing.

I set my anchor alarm at 250' and have not had any problem with switching wind. BTW, I set two alarms, one on the fixed Raymarine unit and one on the hand held Garmin. I have trouble sleeping on a boat...too much worry about dragging an anchor and ending up in the rocks or a mud flat.

Dave

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