Safety at Sea

A quick update on how things are going for the Pacific Cup preparation. These past couple of weeks, we have put a strong emphasis on safety. Not that safety isn't top of mind the other weeks of course.

First, we registered for all sorts of classes: CPR, 1st Aid (Amy won't be on board so we just lost our ship medical officer), Safety at Sea seminar. I wonder what I am going to learn in the "emergency wreck" section of the class...I had plenty of practice...

I am also reserving a satellite phone through Outfitter Satellite.
You never know, it can be useful...in case I need to call someone to ask them to feed my cats.

We have taken Elise to the Berkeley Marine Center to have the (hopefully) last big jobs done - namely:
- changing the fore hatch as the old one seems to be dangerously leaking. A few days of torrential rain filled up the bilge completely.
- adding a crane to allow us to mount an external halyard. This can help if there are things you need to fix up the mast (such as, say, a masthead fly??) without having to drop any sail. You can also use it as a replacement if any of your halyard break or need to have some work done. It will be out of the top of the mast and can be a main halyard and will be driven down to the fraction rig level so that we can fly a chute off of it as well without modifying our rating.
- sealing up all the bases of the shrouds (requires disassembly)
- emergency rudder
- change our scratchy-looking wooden companionway hatch with some sci-fi plexiglas, slightly tinted hatch. It will come in two pieces and we will be able to open and close/lock it from both inside and outside as per the safety requirements.

I am going to like my girl when she comes out. She should be looking pretty cool with her new pair of sunglasses :)