Spartina deconstructed

A few times over the years people have mentioned that Spartina appears to be well organized.  I think it is, I could not imagine sailing - whether it is day sailing or a week-long cruise - any other way.  Below are three photographs from day nine of the fall sail where I have labelled the gear where it typically resides on the boat.  

A lot of the gear in the third photograph is stored under the thwart and bunk flat.  Some moisture always works its way in there past the "water tight" hatches.  I cleaned it out on Queenstown Creek to air out the storage areas.

1. Spare life jacket
2. Oar.  Standing in the cockpit facing forward with the tiller between my legs I can paddle at the speed of one knot.  
3. The lanyard is for the gps which I keep tucked under the coaming hidden from the sun.  Every gps I have had has at some point gotten a little moisture inside and sitting out in the sun the window fogs over.  Keeping them in the shade seems to make them last longer.
4. ACR personal locator beacon in a pouch on my pfd belt.  I just re-registered it with NOAA, something that is done every two years, with my information, emergency contact numbers and a description of the boat.
5. Inflatable pfd with harness, set to manual inflation (pull a cord to inflate).  I wear it most of the time when cruising, though if the breeze is light and water calm I'll take it off.
6. ACR C strobe attached to pfd.
7. You can barely see the am/fm radio mounted up against the transom.  I enjoy sports radio when out sailing.  There is a watch attached to it, it's easy to lose track of time on the water.
8. One-inch polypropylene tether clipped to my pfd/harness.
9. Pelican watertight box with solar panel, storage battery and battery chargers.  Everything inside is kept in a watertight freezer bag.  This last trip I finished with 60% + power in the storage battery.
10. Chart book.  That one is for Chesapeake Bay and is about nine years old.  It has a couple of years left in it.  The North Carolina chart books are made of lighter page material and do not last as long - maybe five or six years before they start to fall apart.
11. Throw line, never used but glad to have it on board.
12. Soft-sided insulated lunch box, with all the food and snacks for the day.  The insulation makes sure my food doesn't "bake" inside the box on hot sunny days.
13. A container of Wet Ones hand wipes.  There is alcohol in the wipes and on hot days it is nice to wipe down my face with the towelettes, the evaporating alcohol acting as a cooling agent.
14. Two fishing poles, one for trolling and one for casting.  This last trip was one of my more successful trips with several stripers caught and, for the most part, released.
15. SPOT locator beacon, their original model and probably nine years old.  Keeps on ticking.
16. Tether to pfd/harness.
17. Rubbermaid Roughneck storage box.  Two on board, the one to port has notebooks, books, flashlights, bug spray and a few other odds and ends.  The one to starboard that can't be seen has the cook kit with jet boil, MSR pots, utensils, olive oil and spices.  I drilled two small holes in the handles and use a bit of nylon line and bronze clips to fasten them in place on the bunk flat.  I also run bungee cords over the top to keep the lids in place, and if you look close you will see the bungee cords also hold water bottles in place.  The boxes are not watertight, yet have never had a drop of water get inside of them.  Books, etc are all stored in waterproof freezer bags.  
18. Dock line.  I carry about six different lines for docking, a couple tied in places where you can't see them and a couple that are generally tucked near the storage boxes.
19. Boom tent in a storage bag.  Love that boom tent.
20. Five pound mushroom anchor that is clipped to the top of the anchor chain as a sentinel.  Tied to the mast when not in use so it doesn't slide around.
21. Two-gallon gas can, tied to the mast so it doesn't slide around.
22. Main anchor and anchor line in a bucket, tied to the mast  when not in use so it doesn't slide around.
23. Thirty five liter dry bag with clothes and shave kit
24. Twenty liter dry bag containing freeze dried meals.  
25. ACR C strobe on pfd
26. Pfd/harness 
27. SPOT locator beacon
28. Freezer bags, each containing one day's meal except for freeze-dried dinner.  A bag typically contained breakfast bar, three individual cups of fruit, canned Italian tuna (Tom Head of the Pathfinder First Light introduced me to Italian tuna.  Try it, you'll like it. ), box of raisins, bag of dried fruit (mango strips, pineapple, kiwi fruit, strawberry), bag of homemade nut mixture, maybe some beef jerky and a couple of other treats tossed in.  The bag that contains one day's food becomes the trash bag for the next day.
29. Foul weather gear held in place by bungees behind the coaming
30. Spare book, double bagged
31. Boat US membership card, there are three or four on board in different storage area.   I've never used Boat US while sailing, but with the broken axle on the way home the free tow to the marina in Easton made the membership fee seem like a great deal.
32. Boom tent in storage bag
33. Twenty liter dry bag with hypothermia/survival kit
34. Gallon bottles of water.  There's room for eight gallons under the bunk flat.  I plan on one gallon of water per day, refilling the bottles whenever, wherever I get the chance.
35. Rubbermaid storage tub containing notebooks, books, flashlight, etc, with two water bottles on top.
36. Boat sponge.  I carry two and they stay up forward under the foredeck or, if it is raining, in the cockpit footwell where I use them to sponge out the water.
37. Safety tether.

Looking back over this list it seems like a lot of gear, but it is really not.  All tucked away I hardly notice it.  And I am glad to know where to find something when I need it.