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>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing.
LAHOWIND » Just you, me, + the dog.
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I say “starter” because #1. I think I may have forgotten 1 or 2 items on my first trip to the store (typical), #2. we’ve never done this before and I certainly don’t want to come across as “Miss-I-Think-I’m-the-Expert-on-First-Aid” (because I’m most certainly am not!), and most importantly #3. we haven’t technically finished our kit yet — there are still two shopping bags full of first aid loot just hanging out on our bedroom floor (like everything else these days). But at least we’ve started it, right?  ^^I definitely got a few odd looks from fellow shoppers while snapping multiple photos of my shopping cart — with my “big” camera nonetheless.^^ When we first began researching “marine first aid kits” my mind was blown by the sheer cost of these crazy kits. A decent (already prepared) kit can cost anywhere from $250 to upwards of $1,000. Yes, one thousand! Insane! Don’t get me wrong, we thoroughly realize the importance of safety and being well-prepared. Safety is our #1 priority folks.  However, spending $750+ on a complete kit seems ludicrous. We’ve pretty much decided that the makers of these kits love highlighting the “item count” and throw in a bunch of bogus crap just to hit a certain number. So, unless some generous donor wants to gift us one of these fancy kits, we’ll be going to DIY route and saving bookoo bucks in the process. As you might recall, we didn’t have a problem diy-ing Oliver’s doggie first aid kit, and his medicine cabinet is way bigger than ours so this should be a breeze! 😉 To get the ball rolling on health and first aid, Jereme and I (mostly me) made appointments with all of our necessary doctors (GP, dentist, GYN, skin doc, eye doc, etc.) for routine check-ups long before we set sail (which will hopefully be soon) and before we lose our insurance (also happening soon). We spoke with each of them regarding key items we should have on board while cruising for the next year or so. They agreed that a DIY first aid kit was the way to go. From these very helpful (and reassuring) convos, we created the following list of items to include in our first aid kit:
After preparing what we think is a pretty broad list of items (many of which we’ve never even had to use in our regular lives before, so hopefully we won’t really even need them in the islands), I set out to purchase our extensive list as cost effectively as possible. And as much as I hate shopping at Walmart (I’m more of a Target girl myself), I headed over to our local Wal-mizzy because they seemed to be the cheapest. I picked up all of the items included on the list above for right around $100. Not bad, I suppose! Although, we still need to store these items in some sort of organized “kit-like” fashion, which has yet to be done. I can’t imagine the storage portion of this project would cost more than a few dollars. We have plenty of old toiletry bags we can utilize. Aside from the list above, we also made sure to secure scripts for any meds that would be helpful to have on hand while sailing, such as multiple courses of antibiotics, prescription anti-nausea medicine, etc. Those have already been purchased too! We are also looking into various marine first aid manuals. I’ve found several first aid guides for my Kindle that I’m considering purchasing (they’re way cheaper than similar print books), like the Marine Medicine Comprehensive Guide Here’s to being prepared and hoping we never have to use our new first aid kit! >>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. Nice starter kit! I recently came across Quick Clot (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CLDIGPK/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=39MIX828ZRAEZ&coliid=I3USQITQ1BECIQ) and the Israeli battle bandage (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006PH1UWO/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=39MIX828ZRAEZ&coliid=I32HRK82YXVTVU). We will be adding both of these to our kits before we leave. What do you plan to keep your kit in? We are using two different size Plano water tight boxes (http://www.amazon.com/Plano%C2%AE-Waterproof-Utility-Model-3640/dp/B0000AY7RJ/ref=sr_1_9?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1390395722&sr=1-9&keywords=plano+waterproof). Came across them at Home Depot but you get better selection in stores with fishing gear. We have a 12″ by 6″ by 2″ box in our ditch bag with a small emergency kit. We then have a larger box (16″ by 8″ by 4″) in our head as the boat kit. I need to start upping our drugs in our kit (antibiotics, sea sick meds, etc.). I like your list. Some good things I need to add to our kit. Fair winds, Jesse Great recommendations! Thanks Jesse! That Plano box might be a really nice addition for a smaller first aid kit for our ditch bag, like you said. When are you leaving and where are you headed? -Kim We plan on leaving in October of 2015. We had planned to leave in June of 2015 but my Bride gets a decent bonus from her job but she will have to be there through September to get it. So our rough plan to get south as soon as possible when we leave. At least down to the Carolinas but ideally Florida. Kick around FLA for a little bit and then cross over to the Bahamas. Then start heading back towards the Chesapeake Bay for the summer/hurricane season. Then the following November pass through the Bahamas down the Thorny Path to the Caribbean. Spend the next hurricane season down in South America. Come back through the Caribbean after that and see where we want to go from there. I would stick around for that bonus too! 🙂 The plan sounds awesome! -Kim New to your blog & super jealous that you’re already out there sailing & living the dream! 😉 We hope to become liveaboards in the next few months, but hubs will still be working for awhile. ={ Hi Jenn! Thanks so much for following our little journey! We can’t wait to cut our dock lines in the next few weeks and make this super official. 😉 We are working on some other DIY posts — stay tuned! And good luck with your plans too! Hope to see you and your hubbie out sailing one day. -Kim I have to agree first aid kits are extremely expensive. When I went on a sailing trip, obviously first aid is a priority. I came across a site called Le-West that sold specialised marine medical supplies for great value. If you’re looking to purchase some marine medical supplies I can easily recommend them! […] Google to see what other sailboat owners stocked in their kits. Within the first 10 pages I found: Lahowind, who also had an Endeavour 37; a blog by Kelly Watts on Women and Cruising; SailingChance has a […]
Happy Tuesday! >>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. Yup, that’s right! We surprisingly caught a pretty hefty grouper the other day while sailing in Charlotte Harbor with our friends Jody and Peter from Where the Coconuts Grow. (You might have noticed a similar post on their site ;)). ^^catch of the day!^^ I should preface this by saying that neither Jereme nor I are avid fisherman. Although we love fishing and wish we were pros, we are far from the real deal (yet!). In our sailing career thus far, we have only caught one tiny mackerel while cruising on our sailboat, but we proceeded to destroy the poor fish while trying to reel him in while still under sail (at a decent speed). Luckily, this time we were sailing with Jody and Peter and they’ve got the fishing goods on board…and know how to use ‘em! 😉 Last Sunday, Jereme and I drove up to Burnt Store Marina in Charlotte Harbor to hang with our new cruising friends; get out sailing for the afternoon; and pick their brains on all things sailing related. Like us, they’re getting ready to head south and cruise the Bahamas and Caribbean. We can’t wait to join them shortly after for (hopefully ) many more awesome adventures. ^^love this! …the photo geek in me has to point out the cute sun flare on the wheel.^^ So, back to trolling and snagging a grouper…pretty crazy, huh? Catching grouper is one thing, but catching while trolling is very unusual. We threw a line in while we were casually sailing in the harbor, and about 20 minutes later, boo-ya!, grouper on the line! Although at first, we weren’t really sure what the heck we had caught. But we knew it was substantial. Low and behold we pulled in a big boy 32″ grouper (we quickly pulled up the FWC’s regulations to make sure the fish was legal to keep — and we were in the clear — 20″ is the minimum length for black grouper). Let me just tell ya, that grouper made for some super tasty fish tacos cooked by chef Jody (and blackened fish filets cooked by yours truly on day two)! ^^reeling her in!^^ ^^Wowzers! We ALL had to take a photo of course. Note to self, turn pretty side of fish towards camera in the future.^^ ^^doing the dirty work.^^ We also got to meet the two furry, four-legged crew members aboard s/v Mary Christine… Betsy and Gunner, who seem to love life aboard, just like our Oliver, and couldn’t be any sweeter furry companions. ^^Betsy licking her chops over that grouper we just snagged.^^ ^^such a handsome boy.^^ ^^how cute is their little family of 4?!^^ Peter gave us a great fish fileting lesson, along with lots of tips on what sorts of fishing gear we would need aboard s/v LAHO. Jereme and I are definitely planning to try and purchase a few key items before we head south (and have already picked up a spear gun to add to our stash). Fishing, or should I say catching, is high on the priority list once we start cruising. ^^beard model.^^ ^^#livingthedream^^ ^^hello awesome sunset!^^ After a gorgeous day on the water (and one spectacular sunset), we had to pack up our things and drive back to Naples. Don’t forget, one of us still works full-time! Ugh! 😉 >>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing as we cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. Looking good! Quite the little catch you guys got! Sounds like so much fun! Glad you guys get to all hang out together in preparation – and a little wee bit jealous, to boot 😉 Blog looks great – your photos/layouts always inspire. Thanks so much Jennifer! Wish you guys were a little closer to partake. 🙂 -Kim […] a year ago to the day, we spent one fun afternoon trolling for grouper with our cruising pals Jody + Peter from Where the Coconuts Grow. Somehow, one year feels like a […] Okay week 2, let’s do this! It still amazes me that it’s 2014 already. Twenty-thirteen seems to have whizzed by in a blur of boat projects, non-stop work (aka saving as much moola as possible — is that even how you spell moola?), and the total craziness that was (and still is) preparing to set sail. Week two was the first full week in 2014, complete with Jereme’s last day of work (can you say happy early retirement?)!!! A fab day of sailing. And, a minor tick-on-dog scare (not Oliver, but his temporary doggie roommate — Jewel). Minus the tick incident, it was really a super great week! PS – I’ve decided that sailing photos just make project life spreads that much prettier!!! Guess we’ll just have to do more sailing! 😉 WEEK 2 SPREAD:
WEEKÂ 2 LEFT SIDE:
WEEK 2 RIGHT SIDE:
*products used: lots of ali edwards brushes (my favorite); pictures+words No. 5 photo templates from Paislee Press; hello my name is journaling cards from Paislee Press, and a few things from the Jade digital PL kit. (I get zero kickbacks from any of these links, just fyi.) *project life is a memory-keeping system + lifestyle. In 2014, i’m creating a digital spread for every week of the year. You can view all of my project life posts here. >>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing and cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean. Your project life is absolutely stunning! I am really wanting to do one too! How do I do a digital one? What program is it? (templates). Thank you do much 🙂 x Hi Genevieve! Thanks so much! I used Photoshop to do my spread designs. There are LOTS of super helpful tutorials on how to use the templates, photoshop, etc. online. 🙂 -Kim |
Oh my gosh! I want that green van!!!!!! Lovely photos my dear! xo
Um, tell me about it! And thank you! xo. 😉