Passed My TransPac Inspection

**Alan H** · 10th June 08, 12:59 PM

This morning at 9:00 AM was a big milestone in getting ready for the Singlehanded TransPac. I had my boat inspection to see if I was in-line with the race rules. Lots of stuff is required, from flashlights to strobe lights and navigation lights, to a berth you can lie down in, to updated charts, water tanks, to emergency steering gear....you get the picture. It's a LOT of work (and money) to get ready. I've ween working on it for months. On Sunday I drove down to Santa Cruz and visited with Piper George and borrowed an AIS unit (detects big ships) and a storm jib from him.

Well, this morning I "provisionally passed" which is what everybody gets, assuming they have their act together. It's a "provisional pass" because nobody has their liferaft, food and water on board this far ahead of time. All the local boats except two have provisionally passed, I'm the last one to get inspected. The two boats who haven't passed haven't done their qualifying trips, yet....this is what I did last September. Maybe you remember me writing about my qualifying trip and the temporary paralysis of my left ankle that resulted from that. One guy went out this past weekend and got HAMMERED trying to qualify...it was 40+ knots of wind and 18 foot seas out there. Oh, joy. YUCK. He didn't make the 400 miles, needless to say. I hope he can try later in the week, but if he doesn't get it done in the next two weeks, he's out. The other guy is apparently nowhere close to ready. So I'm WAY ahead of these guys.

We got our class lists last night, so now I know who I'm racing. I'm the smallest and slowest boat in my division, which kind of stinks but it's OK. My race handicap is almost exactly the same as Jeanne on her boat "Nereida", but Nereida is a big, heavy cruiser, not a little ultralight like Ankle Biter. Three weeks ago Jeanne was in Colon, Colombia. I dunno if she's going to get here in time. If she makes it we'll have some giggles during the race, having the same rating but totally different boats.

What do I have yet to do to "completely pass'?

1. get the local notice to mariners updates on two of my charts
2. replace one fire extinguisher....I'm such an airhead, I bought two new ones and cleverly put the old one back in....Oyyy. Is my hair turning blonde? LOL
3. get my sail repair kit on the boat. I left it in the garage....yup, blonde for sure!
4. get the first aid book out of the backpacking first aid kit and put it in the boat first aid kit. *doh*

Other than that, everything passed!

I also want to talk my primary care physician or my friend Bob who's an MD and get a prescription for oral amoxycillin and Bactrim. Those are two good wide-action oral antibiotics. Dr. Lou Freeman (one of the racers who's an anaethesiologist) gave a talk last night that was really good and he talked at length about antibiotics. One of the things I picked up was that you can get anaphylactic shock from starting up a course of antibiotics. Since we can't carry a syringe with epinephrine, what he recommended was taking a Primatene Mist inhaler. He says that two shots of the inhaler is just about equivalent to the subcutaneous dose of epinephrine. I didn't know that! So I think I'll check the one I bought last and see if it hasn't expired, yet. If it has I'll get a new one.

There was a lot of talk about MRSA last night. Apparently there's a real problem with it in Hawaii, now, and after the last TransPac (last year) there were two cases on boats on the way BACK from Hawaii. So I need to be a little bit more careful about cuts and scratches and scratching at mosquito bites and stuff while we're there. Most of the rest of the other two guys talks last night were about getting enough sleep *duh*...eating right *duh*... and "go buy the West Marine First Aid Kit". Gee, thanks. But Lou's talk was good. I'm going to leave my first aid kit pretty much as it is, just add the antibiotics and check the expiration dates on some stuff. Believe it or not, one of the most important things in that kit is laxatives. 'nuff said.

So now all that's left is the four items up above, and

1.) finish the SSB radio installation and have a radio chat night with the local guys to test.
2.) make sure that both the autopilots I just bought actually work....sail with them.
3.) test the emergency rudder. It should be fine, the thing is a bluidy' bomb.
4.) Install the AIS unit I borrowed from Piper George and the fixed GPS unit I just bought and test the setup(I can do this in the slip).
5.) buy the rest of the food and load it on
6.) fill up the water jugs

wooo-hooo!

I leave my marina on July 10th, and the gun goes off on July 12th.

**Panache** · 10th June 08, 01:13 PM

Alan,

It sounds like you are almost there. Now we need to wish you calm waters, good winds, and no encounters with huge terrifying sharks*.

As for the blonde comments...

I would have you know that Grant is blonde and ....

...well....

...err...

Have a great voyage Alan!

Cheers

Jamie

* I'm still not quite over seeing Jaws some 25 years ago