11 Renewals to Remember

When we're at sea, it's sometimes hard to remember all the little things that tie us to land. I'm not talking about the big land anchors like houses and mortgages. I'm talking about all those niggly little items that must be renewed yearly or bi-annually, or every five years or once a decade. Hard to remember them without putting them on a list … and even then I sometimes forget. It's necessary to consult the list once in awhile and I don't remember unless I've put “consult the list” on another list. I enter renewal dates on a calendar at the beginning of the year, so memberships and services don't expire accidentally.

1. Annual Service Renewals. Three services we regularly use, Sail Mail ($250/year), SailBlogs ($35/year) and Buoy Weather($79.95/yr), all renew annually, but of course, at different times. SailMail is easy. Renewal is at the end of the calendar year and they start sending reminders a couple of months in advance to both land and sea email addresses. SailBlogs posts renewal notices on their site, but we don't always see them unless we actually get on the site. BuoyWeather, our preferred virtual weather forecasting service, does an auto-renew which we dislike since many times we're not at sea for months and prefer not to pay for services we don't need until we need them. I need to remember to cancel when we plan to be ashore for a long while and then reinstate when we get back to sea. We don't have a SatPhone or other such services, but they would all fall into this category.
2. Boat Insurance. There's no question that our insurance company will remind us yearly when it's time to renew. However, if you want time to shop around for competitive bids, it takes time, so you need to start early. We have also found ourselves at sea several times when our renewal in May is due which means it would lapse during our passage. Keeping track of the renewal time and getting things handled in advance eliminates one source of angst during the voyage.
3. Sailing Club/Yacht Club Renewals. Our Seven Seas Cruising Assn. ($55/year) membership must be renewed yearly. SSCA sends reminders and has an optional auto-renew service which is convenient. Our yacht club membership at the Royal Cape Yacht Club in Cape Town, is an annual renewal in June. Reminders are numerous, but only to our land e-mail.
4. There's the annual U.S. Coast Guard registration/documentation which used to be free, but now costs $26/year. They're working on making it renewable on-line, but so far, the site is inoperable. They promise to send a renewal notice 30 days in advance of renewal, but of course, since it's not working, in the meantime we have to remember. This official document must be presented every time we check in and out of a foreign port. After completing a renewal application (and now paying the fee), the hard copy usually arrives some time in March of each year and Lin scans and sends it to us for printing.
5. Voter registration updates are required to make sure we get our absentee ballots. We don't usually vote in the local elections, mostly because we're not around and have no idea what's going on locally. We do try to vote in the state and national elections, however, and insuring that the Registrar has our current address to send the absentee ballots on time is sometimes a challenge. Our absentee ballots that were requested to be sent to Australia one year, were sent to Austria.
6. Driver's Licenses. Driver's licenses in Nevada must be renewed every 5 years, but since we don't own a car and we drive so infrequently, it's sometimes easy to forget when it's time to renew. It's an item on the renewal list. Luckily, most renewals can be done on-line now, but it's important to put it on a list because there are no reminders.
7. U.S. Passports need renewal every 10 years. No one reminds you. There must be at least six months left on your passport before it expires in order to clear into most countries and it takes at 4-6 weeks to renew your passport in the States (unless we want to pay a premium to expedite it), not counting the time to complete the form, have new pix taken and get it mailed. We've found that it's easier and cheaper to have passports renewed in US Embassies abroad than doing it in the States. It really depends where we are and how much time we have, but it would be a bummer to have them expire outside the USA. David just renewed his … $110 plus $14 for photos (ouch!) and $5.75 postal charges. We have to remember to hold on to our expired passports as passport numbers change when we renew and we're sometimes required to prove (by supplying our old and new passport numbers) that we've left Nine of Cups in a foreign marina and are back to claim her.
8. HAM and Radio Licenses. HAM licenses (free) must be renewed every 10 years … or they expire and you have to start all over again with the certification process. Ouch! A HAM license allows us to participate in cruising nets on certain frequencies at sea and use the HF radio for contacting worldwide HAM operators. If you wish to use WinLink, the free at-sea HF e-mail service, you need to be a HAM.The Ship's Radio License (free) is the license required to have and operate a VHF aboard and provides us with our boat call sign. It is also renewable every 10 years. There are no reminders and it's easy to forget.
9. EPIRB Registration. EPIRB Registration (Emergency position-indicating radio beacon) is due for renewal every two years. No sense having an EPIRB aboard if it's not registered. If we activated the EPIRB while in distress at sea, it would alert the USCG to our location and hopefully help would be on the way. Each country has its own Beacon Registration renewal process. It's not difficult; it just requires attention. We now receive email reminders that renewal is required. Once renewed, they send a little sticker to put on the EPIRB itself as a reminder for renewal.And while we're talking about EPIRBS, it's necessary to replace the batteries every five years and this can only be accomplished by a factory-authorized service center. Read that “Expensive, inconvenient and slow.” Plan ahead.
10. Life Raft Re-certification. Our new Great Circle lift raft requires an inspection and re-certification every three years, an expensive event which requires lots of pre-planning. No one reminds us … it goes on the “list” because it's too important to ignore.
11. Credit/Debit Cards. Credit cards and debit cards have random renewals, but automatically renew through your bank or credit card companies and then the new cards are sent to your billing address. They usually require activation. Getting them to where you happen to be before the old ones expire can be a challenge. Each time we go home, I check expiration dates on all our cards to see if renewal is imminent. If it's within 6 months or so, I call the bank or credit card company, explain the issue and ask for the cards to be renewed/issued earlier.

This list does not include on-board checks of fire extinguishers, etc. Those items are on another annual safety checklist and can be handled at our leisure without outside involvement. The key to renewal in all cases is to plan ahead. If we're somewhere with internet access, we might be able to renew some things, but certainly not all. If we're at sea, unless we want to enlist the help of shore-based relatives, there are not many renewal options. It makes sense to have a list, whether hard copy or on your computer, of expiration dates of all critical items with enough lead time to be able to renew

So … what did I forget to mention?

The Blue View - Praise for Good Old Boat

A few years ago during our Pacific explorations, we stopped at the tiny Waitui Marina in Savusavu, Fiji. It was a typical South Pacific marina, consisting of a dozen or so moorings placed in the anchorage, a dinghy dock, and a dilapidated building that served as the office. The building also housed a dive shop, a small Indian restaurant, and a laundry, and had a great bar with a nice deck overlooking the anchorage. The beer was cold, the food was good and the prices were low – everything a yachtie could ask for. We spent many an evening there chatting with the other yachties while watching the sunset. It was just what I had always imagined a South Pacific island would be when I was dreaming of sailing off into the sunset.

The marina also had a small cubby where yachties could leave books and magazines they had read and pick up a few to be read. I was perusing the pile of old magazines when I came across one I had never seen before – Good Old Boat – The Sailing Magazine for the Rest of Us. I thumbed through it and knew immediately that this was my kind of magazine. It wasn't full of articles extolling the virtues of the latest million dollar production sailboat or the newest lightweight plastic daysailer. It didn't contain fluff 'how-to' articles on boat projects that skipped all the details of how the project was actually done – making me wonder whether the author had actually done the project or just looked over the shoulder of the professional he had hired.

What it did have was articles written by sailors like me who owned (and loved) older boats. It was full of pieces describing the nitty-gritty details of various restoration, refit and repair projects by the people who actually did the work, and who weren't embarrassed to admit when they made a mistake nor discuss how they'd do it differently next time. The magazine also had articles on seamanship, boat handling and sailing tips, as well as reviews of older, classic boats. I searched through the pile of magazines and found a few other issues of Good Old Boat to take back with me to our good old boat, Nine of Cups, then spent half the night reading them all cover to cover.

Although I had had a couple of technical 'how-to' articles published in other magazines, Marcie was the real writer of the family, and had sold dozens of articles. She read through one of the Good Old Boat magazines and, recognizing immediately that this was a magazine written by and for kindred spirits, encouraged me to write a piece for them. I took her advice and wrote an article on the fabrication and replacement of deck prisms – not exactly a mainstream article. Karen Larson and Jerry Powlas, editors and founders of Good Old Boat, accepted the article, and after a short course by Karen on improving my style and grammar (Keep the tenses consistent - Don't pontificate - Use “This is how I did it” rather than “do it this way” …), it was published. Hooray!

Since then, I've been fortunate enough to have had many more articles published by GOB. Karen even bestowed upon me the title of Contributing Editor – much to my amazement and surprise. They must have me confused with someone who actually knows what he's talking about. And after all these years, I still can't wait to receive the latest GOB and read it cover to cover.

If you haven't read Good Old Boat magazine yet, you can get two free digital copies here. Whether or not you actually have a 'good old boat', I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do.

FAQ - Do you worry about pirates?

When we were in the Indian Ocean, David wrote a blog about piracy concerns in the area. Incidents of piracy in the Indian Ocean were all the news, especially after watching Captain Phillips.

We were very aware of potential problems off the Somalian coast. We planned to stay offshore well south of the questionable area. We were not particularly worried, nor did we have any problems, but we were certainly cognizant of the issues and aware of the four Americans aboard the yacht Quest who were pirated and murdered in 2011. When we were heading from the Guianas back into the Caribbean Sea, the questions were posed again. We received several inquiries from friends and readers about piracy in the Caribbean in light of several attacks near Trinidad and the Venezuelan coast, the area in which we would be sailing. This time we were more concerned.

Piracy has been a problem since men started plying the ocean waters. According to Wiki, “the earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC” in the Mediterranean and the Aegean Seas. Certainly, Treasure Island and Pirates of the Caribbean has provided lots of piratical entertainment for audiences in a very romanticized way. In truth, however, the pirates who plied the Caribbean waters... and there were many... were known to be excessively barbaric and cruel. In the Golden Age of Piracy (1650-1730), L'Olonnais, Captain Kidd, Blackbeard and countless others wreaked havoc throughout the Caribbean. Some, like Sir Francis Drake and Henry Morgan, were sanctioned by the Crown.

Today's pirates of the Caribbean are not sanctioned by any government, but they are just as real and just as ruthless and bear no resemblance to Johnny Depp.

Statistically, piracy attacks are down worldwide, but that makes little difference to the individual yachts that are attacked. Actually, only larger ships are counted in the statistics and most yacht attacks are downplayed in the interest of local tourism.

Just after our passage from the Guianas to Trinidad in December, two yachts were boarded at gunpoint and robbed by pirates. The coast of Venezuela seems to be a particularly troublesome pirate hotspot at the present time.

So what can cruisers do to protect themselves against pirates?

1. Well, larger yachts hire armed security guards. We are not a larger yacht. We do not carry guns aboard. We figure we'd be outgunned anyway.
2. Officials say “avoid known pirate areas” (duh!). This makes sense if you're cruising and not passage-making. For sure, anchoring in known pirate areas is inviting problems.
3. Since we had no choice but to sail through an area known for piracy, we heeded the local advice. Most pirate attacks in the area have been in open boats with big, fast engines, so outrunning them is not a possibility. Instead, we stayed well offshore away from the Venezuelan coastline and away from the usual travel routes.
4. Traveling at night is recommended … on a multi-day passage this is kind of difficult, but if we were sailing between the islands, it's reasonable and would have done it.
5. Traveling in company is a recommendation. In our case, there was no one to travel with, so we traveled alone, but there's definitely safety in numbers. Forming a flotilla of boats to make a passage through a high-risk area makes good sense.
6. Some advocate “sailing dark” and “sailing silent”, ie no running lights, no radio communication. We did not opt to do this, but we've certainly done it on occasions in the past when sailing off the coast of Colombia into Cartagena.
7. Stay alert. I'm not sure what tactics you might employ to thwart a pirate attack, but you'd perhaps have more time to radio for help.
8. If you're accosted, don't fight. Your life isn't worth the gear the pirates steal. Easier said than done, perhaps, when you're the one being violated and it's your gear they're walking off with. Still, sage advice to live by.

Though the number of pirate attacks on yachts in the Caribbean seems to be increasing, we sometime wonder if part of the increase is due to the fact that more yachts are filing formal reports. Both the Venezuelan and Trinidadian national coast guards have increased their patrols in the area providing a bit more security, but caution and careful itinerary decisions rule.

We have been boarded while in a marina and while in a boatyard and had things stolen from the boat. Those are security issues, not piracy. The chances of being boarded by pirates, if reasonable common sense is used, are probably pretty slim, something like being car-jacked. Still, I'd say offhand, we're probably lucky. The only pirates we've actually encountered have been tradesmen and vendors who “saw us coming” in boatyards and a few friendly buccaneers in Charleston, South Carolina who politely reserved a boarding time in advance.