Things to do before we sail

Like any great adventure, we need to do some preparation before we can head out into the deep blue. After following many others blogs about going sailing for extended periods of time, we have a few things we'd like to learn or become comfortable with before we can head into non sheltered waters.

This list is growing and shrinking as we go along.

• Learn to sail
• Get a boat  Get a BETTER boat!
• Understand how DC power works and is installed/fixed
• Learn how to read weather maps (GRIB files etc)
• Get a Competent Crew certificate
• Do a course on navigation
• Learn how to plot your position using the stars
• Learn how to fix a diesel engine
• Learn how to fix a basic outboard engine
• Get more experience in storm conditions (hove to etc)
• Learn how to SCUBA dive
• Go on a week long (approx) offshore race/cruise 
• Charter a sailing boat for a week around Hamilton Island

Some of these things will take longer than others. But we both need to be confident in all these skills before we can be comfortable about putting ourselves into potentially dangerous situations.