Top 10 Must-Have Items for Living on a Small Boat
/With limited energy and limited space, living onboard a small sailboat for a year was kind of like camping—we had very few creature comforts, however, these 10 essential items can be used on any boat and will make your life onboard more sustainable, comfortable, and enjoyable.
By Michelle Segrest — How to Get Your Sea Legs
While living onboard a small boat and sailing the world for a year, I learned that there is a lot that I can live without. Our 43-foot steel ketch, Seefalke, is a safely constructed blue-water sailing boat that was built for heavy offshore conditions.
But it wasn’t really built for living life comfortably. We had no refrigeration, no air-conditioning, no shower, no coffee maker, no clothes washer or dryer, and very little living space. We also had limited energy until after we crossed the Atlantic Ocean and invested in additional solar panels. This made it difficult to have things onboard that required a lot of energy (for example, a plug-in coffee maker or proper refrigerator).
While we didn’t have very many creature comforts as we sailed for a year from North Germany to South America (including an Atlantic Ocean Crossing) I can highly recommend 10 must-have items that every sailor should have while living onboard a boat for any length of time—and especially if you’ll be at sea for weeks-long passages.
Please keep in mind that these items are for making living onboard more tolerable and pleasurable but with limitations of space and energy. These must-have items do NOT include items that are essential for safety onboard. For recommendations on safety supplies, please scroll to the end of this article.
These are the Top 10 essential items you must have for living more comfortably on a boat:
GARMIN INREACH SATELLITE COMMUNICATOR—This device was not cheap, but I would consider it absolutely essential. It was probably the one item onboard that we used the most! It allowed us to communicate by email or text message with our kids, friends, family, and work colleagues—even from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Using the worldwide coverage of the Iridium satellite network, these go-anywhere portable devices let you exchange text messages with any cell phone number or email address, while using GPS to track and share your journey’s progress. You can also post to social media or even communicate inReach-to-inReach in the field. In case of an at-risk situation, you can also use inReach to trigger an SOS to the 24/7 monitoring center, text back and forth about the nature of your emergency, and receive confirmation when help is on the way.
inReach SE+ and Explorer+ give you all the tools to stay totally connected. You don’t have to worry about being within range of a cell tower, or encountering spotty coverage in fringe zones or blackout areas. Your inReach communicator offers two-way messaging via the global Iridium satellite network.
With regard to onboard communication, I would also highly recommend the Thuraya Satsleeve Plus satellite phone system which kept us somewhat connected when we didn’t have regular mobile service and for about 1,000 nm from the Canary Islands.
It allowed us to send and receive text-email communications with our family and friends. We could make calls out, but calls coming in were ridiculously expensive for the sender and the receiver, so we saved that for only serious emergencies. We told family and friends, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
This device works like a hot spot. It turns your mobile phone into a satellite phone. On the other side of the Canary Islands, we used the Iridium Go Satellite Based Hot Spot.
2. SOLAR DECK SHOWER—If you don’t have a built-in shower on your boat, and even if you do, I highly recommend this very cool solar deck shower. In fact, I loved it so much, we always had TWO on board, just in case one got punctured or fell overboard. We really could not live without it! Lots of campers and hikers also use this genius product.
Just fill with water (we generally collected rain water) and hang the bag on the mast or somewhere that the sun can heat the water inside. The shower handle gives you a little water pressure so you can wash the conditioner out of your hair. There is nothing more wonderful than a outdoor shower on the deck of a cruising boat! You will love this, I assure you!
3. SOLAR OVEN—It’s tough to cook in heavy offshore conditions and it’s not that easy when it’s smooth and the sun is so hot you literally cannot stay in the kitchen. When we crossed the Equator and sat in the doldrums for about a week, our GOSUN Survival Gear Solar Oven Sun Cooker allowed us to cook meat, vegetables, and even bake fresh bread right on our deck only using the power and energy of the sun. We also used this a lot while at anchorage and on the hard to save butane/propane and also because it simply cooks delicious and healthy food!
4. E-BOOK READER—My favorite thing to do onboard on long sailing passages is to READ! But there is limited space onboard a boat for traditional hardback and paperback books. I am absolutely in love with my Kindle Paperwhite, which is WATERPROOF and has 32GB of storage.
It’s small, lightweight, and handles the heavy sun glare. Download ebooks and audio books and you’ll be all set for a long sailing passage!
One battery charge lasts for weeks!
5. SOLAR DEVICE CHARGERS—Another key to sustainability, these solar-powered device chargers save onboard energy and allow you to use the sun to charge all your electronic devices onboard. We used a variety of these and had great success with them. Try to protect the connector ports because the salt air and water can rust them, but with proper care, these are an excellent way to stay connected without using onboard energy.
6. DIAPER GENIE—Two words…ODOR CONTROL!
Ok hear me out on this one. When my children were babies I thought the diaper genie was the greatest invention of all time! Just wrap up the dirty diapers and put them in the genie and there is no smell until it’s time to dump the trash. Well, this same concept works for humans too!
You don’t want to throw any paper waste overboard, and you definitely don’t want the smell of waste onboard, so the diaper genie is absolutely ESSENTIAL for onboard living! Trust me on this one! You will never regret it! And don’t forget to stock up on refills before a long passage!
7. WHISTLING KETTLE—I know this seems simple and silly, but this was the one kitchen item that we used the most. You don’t need a separate coffee pot or soup pot. Just boil your water in the teapot on the butane/propane stove for tea, coffee, soup, hot water for dish washing or bathing, or anytime you need hot water. Be sure and get one with an anti-slip, anti-heat handle and the heavier the better so it will stay put when the boat is heeling. And of course, no energy required. We were able to find plenty of great instant coffees on our travels.
8. GoPRO HERO 8—You can’t live on a sailboat and not capture the memories of sunsets, swimming dolphins, whale sightings, and epic adventures. You really need a high-quality, affordable, waterproof, lightweight video camera, and the GoPro is the most popular and well-liked brand. We had several more expensive video cameras onboard, but the GoPro was always our GO TO!
9. ODOR-FREE DISHCLOTHS—Another sailor recommended these to me, and I will forever be grateful. In fact, these are fantastic even if you don’t live on a boat. Lunatec’s dishcloths stay odor-free and have less bacteria than sponges or cotton dishcloths. Plus, food debris easily rinses free, which means you don't need to wash them in a machine. Most importantly, they scrub with purpose to clean dishes, pots, pans, showers and more.
Sponges and cotton dish rags get smelly because they don't dry. That allows bacteria to grow. Bacteria are what cause the odors. These dishcloths dry in about 15 minutes preventing the growth of bacteria. They are healthier for you, your family, and your kitchen or galley.
10. WATERPROOF DINGY & DITCH BAG—I could not have survived without this! A durable and completely waterproof, floating bag is essential especially when at anchorage and you want to transport your laptop, cell phone, and other essential items in the dingy to the marina. I can’t tell you how many times our sailing dogs caused the dingy to capsize while rowing to the marina dock and we were so grateful our expensive electronics and other valuable items were in this waterproof, floating bag! It’s also great for kayaking, canoeing, and other outdoor activities. We had TWO and could have used FOUR for of them! You will thank me for this one!
BONUS! Sailing Logbook & Journal
Write your own memories and document your sailing adventures with my Sailing Logbook & Journal
This sailing logbook & journal is designed to inspire you to pursue grand adventures. Come along for the ride on a few worldwide sailing adventures, enjoy some of the most inspirational sailing quotes of all time with stunning images, and document your adventures and memories in an easy-to-use captain's logbook.
With more than 100 pages of stunning, full color images, this logbook and journal includes more than 80 sailing quotes that will inspire your wanderlust, four swashbuckling real-world sailing adventures, and detailed captain’s log for 12 sailing passages with room to record your most detailed sailing adventure memories.
Captain’s Logbook entries include prompts for date, departure port, destination port, weather, forecast, wind, sea conditions, visibility, ETA, Captain, crew, guests, time, course, speed, distance, navigation notes, time completed, average speed, days run, fuel used, nautical miles, time of passage, observations, wildlife, obstacles, milestones, maintenance, notes, and memories.
This sailing logbook and journal is handy and efficient enough to use onboard while beautiful enough to set out on your coffee table to share memories with family and friends. It is designed by a sailor for sailors to inspire your grand adventures.
Here are a few more items you may want to have onboard!
Please consult these articles for SAFETY items that every sailor needs!
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