Making Back Up Plans When Boating

Making backup plans when things go wrong aboard is a crucial cruising skill. It’s one that all of us need to rely on at one time or another. It’s simply part of boat life.

When most of us set off in a car, we feel pretty confident about getting where we’re going with no major problems or delays. When Dave and I began cruising on Que Tal (our first cruising boat), we unconsciously expected the same. Yes, we’d read the books and articles about problems people encountered and knew that weather delays and boat problems were possible. But I don’t think we saw them as probable.

Actually, I know we didn’t. We got frustrated when things didn’t go according to plan. We wondered what we were doing wrong.

Things That Go Wrong When Cruising

No matter how experienced you are or how well you prepare, things can go wrong on a boat

• mechanical breakdowns,
• changes in weather,
• crew illness,
• unexpected bridge closures,
• or simply arriving at an anchorage to find it overcrowded, with poor holding, or lacking a place to take a pet off.

Nothing builds stress more than feeling out of control. It’s a phase that all new cruisers, or even just weekend boaters, go through. And if problems seem to stack one on top of another, the frustration level can grow to “let’s just sell the #*$) boat.” It also stresses your finances and relationships if you’re not expecting it. I think it’s one of the reasons that most people find the first year of cruising difficult. Not only is there a big learning curve with the new life, but most of us aren’t used to living so closely with uncertainty. Uncertainty about the weather, about what challenges a new place may bring, about what could break, and about what to do if there is a problem.

How to Cope With the Unexpected On Board

Over time, we learned to, well, expect the unexpected. We could prepare as much as possible, check things over, and make sure we had all the spares and what not, but chances were that things wouldn’t go quite as planned. In fact, cruisers joke about plans being written in Jello, or in the sand at low tide, or that “plan” is a four-letter word.

Eventually, we learned to expect problems and delays. I’m not going to say that we didn’t get frustrated at times, but we experienced less stress over it. Good preparation was key. It began with our mindsets.

Change Your Attitude

Knowing that uncertainty is inevitable helps. If you expect things to always go as expected, you’re only going to be let down. In other words,

Hope for the best; expect the worst.

Prepare in Advance

“Winging it” is a poor strategy for cruisers. We carried spares and numerous reference books. We had extra food. And we made backup plans.

Before leaving a safe anchorage or marina, we checked the charts and cruising guides for alternate anchorages, what we called bail-out options.

• On a short trip, it might just be to return to our starting point.
• We also had tide tables readily available if tidal currents could play a role in being able to get in somewhere.
• In looking for alternatives, we thought about both protection in case of unexpected weather and places where we could anchor under sail if need be.

The weather is a common cause of changing conditions. Weather rules when you’re cruising–you need to focus on seasonal conditions, weather windows for passages, and immediate weather. I wrote Weather Basics for Boaters to help cruisers understand the details of weather forecasts and other information so they are less likely to get caught unawares. Checking forecasts and understanding the information makes it less likely you will be surprised.

Finally, once you’re underway, keep considering options for a backup plan. It helped us on our first trip to the Keys.

Creating a Backup Plan – A Cruiser’s Story

On our first trip from the tip of mainland Florida to Marathon in the Keys (2014), there wasn’t much in the way of bailout anchorages. We had actually commented before we left that there weren’t really any . . .

. . . except possibly at “Flashing Red 12” – behind a small shoal (“awash at high tide”) and just outside the marked channel to the 7 Mile Bridge. By staying east of the line between two red markers and tucked up by the shoal, we’d be out of the path taken by most boats. No, this wasn’t mentioned as an anchorage in any cruising guide. But we marked it as a possibility if necessary.

And as it turned out, we needed it. Our diesel had died, and so had the wind. We arrived about two hours after dark, just three miles from the 7 Mile Bridge.

While I can’t say we were happy about the situation, we were glad we’d marked an emergency “anchorage” ahead of time . . . instead of scrambling to find one at the last minute. And once we got to Boot Key Harbor, we happened to run into cruisers we knew from the Sea of Cortez . . . and who we’d shared our final anchorage there with. Turns out, they’d also once used the Flashing Red 12 “anchorage” . . .

A Backup Plan Makes Cruising Surprises Less Stressful

Let’s face it, you’ll never eliminate any possibility of problems underway. But if you have a positive attitude, prepare as much as possible, and create backup plans, your stress levels will improve measurably.

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