If you’re living aboard full time, where’s the best way for storing documents on a boat? Wills and so forth you may keep in a safe deposit box somewhere.
But what about the documents you need to have with you?
- Passports
- Boat documentation
- Boat insurance
- Health insurance cards (duplicates – also have one in wallet)
- Living wills
- Medical history
- Pet documents (rabies, health certificates, etc.)
- Car documents (if you have a car)
Cruising Mexico on our previous boat, we kept all these in a notebook tucked in a nice secure spot.
Great! But what if the boat caught fire or started sinking?
In the event of an emergency where we’d have to abandon the boat, we’d need those documents. But we weren’t likely to be digging them out from the locker under the settee as we left. Ooops! Not a good storage place.
This was brought home to us as more than one person we knew did have a disaster befall them and wound up without anything they needed. Simply put, a disaster is bad enough. A disaster without documents is even worse.
At the time, we made copies of all our documents and sent them to a relative “just in case.”
Last summer, we had a better idea as we were building our ditch bag. Instead of keeping the documents in a folder in a locker, we put our Boat Documents Organizer in the ditch bag.
The ditch bag is always in an accessible place (a basic rule on board) and so if we need items routinely, they’re easy to get to. And if we ever have to abandon ship, the ditch bag is the first thing we’ll be grabbing.
NOTE: We also have copies with a relative and one in the cloud (with password protection) as backup . . . just in case. But having the originals – particularly of passports – is preferable.
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Carolyn Shearlock has lived aboard full-time for 17 years, splitting her time between a Tayana 37 monohull and a Gemini 105 catamaran. She’s cruised over 14,000 miles, from Pacific Mexico and Central America to Florida and the Bahamas, gaining firsthand experience with the joys and challenges of life on the water.
Through The Boat Galley, Carolyn has helped thousands of people explore, prepare for, and enjoy life afloat. She shares her expertise as an instructor at Cruisers University, in leading boating publications, and through her bestselling book, The Boat Galley Cookbook. She is passionate about helping others embark on their liveaboard journey—making life on the water simpler, safer, and more enjoyable.
Rick Garvin says
Any particular waterproof case you prefer? We hit custom routinely and I would love to have something that keeps the docs organized and dry.
The Boat Galley says
Here’s a picture. It’s small, just big enough for the docs, since there’s not a lot of “excess” space in the ditch bag.
Rick Garvin says
Thanks!
Stan says
Great idea. Thanks!
The Boat Galley says
I got a small Sterilite container (similar to a Lock & Lock) that’s big enoough for passports and boat docs (letter-folded and then folded in half). http://amzn.to/1RrERKb
The newer Sterlite containers aren’t quite the same. But this one is similar: https://amzn.to/3sDD1N3.
Becky says
It concerns me to have all important documents in our ditch bag which is readily accessible to us should we need to leave the boat but also very accessible to an intruder who may access our boat when we are not on board. How do you work around that?
Carolyn Shearlock says
I don’t mean to sound flip — far from it — but sometimes you just can’t have everything. I simply don’t have a totally secure place on my boat and anywhere I might think to hide it, I’m sure robbers could also think to look. I’m not really sure they’d be that interested in our ditch bag, to be honest. It has stuff that’s important to us, but it’s not stuff that could be easily sold. I think laptops, cameras, phone and jewelry are probably more attractive.
Randi Barry says
This is really something to think about, on superyachts our captain and/or first mates have the responsibility of gathering this documentation but my husband and I still keep the important docs besides passport in a ditch bag in our cabin anytime were off the dock.
Mary Roth says
We decided to use The Evernote application. We scan & store copies of passports, driver’s licenses, boat insurance, medical insurance, last income tax report, anything you want. Then, with a password, you can access your information from ANY computer. I even have a “notebook” for boat cards. I store pictures of cards plus info about where we met, what their sailing plans are, etc. AND all this is accessible on my phone. We’ve been very happy with Evernote.
Matt Vickery says
Food Saver
Brock Foreman says
I keep everything in an old chest buried in the sand, three paces from the palm tree, then left three paces…
The Boat Galley says
I assume you’ve drawn this out on a map . . . but unfortunately it was torn in half during a gale . . .
Nicky says
I love your blog! It’s one of the few that covers practical tips rather than glamorous travelogues, it’s a life saver. I have a question with this post as we are moving onto our boat soon. This was published in 2016– does this system still work for you? Do you find yourself pulling out certain documents and keeping them on you (like passports) rather than in the ditch bag?
Carol Zipke says
I also try to put all necessary info into my password keeper secure site and take pictures of many items to have on my phone.