Storing Medications When Living on a Boat

If you have a serious medical condition, yet want to cruise for more than just a few days at a time, you probably have some questions about how to store your medications. Humidity has adverse effects on medicine. Make sure your prescriptions survive life on a boat.

The Problem

The Boat Galley reader, Diane Dashevsky, cruised with her husband Al, a cancer survivor who took maintenance medication. We met many years ago at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, where they stopped on their way to the Florida Keys for the winter. Would the six-month supply of Al’s medicine survive the trip?

Diane wrote to me:

We learned the hard way the other day that high humidity can wreak havoc on medications – especially capsules. They “melt.”  I got a large Lock & Lock container and put all the pill bottles in it and made room to store it in the bottom of the refrigerator. While I hate to give up the fridge space, meds are important and take precedence.

Did Refrigeration Work?

I asked Diane for a follow-up report. Did the Lock and Lock container in the fridge help? Her answer:

Putting the meds in the L&L in the bottom of the fridge worked perfectly!!! No more “lost” meds due to “melting” 🙂

The only inconvenience of sorts was that every 2 weeks I had to empty half of the fridge to retrieve the “stash” containers from the bottom so he could refill his daily organizers. But since we were traveling with a 6-month supply of meds ($$$), the inconvenience was well worth it!

For those without refrigeration, I feel quite certain that any dry storage area below the waterline would work equally well.

Tips for Storing Medication on a Boat

Of course, nothing about living on a boat is easy. So I’ll add a few more things for you to consider.

Check With a Professional First

Ask your doctor or pharmacist for the best way to store the medication you take. Most meds do okay in the refrigerator as long as they don’t freeze, but I’m not a doctor or pharmacist. Ask the people who know best.

Oh, and don’t forget pet prescriptions. Ask your vet how to store them as well.

Storage Without a Fridge

If the refrigerator would be too cold for one or more of your meds, try under the floorboards if it’s not directly open to the bilge. Compartments next to the hull but below the waterline are also possibilities. Of course, in some climates, this might also be pretty hot, so measure the temperature in your cruising grounds and see if it will be appropriate for your medication.

Use a good Lock & Lock (Amazon) or other gasketed and positively locking storage container. To be watertight, it should latch on all sides, not just two (those tend to leak on the non-locking sides). Small Pelican cases (Amazon) are also good, despite not locking on all sides. They’re engineered to be watertight.

Other Ways to Protect Medication on a Boat

Meds in the little foil bubble packs are also very susceptible to humidity. The foil is thin, and I’ve had meds packed like this turn to goo several times.

Another option is to not put your entire stock of any one medication in one place. If a container leaks, the entire stock will be destroyed. Instead, separate it into two or three groups/containers. Keep in mind, this may look suspicious to inspectors in some locations.

We found that desiccant packs (those little “do not eat” packs in many meds and other items) were only marginally useful on the boat. They quickly reached the limit of what they could absorb. Keeping things in moisture-proof containers to begin with was far more helpful.

Pill Organizers

If you sort your medication into organizers, I have a few more tips. First, make sure you can tell them apart if more than one crew member takes medication. Dave and I used similar ones, but in slightly different colors. In the blur of morning or night, especially on an overnight passage or after a late night socializing, it’s easy to grab the other person’s organizer instead of your own.

More than once, Dave and I almost took the other’s meds in a half-asleep fog. We solved the problem by adding our names to the top of the boxes with permanent marker. No more problems.

Reader Julie Ashmun told us about gasketed pill organizers (Amazon). They work absolutely super in humid locations!

I organized our medications one week at a time, and then put the container inside a Ziploc. I never experienced any problems.

Supplements

Finally, you may need to handle non-prescription supplements with care as well. One method I found worked well was to store them in an airtight container. Add a few grains of rice or dried beans, just like you’d do for salt.

Learn More

Until you find your expensive medication melted into a pile of goo, you have no idea how living on a boat will affect things you take for granted on land. That’s why I created the Basics of Living on a Boat course. It covers many of the practical aspects of boat life that you don’t realize you don’t know until you’re confronted with the results. It offers clear, step-by-step guidance to make your move aboard easier and less overwhelming. And who doesn’t want that?

Some links in this article (including all Amazon links) are affiliate links, meaning that we earn from qualifying purchases.