Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Baby on Board and where to go in the Bahamas -
|
Warren Traill <trailz@...>
Hi Trevor. We are on our Sharki #15. We’ve been cruising West coast Thailand/Langkawi for some time. We are also considering the east rally and will be at Rebak next week. Are you guys in that area? Cheers, Warren and Zetta Manon2
From: amelyachtowners@... [mailto:amelyachtowners@...]
Sent: Wednesday, 21 March 2018 4:24 PM To: amelyachtowners@... Subject: Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Baby on Board and where to go in the Bahamas -
Hello Eric,
Congratulations on the little one!
Our daughter was born in July (in the UK) last year and arrived on the boat 2 months later (in Phuket).
We’ve been living full time and traveling coastal. We are about to do the Passage to the East Rally which heads down the Straight to Singapore and then over to Borneo.
As you can imagine my wife has had some concerns with an infant on a boat.
I’m sure you’ve thought of most of these items but here is a quick list that has affected us.
- It is pretty much child proof already (no low sockets, locking doors and cabinets, rounded edges etc. - We are in a Santorin so the berthing might be different. Our aft cabin had a small cushioned section with a leeboard on the starboard side. I relocated it a foot more inboard and now my kid has her own bed in our cabin with all sides protecting her from rolling out - she’s now a week shy of 8 months and pulling herself over them so we are getting two Lee cloths sown up. One for her bed and the other for the bunk in the saloon. You might opt for the pilot bunk though. - We bought a Salus Infant Vest for her once she was 6 months. She uses this to chill in the water with us. A great vest for kids as no matter how they enter the water they end up face up. I’ve tested it well and am positive it works. - In the tender we strap her in a chest harness to one of us. We are both competent swimmers and while she is attached our only role is to look after her. No other tender duties. Not that we couldn’t but even a simple task of tying up to the dock is not worth it. A slip of the foot in the wet dinghy, you’d fall forward and crush her. So we just play it safe and make sure there is always positive control. - We don’t have as much space as an SM so we opted for a small umbrella type stroller. We would prefer something larger that would recline back so she could sleep / nap when we are off the boat. - Welcome to single handling everything. That kid is a non stop attention taker. Not by choice, it’s just an infant that poops by itself. That’s the only thing it does on its own. Everything else is on us. So one of us is off boat duty and on kid duty. So night passages are almost a no go for us at the moment. As neither one of us gets an ‘off watch’ time to sleep ourselves. So we plan our passages accordingly. - Car seat. We have a quality seat that gets strapped down in the saloon and she gets strapped in it should the weather get bad or I absolutely need a hand with something. We do not strap her to us and try to multi task the boat duties. - A hammock in the shade of the cockpit for naps and such. So she isn’t always down below by herself. - A small portable chair that sets on a seat. Like a high chair, minus the legs. - Food and nappies. Plan well. We are in Southeast Asia and trying to find things my wife is happy with is time consuming and costly when we do find some imported items. I suppose this is dependent on your location though. - Shots. If you’re electing to get shots for the kid plan out the locations. As the shots are given based on the age of the kid. - Passport right away for foreign travel - Ro Sham Bo sunglasses for infants (when she leaves them on). - A large umbrella for tender travel.
Good luck and enjoy.
Trevor Iris, SN 027 Phuket
|
|
|