Extra Stowage and Floatage

Most of my efforts on Shan Skailyn lately is geared toward preparing it for the maiden voyage coming up in just over 6 weeks. One of the things I've been concerned with for some time is trying to get a little more flotation in the middle section of the boat in case of capsize. My solution is simple and perfectly fits the needs of the voyage without permanent modifications that don't necessarily fit needs for the type of sailing we'll be doing once the boat is in Madang. It's just this longer voyage and my lack of experience that wants extra floatation for safety. So look here at my solution. I had some foam padding that I cut and glued together. It fits very snugly under the middle and aft seat of the middle section. Under the aft seat, goes a 5 gallon bucket. It adds extra waterproof stowage and stays put by wedging underneath the foam. That alone would probably stay put. But I added some rubber inner tube lashings which get lashed through the access holes in the bulkhead. Then under the middle seat, I'll be stowing my large waterproof 'sealine' bag (that I found for a measly five bucks!). Oh, and another little, almost insignificant thing I did recently was cut my bailing buckets out of some empty liquid laundry detergent bottles. Yippeee. I'm sure lots of other folks are as excited about that boring little detail as I am.

I've been looking over the google earth maps that I stored in my cache for offline viewing. I've found it worthwhile (though it's real worth will show during the trip) to go through and plan out some different places that look promising for stopping for the afternoon/night. One thing that is increasingly worrisome to me is the reality of the prevalence of opportunistic theft that is so prevalent in this country. There are many little things that I fear will get snagged during our nights staying in different villages. You might not guess it, but the most popular by far, and the most likely to disappear at a moment's notice, will be the inner tube lashings which I've made liberal use of throughout the craft. There are several solutions I can think of to curb the problem. We might end up settling on a combination of all of them when it comes down to it. I think the winner though is going to be either to sleep out next to the boat... but then there's still the problem of leaving the boat unattended any other time during the afternoon when hanging out with folks. Or we could offer some eager young soul a good wage if he can protect the boat from theft till morning. Then of course we'd take whatever we can with us if and when we leave the boat so as to not leave any obvious fodder. The rubber lashings are easy enough to replace. We'll just bring extra in anticipation of the need. However, there are a number of things that could get taken that would really put us up a creek. The access hatch lids, for one could really put a damper on things. Rope would be another popular item which would walk. Anyway, long story short... theft is going to be a problem and we will have to do what we can to minimize it.