The following are substantially all of the equipment I plan to use on my boat.
They are presented pretty much in the order that I acquired them.
This is a small shrimp pot. The idea is to sink it to the bottom of the ocean, about 400-feet in the Whittier area, keeping track
of it with a weighted line and a buoy. You let it soak all day with bait inside, then haul it up and have a fantastic shrimp dinner.
The shrimp pot collapses flat for easy storage. My boss up two levels donated this pot to me. Thanks Jeff.
By the way, a favorite bait to use for shrimping is canned cat food, of all things.
These are air inflated rubber fenders. They are used to protect a side of the boat when the boat is tied to a dock, or tied alongside another boat.
I took a boating safety course called "Alaska Water Wise." One of the free handouts was this daytime distress signal. This is required equipment
for my boat.
This is my personal compass. You see the red end pointing toward north. I remember it's the red end because the color red typically represents danger,
and it's probably dangerous up at the North Pole. Or is it the white end is north? The color white can represent snow, and there certainly
is a bunch of snow up at the North Pole. No, no it's the red end. I passed a piece of metal next to the compass, and the red end followed. Glad I
got that cleared up !
I am required to have at least one type B-1 fire extinguisher on board. This one is good for type B (fuel) fires and type C (electrical).
I am required to have a sound-making device. This is a compressed air horn. I plan to have a whistle as a back up.
Required equipment for an 18-foot boat. This is a throw-able PFD that doubles as a seat cushion.
This is a $7.52 sponge. Look, it says right on the package, "Outlasts other sponges, Absorbs more water than other sponges." Ain't that worth paying
an extra $6.00 for? You use the sponge to get the last bit of water (spray, rain, etc.) out of the boat.
Another safety requirement--at least 3 flares for day and night use. Apparently, flares of all marine types have an expiration date, so have to be
replaced every few years. Each flare is 10-bucks and lasts for 6 seconds.
A fuel system contaminated with water can stall an engine. Of course, you install filters in the fuel line to capture any
water before it reaches your engine, but as an additional precaution, the use of this device can prevent water from entering the fuel tank as
you fuel. Water is heavier than gasoline, so it falls into a depression at the bottom of the funnel. The fuel is free to pass through a strainer
mounted higher in the funnel on its way to the gas tank.
I may not be able to carry all the water I need in my boat, so I will have to pull up to one of the hundreds of streams that pour into Prince
William Sound to replenish. But even in Alaska we can have Giardia in our wild streams, so filtering drinking water is highly recommended.
Don't ask me how the carpet became green in this photo...anyway, this is a class three PFD, required to be aboard. The sales lady told
me unequivocally that this was the most comfortable PFD that she sells. Said that she wore all of her different PFDs around the store for a
week each to get a feeling for what she sold. No, I wasn't solely swayed by the sales pitch of a cute woman, Stearns is a good brand and
is used by a number of commercial outfits up here. It has a whistle attached by a lanyard in the left pocket, and it has straps that can
go around each leg to keep the PFD from riding up.
I picked these Nikon 8 x 42 Monarch Binoculars over the equally suitable and less expensive Nikon Action ATB 7 x 35 solely because of the
longer eye relief. If you wear glasses, even sunglasses, you need an eye relief of at least 17 mm. This is the distance between your
eyeball and the lens you look through, that allows you to see the full sight-picture coming in through the other end of the binoculars.
This air horn does not rely on compressed air to work. Simply blow through that little hole you see in the side and blast out 120 decibels
of warning noise. It's hard to believe that the horn is just a hollow tube with cellophane covering one end. The earplugs are my idea. 120
decibels is loud enough to give one a headache, if not hearing damage, with repeated blows.
This is a small shrimp pot. The idea is to sink it to the bottom of the ocean, about 400-feet in the Whittier area, keeping track
of it with a weighted line and a buoy. You let it soak all day with bait inside, then haul it up and have a fantastic shrimp dinner.
The shrimp pot collapses flat for easy storage. My boss up two levels donated this pot to me. Thanks Jeff.
These are air inflated rubber fenders. They are used to protect a side of the boat when the boat is tied to a dock, or tied alongside another boat.
I took a boating safety course called "Alaska Water Wise." One of the free handouts was this daytime distress signal. This is required equipment
for my boat.
This is my personal compass. You see the red end pointing toward north. I remember it's the red end because the color red typically represents danger,
and it's probably dangerous up at the North Pole. Or is it the white end is north? The color white can represent snow, and there certainly
is a bunch of snow up at the North Pole. No, no it's the red end. I passed a piece of metal next to the compass, and the red end followed. Glad I
got that cleared up !
I am required to have at least one type B-1 fire extinguisher on board. This one is good for type B (fuel) fires and type C (electrical).
I am required to have a sound-making device. This is a compressed air horn. I plan to have a whistle as a back up.
Required equipment for an 18-foot boat. This is a throw-able PFD that doubles as a seat cushion.
This is a $7.52 sponge. Look, it says right on the package, "Outlasts other sponges, Absorbs more water than other sponges." Ain't that worth paying
an extra $6.00 for? You use the sponge to get the last bit of water (spray, rain, etc.) out of the boat.
Another safety requirement--at least 3 flares for day and night use. Apparently, flares of all marine types have an expiration date, so have to be
replaced every few years. Each flare is 10-bucks and lasts for 6 seconds.
A fuel system contaminated with water can stall an engine. Of course, you install filters in the fuel line to capture any
water before it reaches your engine, but as an additional precaution, the use of this device can prevent water from entering the fuel tank as
you fuel. Water is heavier than gasoline, so it falls into a depression at the bottom of the funnel. The fuel is free to pass through a strainer
mounted higher in the funnel on its way to the gas tank.
I may not be able to carry all the water I need in my boat, so I will have to pull up to one of the hundreds of streams that pour into Prince
William Sound to replenish. But even in Alaska we can have Giardia in our wild streams, so filtering drinking water is highly recommended.
Don't ask me how the carpet became green in this photo...anyway, this is a class three PFD, required to be aboard. The sales lady told
me unequivocally that this was the most comfortable PFD that she sells. Said that she wore all of her different PFDs around the store for a
week each to get a feeling for what she sold. No, I wasn't solely swayed by the sales pitch of a cute woman, Stearns is a good brand and
is used by a number of commercial outfits up here. It has a whistle attached by a lanyard in the left pocket, and it has straps that can
go around each leg to keep the PFD from riding up.
I picked these Nikon 8 x 42 Monarch Binoculars over the equally suitable and less expensive Nikon Action ATB 7 x 35 solely because of the
longer eye relief. If you wear glasses, even sunglasses, you need an eye relief of at least 17 mm. This is the distance between your
eyeball and the lens you look through, that allows you to see the full sight-picture coming in through the other end of the binoculars.
This air horn does not rely on compressed air to work. Simply blow through that little hole you see in the side and blast out 120 decibels
of warning noise. It's hard to believe that the horn is just a hollow tube with cellophane covering one end. The earplugs are my idea. 120
decibels is loud enough to give one a headache, if not hearing damage, with repeated blows.