Packing for the trip

Now that we've made the decision (and given our Visa number) to travel to the BVI, we've been contemplating what to pack. We have spent over two weeks at a time cruising here at home during the summer, so we're pretty well outfitted for the trip. Or so we thought.

There is one main difference between supplying ourselves for our normal summer cruising, and our upcoming charter. In the summer, when the time comes to empty Obsession for the winter, I'm always amazed by the amount of things that come off the boat. We own two fairly large vehicles, which we load up. Then we come back for more. This time, although some items such as cookware will be supplied, we have to fit everything we want to take into a couple of duffle bags to bring on the airplane.

Fortunately, there are a few websites, such as Nine Packing Trips for a Caribbean Vacation, that are quite useful. When it comes to clothing, we thought we would be quite well provisioned for the trip given our summer cruising. However, when we looked more closely, we have a lot of heavier weave and dark coloured clothing. They're great for warm Canadian days, but 30 degree centigrade calls for even lighter clothing, both in colour and weight. We've just ordered some light clothing. It's not reallly an added expense, because it won't be just for this trip. It'll come in handy here in the summer as well.

Other than being a bit surprised by the amount of clothing that we felt we needed to have to optimize the trip, we were pretty well off. We'll make sure to take our masks and snorkel with us, as the snorkeling over the reefs are quite spectacular. We also have the other items we plan to take, such as a portable radio, a pocket knife, cameras, our iPod, small flashlight, fanny pack, and small first aid kit.

There could be other items that we come across that we want to take, but it seems that (except for the clothing) we are pretty well outfitted for cruising either Maritime or Caribbean locations.