Closed Captions (CC):
last time on Salem Bella Chandra we

visited Frederiksted in st. Croix then

we sail to Grenada

during the passage our mainsail gets

damaged and we arrive safely

and Grenada if you're new to the channel

blend in and I'm Noelle and we're

sailing vali Chandra

we're from Halifax Nova Scotia and we

are sailing around the Caribbean and

right now we're in Grenada don't forget

to hit the big red button down below

that says subscribe hey guys this week's

video is all about do-overs that's all

the things that we could have or should

have done while sailing down here to the

Caribbean and maybe some things we

should have purchased or maybe shouldn't

have purchased a lot of it comes from

eating and knowing other cruisers along

the way and seeing what they have done

and think well that's clever we should

do that ourselves and that's what this

week's video is all about and I hope you

guys find it helpful and I hope you

enjoy our red and green running lights

at the bow of the boat have been causing

us constant problems I was very

fortunate to find extra parts at a used

boat store in loop Iran Dominican

Republic but if I were to do it again I

would make sure that I had one or two

complete running light setups that's

housing and fixture ready to go for when

they fail because they do fail one thing

we definitely did not stock up on was

engine oil we bought a ton of engine oil

for our diesel before leaving Halifax

but we had no idea how much engine oil

we'd actually use getting down the coast

it turns out that we were buying engine

oil almost everywhere we stopped if I

had a do-over

I would buy enough engine oil to do at

least two or three oil changes and keep

that onboard always have a reserve of

engine oil one of our biggest mistakes

here in Bali Chandra and this trip was

buying a satellite phone used honestly a

satellite phone itself might have been a

mistake these days most boats carry an

Iridium go and recently we purchased a

Garmin in reach a Garmin in reach is a

lot like an Iridium go and just as

useful the satellite phone we bought

used at the time turned out to be a

stolen phone and it was very upsetting

as it halted our trip to Bermuda

which we had planned for for so long if

I had to do over I would have just

bought a Garmin and reach it's way

cheaper than a satellite phone or no

go and just as useful and would have

been perfect for getting us to Bermuda

as long as we used our single sideband

radio in Chris Parker to get our weather

one thing that we wish we could have had

is a water maker you hear a lot about

water makers and there's lots of ways to

get water without a water maker but the

people that we've talked to that do use

water makers on their boats seem to have

no trouble with water you never seem to

have to go get it out of Marina and are

generally pretty happy with their water

makers they're also very expensive in

balachander did not come with one that

was outside of our budget and we didn't

pick it up and we've had no trouble

getting water either collecting it from

the rain or going into a marina to pick

it up it's not been a problem but if we

had a do-over and we had the budget we

would probably have installed a water

maker hey curtains some places we've

gone to you purchase eggs and they are

in a cardboard facing cardboard is not

great to have a board they often carry

unwanted insects for instance cockroach

eggs so you take the eggs out of that

container and put them in something

either styrofoam or plastic and we save

those styrofoam containers so that we

could reuse them as we go our dinghy is

like our family car it gets us back and

forth to the boat and it's been reliable

most of the time but when you're

cruising full time the quality of your

dinghy seems to make a big difference

we've had to repair this dinghy more

than once especially here where the

transom connects directly to the inner

tube this seam just gave out and we had

to be reglued over here you can see that

the joint where the oars hooked up to

the dinghy has failed this spot has

failed several times and this is my

current repair which is like a pipe and

some stainless steel wire kind of

holding it all together this is working

but this is a weak point in the stingy's

design another thing is the paddles we

had one of our paddles catch under a jib

sheet underway and just rip right off of

the oar

so it might be a good idea if you're

doing a lot of cruising to have an extra

paddle on hand if you need to replace

one like we've done here basically if I

were to do this over I would probably

buy a stronger more reliable dinging if

you've been watching some of our recent

videos you'll see that we've had to

replace our outboard not only did the

outboard that we have fail on us and

need to be replaced but we also found it

was kind of slow the new outboard is

much fast

and a lot of the other cruisers seem to

have faster route boards and it's more

useful when you're bringing back loads

of diesel or water jugs or anything

heavy that you need to transport if I

had a do-over

I would definitely buy a faster Oh board

motor than the one we bought originally

another thing we didn't plan for was

anchoring the dinghy you just don't

think about it when you tie your dinghy

up to a dock all the time down here

every time you stop at a beach or go

snorkeling you're going to need a dinghy

anchor in our little anchor with just a

rope wasn't really doing the trick we

needed a change if I could do it again I

would have bought a few feet of chain to

put at the end of this little anchor

just to hold the anchor shaft down and

keep it better than the sand this is

some used chain I picked up in

Georgetown just that a pure luck

sunshades now that we're down south it's

a lot hotter and it helps keep us cool

and keep the interior of the boat cool

as well it's a great idea just go to a

secondhand store while second-hand

stores are still available to you

purchase yourself some bed sheets

balachander didn't come with a cockpit

table a cockpit table is great for

entertaining especially if you want to

have a meal on deck or if you're being

social with drinks if I could do it

again it would have added building a

cockpit table to my list of tasks

preparing for this trip we were lucky

and we actually found a cockpit table

used at sailors exchange in st.

Augustine and we're able to modify it to

work with our cockpit make sure you

stock up on sail repair tape we found

that sail repair tape turned out to be

quite expensive in the Bahamas when we

needed it

we only brought enough to do maybe one

repair we should have brought a whole

roll if you could buy sail repair tape

and get it for a good price I recommend

you stock oh we bought extra propane

cylinders for our barbecue thinking that

we'd be going through these and catching

all kinds of fish and barbecuing me

whenever we got it we don't run the

barbecue all that much and we don't get

meat or fish all that much either we

thought we'd have better luck with the

fishing if I had a do-over

I don't think I would have bought so

many cylinders I think we bought maybe

12 cylinders all together we've used

about two maybe three another item that

we wish we had purchased before leaving

home is a portable hard drive portable

hard drives are handy

to exchange photos and videos with

friends along your journey one thing I

didn't realize I would go through so

quickly it's plastic scrapers I've gone

through several and some have just

slipped right out of my hand but right

now I've got a few there's short ones

long ones and a couple of homemade ones

I made especially this one which I made

from a dustpan I purchased in a piece of

pipe and some zip ties if I had to do

over I would definitely find some cheap

plastic scrapers and buy quite a few

each chairs we purchase to be chairs

before leaving Nova Scotia thinking that

they'd be handy to have quite a few

times we put them in the dinghy and

dinging to shore and not once have we

unfolded them and used them one thing I

learned about the hard way is fishing

lures had I had a do-over I wouldn't

have bought any fishing lures in Canada

to be honest when you get down into the

southern United States and even into the

Bahamas you start seeing the lures for

the fish that are actually there and

they're very different than the lures

they sell back home if I had a do-over I

would save my money in my time and look

for lures when I got into the southern

states one thing we didn't have when we

left Nova Scotia was a good brush for

scrubbing the hall not only do you

scrape the hall with a scraper but it's

a good idea to have a brush that's

fairly coarse for scrubbing the weedy

stuff off you have a good brush like

this it'll take that stuff right off

your haul and keep it clean clean like

when you first launched I bought this

one used at a secondhand store in

Florida if I had a do-over I'd probably

try to find the same thing back home one

thing we realized that we should have

done with our canned food was to remove

the labels we did identify the contents

of each one with a sharpie on top but

it's a good idea to take the paper

labels right off the can if any moisture

gets on that can it'll stay in that

paper label and cause the can to rust if

you're putting your cans in the bilge

it's a good idea to isolate the cans

it's some kind of a container that's

waterproof or close to waterproof we had

a lot of water come in and Cape Hatteras

when our chain Locker flooded and a lot

of cans got wet and we lost a lot of

food due to rusting I discovered the

hard way that flippers are really

important to diving especially when

diving deep and the flippers that I

brought on this trip were just too short

they're more like travel-size flippers

also this particular design doesn't seem

to hold up that well after a couple

months

rubber here started to give way these

new flippers are longer and will make a

big difference had I known I would have

bought the longer flippers to begin with

another really important item for diving

is a weight belt this is something else

I didn't realize right off the bat I

thought weight belts were only for deep

divers but when you're free diving I

learned that a weight belt is really

important to get deep in the water

quickly and without a weight belt you're

just working too hard and it's very very

difficult had I known I would have

purchased a weight belt back home and

brought that along logs it's great to

have extra logs there's been a couple of

times I've been handing Dan a lock to

lock up the dinghy and all of a sudden

and it finds its way to the bottom of

the drink also they often get rusty

so yeah pack yourself some extra locks

it's great to have our courtesy flags

certainly don't last very long check out

our Bahamas flag it's in tatters we've

got a really good deal on a full

Caribbean pack of courtesy flags on eBay

if I had to do over I would buy two

packs of flags to replace the ones that

get damaged and they do get damaged very

quickly if you can find high-quality

courtesy flags for a decent price it's

probably worth the money after dealing

with dewpoint issues again in New York

just as we did living in Halifax at the

marina some of our teak was getting

moist and we were dealing with a little

bit of mold also when we were loop

around we had some rain come in and

moisture built up in the boat if I could

do it again we would have oiled all the

t-con board before leaving Halifax just

to make sure that everything was well

oiled less likely to produce any mold or

mildew on a teak I was really upset back

in Marblehead near Boston when I lost my

long forceps in the ocean

I thought forceps were easy to find it

turns out they're almost impossible to

find I only have this small six-inch

forcep now which is still just as useful

but long forceps are really great for

cleaning out through halls under the

boat

or grabbing that nut or bolt that fell

down into the engine compartment and you

just can't get your fingers in there if

I had to do over I would buy several

pairs of forceps

make sure there's stainless steel it can

hold up to the saltwater environment I

didn't realize how hard it was to find

guitar strings in some of these islands

it's basically impossible if I had to do

over I definitely would have bought

extra guitar

I think I only brought one set salt

water and guitar strings just don't mix

make sure you have extras so that's the

end of our do overs video I hope you

guys find it helpful and useful for your

trip planning hopefully that will help

you avoid some of the stakes that we

made on our trip down south but hey you

know mistakes is learning thanks for

watching if you enjoyed this week's

video please don't forget to give us a

like or leave us a comment down below we

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