How to Equip A Sailboat To Sail Across The Gulf. Sailing Gear

What You Need To Take To Sail Across The Gulf Of Mexico. 

My wife and I crossed the Gulf Of Mexico several times on our sailboat named Rising Star. Sailing across the Gulf Of Mexico is nothing to take lightly. It can be one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world under the right weather circumstances.

The Gulf Of Mexico is prone to freak Gulf Stream currents that are not on the charts. Shipping traffic is very heavy and there are cold fronts in fall, winter and spring and hurricanes and tropical storms in summer and fall.

Here are some things you should have onboad a cruising sailboat to cross the Gulf Of Mexico.

Navigation

Don't leave port without all the charts that you might need to seek refuge along the coast of the Gulf Of Mexico.  If you have to change your plans becuase of weather or other problems you should have charts for every possible landfall. In addition to a large scale chart of the Gulf Of Mexico you should have a table showing the GPS coordinates of harbor entrances up and down the Gulf coast, as well as chartlets of different harbor entrances in case of emergency. Don't rely on GPS alone. Carry multiple GPS units in case of lighting strike but also carry backup paper charts and of course a good, calibrated compass.

Safety Gear

Make sure you have a life raft on board of ample size for everyone onboard. It shoud be offshore rated and inspected. Make sure you have a "ditch bag" containing drinking water, energy bars, fishing gear, a knife, flares (in addition to a SOLAS flare kit onboard), a signal mirror, whistle, VHF handheld waterproof radio (in addition to the VHF and SSB onboard), plus a couple of emergency blankets and whatever else you might think of to help you survive a few days adrift in a life raft.

You should have a registered, inspected, 406 EPIRB satellite emergency rescue beacon. We carried two, one that would float free and another that we could place with us in the life raft.

Make sure your masthead light and other navigational lights are in good working condition. A tricolor light on top the mast is a common choice for cruising sailboats because it can be seen at a greater distance. 

A good RADAR reflector is a must. Shipping traffic in the Gulf Of Mexico is heavy, with tankers loaded with oil from the Mideast on the way to Gulf Coast refineries, container ships and ore ships.

While they show up clearly on your RADAR you won't show up very well on theirs. A sailboat has a very poor RADAR profile and you need a RADAR reflector, placed as high as possible to make you look bigger. Sailboats are as stealthy in the water as a stealth fighter is in the air. In the same way that the stealth fighter jet and bomber elude RADAR, with rounded edges, a sailboat is barely noticeable on RADAR. We chose the Firdell Blipper RADAR reflector after reading the reviews in Cruising World Magazine.

A good RADAR is also helpful for a Gulf crossing. Learn how to use your guard zone settings to warn of approaching ships.

Also, make sure that you know how to recognize the navigational lights of approaching ships so that you can tell what heading they are on. 

Since storms can brew up unexpectadly on a Gulf Of Mexico crossing, a storm trisail and a good drogue or parachute anchor is recommended.

Make sure that your boat has had a thorugh going-over before departure and that your water and fuel tanks are full.

Carry extra water in other jugs in case your main water tank becomes contamanated, as once happened to us.

Make sure you and your crew are well rested and have your schedule of standing watches worked out. Make sure you have ample food on board plus spares of sails, etc.