Great Loop 2022: Packing for a Five-Week Trip

What to take, what to leave behind, how to get it in two bags.

I do a lot of long-term traveling — I’ve been going south every winter for about 8 years now — and, over time, I’ve gotten a pretty good idea of how to pack for a long trip. But there’s a huge difference between packing for a three-month road trip with my own truck and camper and packing for a five-week boat trip that will require airline flights on both ends. The main difference is, I have limited space in my luggage and need to bring what I need — and only what I need.

How do I decide what I’ll need?

Well, for clothes I think about the weather where I’m going. It’s the US east coast, on the water. Weather seems to be in the 50s to 70s where I’m starting in Charleston, South Carolina and will likely be the same as we make our way north up the coast at a leisurely pace. So I won’t need clothes for cold weather, although layers is always a good idea no matter what the weather is supposed to be. Because it’s the east coast — and not the desert I’m used to — rain is definitely a possibility, so I’ll need some rain gear. Although Capt John said he had rain jackets on board, I’d rather have my own lightweight rain jacket/wind breaker for light precipitation and reach for his if the weather gets very bad. (A loose-fitting outer layer that breaks the wind is always a good idea on a boat anyway.) I’ll need shorts if it gets very warm and long pants if it doesn’t or to wear at night. I’ll need comfy clothes to hang out on the boat and maybe a few nice blouses if we go out to dinner or socialize at marinas. I’ll need deck shoes and hiking shoes and flip flops. I’ll need a hat and a bandana. And I’ll need the usual collection of undergarments and t-shirts for daily wear. I’m bringing all of the Great Loop related t-shirts I acquired on my previous trip. How much I bring depends on how often I can expect to do laundry. Although I’ll likely have access to a laundry facility at least once a week, I’d rather go less often if I can, so I’ll pack for nearly two weeks.

For my writing and video chores, I need cameras, including my GoPros, and my drone. The GoPros work with camera mounts and power cords to keep them powered while running and battery packs to attach those cords to. I don’t actually need the drone, but I really do like getting drone’s eye views of the areas around us. On my last trip, I only launched it two or three times and never while we were under way. There simply wasn’t enough room on deck to land it, let alone land it while we were moving. This boat is larger and I’m hoping I can launch and retrieve it from the boat, even while we’re moving. I’d love to practice getting footage of the boat as it navigates the channels. The Follow feature should make that easy. (Fingers are crossed.) Of course, I also need a laptop to do my writing and to process all the video I acquire. And external hard disks to store all those files. If there’s no wifi on board or at the marinas, I’ll use my Phone’s hotspot to connect to the internet and share what I create.

FAA rules don’t allow lithium batteries in checked luggage unless installed in devices. For drones, they don’t even allow batteries in devices to be checked. That means two bags; one to carry my drone and other batteries on board and another to hold all the stuff I can cram into it so I don’t have to deal with it on board the plane.

Because I’m hoping to learn a lot about trip planning, navigation, and boat handling on this trip — and to log my time on the water for my captain’s license — I’ll need my iPad with navigation app (I use Aqua Map these days), various trip planning references (like Waterway Guide for the ICW), and my log book. On my last trip, I brought along a pile of navigation stuff and used very little of it, mostly because some was duplicated onboard and the Captain already had a plan of all the stops, which we pretty much stuck to. So the trick is to not bring the books I don’t expect to use. Easy enough: I’m just bringing one.

Of course, my iPad will also give me access to library books and Chapman’s Guide, the ultimate boating reference that I really should be studying. Aqua Map gives me access to Waterway Guide data, too. And if Capt John’s boat has a network and AIS receiver, I should be able to connect Aqua Map to it and display traffic on my iPad. Nerdy cool.

I also need to bring along things to keep me busy when we’re not under way or doing something off the boat. I know from experience that my jewelry making stuff doesn’t travel well, but I have picked up another hobby that’s extremely portable: watercolor painting. (Really; the biggest thing is the paper pad and the one I have is 7″ x 7″. That’s pretty small.) I’m very interested in trying my hand at painting seascapes or coastal/boating scenes. And again, I have books on my iPad and podcasts on my phone.

The last few things I have on my packing table are my life jacket — a small, comfortable collar type — and some bedding. While Capt John has all that on board, I know from my previous boat experience that the Captain’s tastes and my tastes don’t always match. Those big padded life jackets are not comfortable so I’m less likely to don one when walking out on the gunwales. Mine is perfect and, hopefully, I can hang it on a hook in the cockpit — as I did on Nano — so it’s handy when I need it. As for the bedding, well, I slept horribly on my last boat trip for three reasons: (1) I had to share a very small space with another large person, (2) my roommate snored very loudly, and (3) my bedding was not comfortable. (For the record, I cannot sleep well with synthetic fiber next to my skin.) On this trip, I’ll have sleeping space all to myself, thus knocking out problems 1 and 2. I’m not taking any chances with problem 3 and hope to pack a cotton sleeping sack and lightweight fleece sleeping bag — if I can fit them in my bag.

My dining room table with most of what I’m packing laid out.

The biggest challenge to me is keeping everything organized so I can find it when I need it. That means pouches and zip-up bags for the small stuff like cables. I even packed all my toiletries into a “shower bag” that I’ll use during the trip to tote shampoo, soap, and clothes to a marina shower. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to unpack on the boat — I really don’t know what kind of storage I’ll have access to. My big rolling suitcase has no spine so it folds up very small.

So packing this time around is basically a challenge of bringing only what I need and will use and getting it packed into two bags. I’m working on it.