In this video, 12 Essential Items from 4 Years of Liveaboard Cruising, I introduce you to my brand new channel SAILING GEAR, a channel just for introducing new used and forgotten sailing gear and accessories for versatility, quality and practicality in an honest, unbiased way. In this video my partner and I cover some of the basic items we carry on our liveaboard cruising sailboat, Balachandra (details below) Be sure to check out our longstanding mainstream sailing channel, Sailing Balachandra as well! #sailinggear #sailingchannel #sailingbalachandra If you haven't yet SUBSCRIBED and wan to see more please click the SUBSCRIBE button above, and be sure to give this video a like! This channel is dedicated only to introducing, testing, and reviewing of applicable sailing and cruising equipment, accessories, and apparel both new and old to help out cruisers and boaters in the community to make informed decisions on what gear is available, what works, and what doesn't. Our goal is to deliver an honest un-biased opinion on all gear being tested. We do not take endorsements or payouts. Daniel Cormier is a full time liveaboard cruiser with 4+ years experience as a YouTube creator and influencer with his channel Sailing Balachandra. If you like our videos and want to see more/better videos, more often you can become a patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/sailingbalachandra Be sure to check out and SUBSCRIBE to our original channel, Sailing Balachandra, Our YouTube sailing vlog inspired by other great channels such as Delos, La Vagabonde, Sailing Uma and Project Atticus, we document the sailing adventures of myself (Dan) and my partner Nawal as we navigate the globe. We also dive into lots of DIY boat projects both above and below decks, and share with you all of the pros, cons, costs, essentials, trials and tribulations of living aboard a sailboat full time. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/sailingbalachandra This video was shot with equipment from Optrix by Body Glove, Nikon, Apple, GoPro, and Polaroid Opening Theme Music: Song: Omega 3 by Eaters Album: Watchmaker Untitled Creative Commons License Other Music: the YouTube Music Library Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sailingbalachandra Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sailingbalachandra Instagram: http://instagram.com/sailing_balachandra

Closed Captions (CC):
[Music]

if you're new to the channel i'm dan and

this is sailing gear i have another

long-running youtube

channel called sailing bella chandra and

sailing gear is a brand new channel i

created in order to test out new

used and forgotten sailing and cruising

gear in order to help out new and

existing cruisers

giving honest and unbiased opinions and

letting cruisers know what works

and what doesn't be sure to check out

the show notes below for links and

information

on all the gear and topics being

discussed

oh my this one's a good one walkie

talkies

i remember when dan and i first started

communicating with one another

when it came to docking and leaving the

dock and

even dropping the anchor or grabbing a

mooring ball

these walkie-talkies have saved us so

much

in anger and frustration before we had

them we would just

constantly scream at each other and by

the end of it

our moods would have changed

dramatically these walkie-talkies are

great

they're waterproof i've actually dropped

one in the drink once and it floated

it was really easy for me to retrieve it

i love that they have flashlights on

them as well

sometimes when dan and i separate and we

go to different

shops or different markets they actually

have a wide range

so dan could be on the boat and i could

be on shore

and i could just radio him from shore

and let him know hey i'm ready for you

to pick me up in the dinghy and he'd

just come right over

the internet connection here sucks yeah

i'm sure a lot of voters can relate to

like bad

weak internet connections so dan after

doing a lot of research

went online and purchased a internet

extension thing

see your laptop has an antenna inside

but it's like this tiny little thing and

most people don't realize that this

thing is actually an external antenna

that boosts how much of the wi-fi you

can actually receive and send

it's been really helpful for us i think

this one was about 40

on amazon i think every cruiser should

have one the number one

most important essential item we have on

board this boat

is our head torch the head torch is a

must have

item really do not go cruising without a

head torch

we use our head torch literally every

single day

whether it's going on deck to check when

you hear a noise or hoisting your dinghy

at night

driving your dinghy at night fixing

something on board

when you're sailing at night and you

need hands-free action

on deck but also be able to see a head

torch is the only way to get this done

make sure if you're buying a head torch

that you get one that has the option to

show a red light for night vision

and also if you can find one that is

rechargeable it'll save on batteries and

be a lot more convenient

our head torch is rechargeable and we

keep it charged up all the time

we also have a second head torch that we

keep on board as a backup because we

know how important a head torch really

is

we opted out for the cheaper version of

this thermostat that

will tell us what the temperature is

inside the boat

but also it just has a separate piece

that dan can

attach up on dad yeah no that's right

it's this wireless box that you can

install like anywhere

and the receiver will just give you the

temperature in that area

wherever it is so we put it up in the

cockpit that's giving us an accurate

temperature for the enclosure

when i first brought this mini lighter

plug inverter on board i wasn't sure how

much i would use it but once we were

offshore power

and cruising full time we used this

little unit constantly

this mini lighter plug inverter is from

xantex the same company who makes our

inverter an inverter controller

this little box is fantastic we can use

it day or night and it doesn't have a

large drain on our batteries

during the day it's powerful enough to

charge a laptop but light enough that

you can charge just about anything else

like an electric razor or the battery

for our nikon dslr camera

on one end it's simply just a lighter

plug and on the other

a typical 115 household receptacle what

we love about this mini inverter

is that we're able to charge a single

item anytime without running our main

inverter which would draw down the

battery's significantly

so i went on amazon and was looking for

some closed cell foam to use for

insulation and i picked up these ones

that are designed

for cars for like sound dampening or

whatever but i mean on one side there's

an adhesive layer and on the other side

there's boil layer

and it makes like a really good

insulation for the back of the cupboard

here so we put this in here to control

the moisture

it's working really good so far i love

my pressure cooker it saves me so much

time in the kitchen

and also saves us on propane i prefer to

cook

dried beans and lentils and chickpeas

from dried

rather than using can only because i

find that the texture of the bean

is way more satisfactory also i

noticed that i'm not going through as

many cans and there's not so many cans

filling up my garbage bin

which is great when you can't always get

to shore to offload that garbage

we're now on our second pressure cooker

our first pressure cooker was made by

t fall and it actually split open we had

to throw it away

one item we definitely cannot live

without is our collapsible trolley cart

we've talked about this one before on

the channel but it's definitely worth

adding to this list

a lot of the essentials you'll be

looking for anything you need to collect

ashore or bring with you whether it be

parts

jerry cans water or groceries is much

easier to transport on a trolley cart

versus carrying the dead weight we use

our trolley cart pretty much

any time we stop in a new port and we

find it very convenient

we would not be doing this trip without

our trolley cart about halfway through

our cruising in the caribbean

all of the insides of our magma marine

barbecue

had deteriorated due to exposure and

needed to be thrown away we were able to

purchase magma's replacement parts

and rebuild the inside of our barbecue

another cruising boat had a brand new

magma barbecue which also failed roughly

around the same time

needing a full replacement of all of the

inside parts if you're going to cruise

with a magma barbecue you may want to

consider purchasing and carrying spare

parts for your barbecue

even though they are made for the marine

environment they do not last

we have two propane regulators on bella

chandra one for our primary propane

tanks which fuels our galley stove

we also use small camping style barbecue

propane cylinders

on our magma boat bbq both of our

propane regulators failed

after roughly 9 to 12 months into our

full-time cruising

this is the first time i've had a

propane regulator fail on me

and i assume it's due to salt corrosion

and the marine environment

however it could simply just be due to

overuse but we use the galley stove

much more often than we use the barbecue

but both propane regulators failed at

roughly the same time

we were lucky to purchase new propane

regulators in the eastern caribbean

as there are marine stores scattered

about and you can find one

these days most boats carry an iridium

go and recently we purchased a garmin

inreach a garmin inreach 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 a do-over i would have just

bought a garmin inreach it's way cheaper

than a satellite phone or an iridium go

and just as useful and would have been

perfect for getting us to bermuda as

long as we used our single side band

radio

and chris parker to get our weather we

just brought our life raft in to get

serviced

and i removed the old hydrostatic

release and i want to see if it actually

works

this one is dated 2013.

so just for all you out there who wanted

to know if an expired hydrostatic

release

actually still will release your life

raft

let's find out you ready

that's about as deep as i can go with

with the pole here

well let's see if it worked still

attached

your life raft might have to be really

deep in the water

before it can actually release if your

boat was sinking so you want to get it

deep enough that the water pressure

causes it to release

i think what it boils down to is get a

new hydrostatic release when your

hydrostatic release is expired

this rope is supposed to cut when this

is submerged i just submerged it in

about seven feet of water

we tried out the hydrostatic release

yesterday

on the boat hook and it didn't work so i

tried it again but the sun went down so

i didn't get a video of it

but i tried it on a little anchor that i

have for the dinghy

and 25 feet of rope and look

it actually worked but it had to go down

at least 25 feet

under water in order to actually

activate and for the little

blade in here to cut this wire which is

what releases your life raft

like that so this one's expired i think

they're supposed to work in shallower

water so if you have an expired one it

might actually work but your

boat has to go pretty far down so if you

sink in shallow water

your life raft might not deploy 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 the 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

thanks for watching i hope you guys

enjoyed this new channel sailing gear

and make sure you check out the show

notes below for links and information on

all the topics discussed

if you want you can leave a like or a

comment and please subscribe just go

below look for that big red subscribe

button press that button

and be sure to check out our other

channel on youtube sailingvalleychandra

where you can become a patreon member

and support both channels

thanks see you later