Chicago Boat Show boat thoughts

This year's Chicago Strictly Sail show was the first one Deb and I attended were we weren't looking for "The Boat". We found Kintala last year while at the show (hard to believe it has been a year) so, this year, we were looking at stuff we think we need (want) to put on "The Boat" before casting off our shore lines. Reading cruising blogs and books and gazing at pictures of cruising boats, our Tartan would appear to be far from ready for big water. Things she lacks include: dink & motor, autopilot, dodger, chart plotter, AIS, RADAR, solar panels, wind generator, stone-reliable furler, (the one we have appears too small for the task) proper anchor chain, (what we have is mis-matched to the windlass) water-maker, AC inverter, sea anchor / drogue, storm trisail & jib, and some kind of stern anchor. That seems like an impossibly long, and expensive, list.

But here is my current list of things I think we must have before going: dink & motor, autopilot, storm trisail & jib, drogue / sea anchor, AIS, and a stone-reliable furler. (Okay, I know there is no such a thing but ours appears undersized and is stone-cold unreliable.)

High on the list of things I would really like to have is a chart plotter, RADAR and dodger. As a long time airplane driver I loves me some GPS moving map. I am also an expert at RADAR and can imagine 100 different scenarios where having one would be a damned good idea. As for a dodger, the companionway on our 1982 Tartan 42 is simply a hatch in the cabin roof. Without a dodger the only two choices are close the the boat up tight or let the rain and spray fall inside.

But I'm pretty sure I can find the Bahamas with a hand held GPS and a paper chart. If hanging out on a limb I am absoluty sure I can find North America from just about anywhere in the Atlantic by looking at the sun, the North Star, and anything even close to being a compass. (One could probably follow the contrails and even hit a major city.) Just sitting at our little lake we have an old Garman chart plotter, two smart phones (complete with GPS and compass aps) an iPad, and two laptops. How much navigation stuff does one boat really need?

As for the other stuff, we can leave home without it...and probably will.