Life at sea

More and more, I find myself thinking about life at sea, mostly aboard a trimaran. I occurred to me how similar offshore sailing is to space travel; a mostly isolated existence, surrounded by an indifferent medium where you cannot rely on rescue, with limited communications with anyone else and where you must rely on the tools, materials, supplies, and skills you brought with you. In some cases, the sailor even must wear a protective suit to safely leave the ship.

According to most sources I've found, trimarans are essentially unsinkable if built properly. They can be destroyed, which means a lifeboat is still prudent. They can be capsized, in which case it's ideal to be able to survive on an inverted craft or be able to right it without assistance. But overall they seem in many ways more desirable than conventional monohulls for cruising purposes.

How would I live at sea? What foods would I take, and how would I prepare them? Where would I get my water, and how would I dispose of waste? Would I compost it? What tools and supplies and skills would I need to deal with the inevitable problems? Which redundant things are prudent, and which are dead weight? I find myself imagining storing everything I own in watertight cases or other containers in the event of a capsize; would I have the discipline to maintain that? Maybe I should keep everything I own now in cardboard boxes, so I can see if I could stand to open and close boxes all the time. In any event, I own a lot less than I did a month ago; save for a few days I spent traveling, I mostly held to my purge schedule. There are still a few major things to get rid of; fine china, silverware, that sort of thing. But I'm pleased by the ability to easily open my "junk drawer" which now contains almost nothing, and with the piles of stuff that are now no longer taking up space.

What about growing food? Or catching it? Fish are an obvious choice, and seaweed may well be a viable option. It's something to think about.