While a perfectly decent (hell maybe ideal) small cruiser, we mostly race, daysail, and overnight on BlueJ, a trailerable 24.5 foot, lifting keel Beneteau First 260. Most of our cruising now takes place on 30 and 40 footers. But over the last 3 days, Jodi has been away at her sisters. So with the weather looking perfect, I moved to the boat, and spent 3 days and 2 night in pure cruise mode, spending the entire time on the boat unless to dock to buy more food or booze. The only exception was working in the morning from 5:30 to 11:30, which only requires my cell phone, personal hotspot, and laptop. Beyond reminding me how fun small boat cruising can be, it reinforces some commandments that I noted as to not ever forget. Have a look, comment, add your own!
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- While a grill is nice for grilling, you need a way to cook and make hot water in the galley.
- Have a separate cooler for drink ice, away from the icebox or fridge
- Have a coffee solution. Think what you want, Medaglia d’Oro instant coffee is pretty damn good in the morning on the boat. Really.
-If you like ‘stuff’ in your coffee, that ‘stuff’ must make it to the boat.
- Unpack and/or repack foods to save extra packaging that you have to store until land.
- EVERYONE will eat Ramen if hungry enough. Squirrel some away. Thank me later.
- IDIOTS run wild just after sunset. You have been warned.
- Even for smallish boats, Lazy Jacks are the best investment for the boat I’ve made in years.
- There is 100% correlation between the comfort of all-day sailing and the quality of your head situation
- If your boat has a freshwater tank and at least one sink, for gods sake use it. There’s nothing more civilized than being able to wash your hands or brush your teeth with fresh running water over a sink.
- 'Campsoap' is non-foaming, bio-degradable, and can used to wash everything from face&hands to dishes to hair to clothes. OK maybe not ladies hair.
- All lights need to be LED
- The better your anchor, the better you sleep
- Anchor in 25-35 feet of water; unless sandy NEVER less unless you want to pull up 100 lbs of smelly dirty weeds
- The farther you are away from shore, the less bugs there are.
- I have 3 words for you. Memory. Foam. Mattress.
- Even in July, it gets cold at night!
- Big trash bags. Have them, use them.
- You need a great/easy way back on the boat from the water. Always available
- You cannot have too many USB chargers on the boat. But they are useless without cables.
- The more opening hatches you have, the happier you will be. Screens too.
- If you like quality music while sailing, have a quality music solution. While I love BT mini-speakers, that is NOT the solution for a sailboat.
- Fly your US Flag when cruising. Take down your race flag!
- While a GPS/chart will do, nothing can take the place of a true depth sounder.
- Fix anything broken. Something which is a minor thing for you when daysailing with bros can become a much bigger issue for your weekend ‘crew’ if it’s broken.
- Here’s a big one, and I learned this from Jodi. The more the boat is like home, the more your female companion will want to be on it. No matter how much they like to sail, that’s a truth. Have the conveniences. Have it clean. Have it work. Think about it. Ever wonder why we have throw pillows and a blender on BlueJ?
I clicked the link to see what a horse condom looks like and all I got was replacement screens. 
