Traveler,
As well as the above, I do find I am more prone to sea sickness now than two years ago. Why? I think simply it's more stressful for me.
But, earlier I mentioned about knowing your boat. One of the first things you should understand is that mechanical failures do NOT happen randomly. But one thing can lead to another.
I learned this early on, after being stranded in the front range of Colorado, when my fuel injection belt broke. It took almost all day to get home, next day go to dealer to get new belt, then finally a few days later, get back to car. As I'm changing the belt, I noticed a one inch by 1/4" sliver of the fan belt sticking out.
What had happened is that silver, after going around zillions of times, was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and got wedged between the fuel injection belt and it's pulley, thus braking the belt.
I had seen this fray in the fan belt, but since I carried a spare fan belt, I figured there was no haste in changing it.
I was wrong and learned a valuable lesson.
Richard,
First, as I vicariously experienced your recent crossing, I couldn't help but wonder "what is this poor guy's plan B, if he should have a breakdown." I prayed for you, literally.
Second, I do my best to stay on top of everything in my boat. My engines are white, there is no rust, and the earliest indication of anything leaking or overheating or making a funny noise or consuming more fuel than it should, or the transmission slipping (because I have a digital tach and compare shaft rpm x reduction against indicated rpm), or anything smelling funny, or any vibration, etc., I will be on it. When I change and impeller, the new one comes from my spares and the replacement goes into spares. Same thing with filters, etc. My oil analyses look fine. There are little things I keep an eye one -- my port side stabilizer weeped a few drops but no longer leaks. My bilges are dry and my bilge pump counters are always "0".
As far as Solas, I have two epirbs a dinghy, a well equipped ditch bag and an offshore life raft. Plus other life saving equipment including oxygen (but not enough to get back to shore), an automatic defibrillator, oftentimes a trauma surgeon (a buddy), and a surgical kit (my buddy says its good enough to deal with a wound or remove an appendix -- but if I should have a heart attack, he is not equipped to conduct a transplant from my loyal deckhand -- in fact, I am pretty sure he doesn't have anesthesia, but we always have lots of beer).
When my raft needs to be serviced, I am going to let it go out of service and buy a new one. Then half way through the service life of the new one, I will have the old one serviced. That way I will always have two rafts, one in service and the other half way out (see, I am not that risk averse).
All of that said, I am not convinced that mechanical failures do not happen randomly. I do understand that if the device were to be disassembled and inspected immediately before the failure the failure could be predicted with a high degree of certainty. And I understand that, short of disassembly, inspection and related attention will reveal a high percentage of the problems that disassembly would reveal, but my belief is that there is lots of stuff going on that can't be seen with only superficial attention -- that's the stuff I worry about. (Above, the comment was made that my propensity to worry about these remote probabilities may be a personality characteristic, and I acknowledged that may be the case -- and happily so since
, on an intellectual level, I believe my concerns are exaggerated I can happily ignore them. And that is the root of my problem -- I do not yet intellectually recognize that there is no cause for concern. In fact, I cannot quantify how much cause for concern there is.)
I hope I am not giving anyone the impression that I am paralyzed with fear. I still use my boat for the biggest adventure my schedule permits, without hesitation. I just think I miss a little fun by being undully concerned about mechanical failures. (Ironically, I am not concerned about operator error, which is probably the more likely fault.)