u/KnotWiseApp

Planning the sail inventory for a longer passage and going back and forth on the light-wind / downwind options.

The Parasailor gets a lot of love from shorthanded crews for its stability, but it’s expensive and rigging it solo sounds like an adventure. A standard asymmetric gennaker on a furler seems more practical for a two-person crew on long watches.

Code 0 I’d consider if we were doing more reaching, but for trades-wind sailing it feels like overkill.

Would be curious to hear from anyone who’s done an Atlantic or Pacific crossing:

• What did you wish you had?
• What stayed in the bag the whole time?
• Reefing / furling in 25+ knots — how did it go?

Boat context: fin-keel 47 footer, fractional rig, short-handed (2 people most of the time).

Curious how others deal with this on longer passages. We carry a fairly complete medical kit, which includes some prescription-only items — and for proper offshore passages, things like strong opioid analgesics that technically fall under narcotics regulations.

Practically speaking: do you carry a doctor's letter for everything? Translated copies for each country? Some ports seem to barely glance at it, others are very thorough.

Specific things I'd love to hear about:

• Your documentation setup for controlled substances
• Countries where you had real scrutiny (Caribbean, Pacific, SE Asia)
• Whether a ship's medical log / official logbook entry has ever helped — or been requested

Not looking for legal advice, just real-world experience from people who've been through clearance in more than a handful of countries.