Packing for a 16 Month Trip

In the next 16 months we will be visiting the UK, driving from BC to Mexico, sailing around the Baja and then crossing to New Zealand, visiting tropical islands en route. Once in New Zealand we plan to explore the 2 islands for a few months, car camping and hiking. Raven is no doubt well outfitted and we will stock up on food and drink in Mexico before the crossing, but we must still consider what clothing to bring for the various climates and activities as well as medical supplies to deal with emergencies when help is potentially weeks away. In addition, we need to stay in touch with people back home and entertain ourselves while underway.

It does help that we have done something similar to this, but even so, we have spent many hours over the last couple of months planning, buying equipment, and packing. An added complication is that we are renting our house and although we have left the furnishings, we have had to pack and store everything else. This amounts to a startling number of boxes stuffed into our crawlspace and a modest sized but quite full heated storage locker.

Most of what is going with us - a car load

Following is a rough list of what we are bringing

• Clothing suitable for tropics and hiking in NZ in the spring and summer - bought some nice new hiking boots with good ankle support to help Rani avoid another leg break. The 2 red duffle bags in the picture contain our clothing
• Two inflatable kayaks to allow all of us to explore individually from the boat - we may use these in NZ if they survive that long. These are Intex Challenger K1 kayaks - inexpensive but they get good reviews and our one test paddle indicates they are decently made and perform adequately 
• Full first aid kit including a suite of prescription antibiotics and other medications to deal with infections, leg and arm splints, dressings, ointments, etc. This fills 3 small boxes
• Cameras - SLR and underwater we used on our last trip. We also have 2 smart phones we can use in a pinch if the cameras fail
• Netbooks - 2 for navigation and communications including doing this blog - again left over from our last trip. They survived a few years on the boat and hopefully will last another couple
• Big USB hard drive with ebooks, music, and recorded movies and TV shows + room to back up our photos and movies, ebook readers, batteries and battery chargers
• Snorkeling gear
• Books for reading and reference, playing cards, farkle dice, ukulele and music
• Backpacks and sleeping bags, hiking poles
• Art supplies for Rani's drawing and painting
• Gifts - clothing and other small gifts for giving and trading along the way

It all adds up to maybe 50 cubic feet and when added to what Kurt and Nancy will be bringing will make for a very full carload on the trip from Northern California to Ensenada!