Peparation & Handover

Hi Sandra here, and I have a question for you.  Have you ever tried to drink water from a fire hydrant?  I must admit I haven’t tried that (lol) but I can get a clear mental image of what it would be like.  So much water pouring out that we are overwhelmed, and we can only take in a small fraction of what is coming our way.  This is exactly the feeling Peter and I experienced when we considered all the various tasks to be completed before pick up of Sea Goddess in June.

Here is just a snapshot:

• cull, sort, pack, sell, donate, store all our personal and household possessions;
• find a rental property to live in between house settlement and heading to France;
• sell Sandra’s car;
• purchase a wide range of equipment and resources for Sea Goddess;
• organise a storage facility and transport our ‘keep’ possessions to the facility;
• investigate and organise boat insurance;
• undertake theoretical and practical sail training – check out the list of courses we are scheduled to complete http://seagoddessadventures.com/sail-training/
• a heap of financial, work-related and personal matters; and
• continuing to work our regular jobs.

Managing chaos with Sticky Notes!

Just thinking about all that had to be done was overwhelming, we also knew that being busy in our regular working lives meant there was high potential for things to be forgotten.  I love making lists and sub lists, I’m the Queen of Lists!  So this was my go to solution – create a book of lists, a list for each category of tasks.  Peter put a different spin on this idea by suggesting we use a visual approach, mind mapping, with the use of Sticky Notes (or Post It Notes).  

So that’s exactly what we did, creating a raft of Sticky Notes with individual tasks to be completed by the 30th June on each note.  Some of the larger tasks were broken down into smaller tasks just to more easily monitor progression towards completion of that task.  We then identified a large blank wall space in our kitchen-dining room for placement of the Sticky Notes, but first we needed to prioritise the tasks.

Using four small index cards (you could use whatever card you like), we wrote 1, 2, 3 and Done! on each card. 1 was the highest priority in terms of importance and urgency, 3 being lowest priority and non-urgent.  We left some space between Card 3 and Done! – here we placed tasks that were in progress and took particular notice of how these activities were tracking.

We decided not to dispose of Sticky Notes on completion of each task, preferring to transfer these under the Done! index card.  It has given us a great sense of satisfaction to see the number of Sticky Notes grow in the ‘Done’ section.  As new tasks emerged we added to our initial pack of Sticky Notes, so the process is ever evolving.

This task management strategy while simple in its form and execution has been remarkedly successful – keeping us on track and ensuring activities do not get lost or forgotten amongst the busy-ness of our daily lives.  Some would suggest that using an electronic task function would work just as well, and I agree that this is a viable option.  I guess the reason this strategy has been so successful for us is that it is right there in our face at several points in time every day, in fact every time we sit down for a meal.  We have a bit of a reconnaissance and check out the Sticky Note wall at least every second day – looking to see where tasks are at, what’s been completed, what needs to be started.

The decision to purchase a catamaran overseas, fit out the catamaran with all the necessary equipment and resources for an ocean passage, sail it to your home port, and swapping your land-based life to one permanently living aboard is a huge undertaking.  Developing a system to identify and manage all the various components associated with such a massive change is crucial.  We used and continue to use the humble Sticky Note, and its working brilliantly.

If you’ve adopted or tried a different approach, we would love to hear about it.  Drop us a line or two at http://seagoddessadventures.com/contact-us/

With the sale of our Mooloolaba home in December 2018 and pick up of Sea Goddess scheduled for July, the first half of 2019 is shaping up to be super busy. So, what’s on the To Do List?

Here is just a snapshot – packing up, selling and donating a heap of household furniture, appliances and other items. Investigating and purchasing equipment and resources for Sea Goddess and living aboard. Researching freight forwarders and marine equipment suppliers. Finding short term rental accommodation for 4 months between settlement of our house and leaving for France. Sail training. Checking out flight and accommodation options in France. And did I mention we are both working our regular full time jobs? Phew!!

But within all this busy-ness there is a strong underlying sense of excitement and being on the cusp of something super special.

So how are we managing the myriad of tasks in play? Essentially through an integrated system of spreadsheets and mind mapping.

In this article we focus on the researching, decision making and purchasing processes we used to address the extensive equipment and resources required to set up and live aboard a new 42′ catamaran from scratch. 

We started by creating three main spreadsheets:

• Equipment and resources for Sea Goddess (SS1)
• Clothing and personal items (SS2)
• Live aboard equipment and resources (SS3)

SS1 – Equipment and resources for Sea Goddess

Firstly, we brainstormed everything we could think of that we would need (and there were also some ‘wants’ in there too but these were kept to a minimum). We also had some help from the internet and the offshore preparation course that we attended in November. (For more information about this course head to http://seagoddessadventures.com/offshore-cruising-preparation-course/).  At the end of our research Column B of the spreadsheet contained a comprehensive list of equipment and resources needed to sail Sea Goddess from France to Australia and beyond. Items included everything from life rafts, to first aid, to spare parts, to cleaning. We also denoted the item category in Column C – Safety, Navigation, Maintenance, Cleaning and the like.

Once we had the list in place the next step was to prioritise items on the list, and we used a 1, 2 and 3 rating scale in Column A of the spreadsheet to do so. 1 = Essential, 2 = Would be Useful, 3 = Nice to have but not essential. In assigning 1, 2 or 3 we also considered the ‘when’ factor. What did we need straight away and what could we do without, whilst not compromising safety and our wellbeing as well as catamaran performance. Budget was also a consideration in our decision making. So now we had a personalised list of equipment and resources. We then used the sort function to group items according to priority and category. 

In our next step we identified four preferred marine suppliers and created a column for each supplier. Why four? We checked out a number of supplier websites in Australia, and these suppliers had a good range of products, the websites were easy to navigate, and they had an online purchase option.

The next stage in our process was quite time consuming, as we not only checked out supplier websites but also a number of review websites and forums as well. As with products in other sectors our research threw up a number of variables, and we found we weren’t always comparing apples with apples. However, we chose not to get too bogged down on this and moved forward by comparing manufacturers and the specifications of each product. Once we had decided on the product for purchase, we checked out availability and pricing on each supplier website and noted the item price in the relevant supplier column, and used the comment function to add additional information if necessary. (Where an item was unavailable at a particular supplier the spreadsheet cell was left blank).

Whilst price was not the only determining factor, it was a major factor. For the same product by the same manufacturer, in the size, colour we wanted etc. we went with the supplier advertising the cheapest price. Once we made our decision we highlighted the cell in green according to the supplier we would use.

SS2&3 – Clothing & Living Aboard

We also created similar spreadsheets for clothing, as well as living aboard equipment and resources. The latter had several categories – cabins, galley, heads, cockpit. We made these lists as comprehensive as possible, going through each cupboard, drawer and shelf in our home and wardrobes noting those items we would need or want on Sea Goddess. We also added some additional items including specific sail clothing, non-breakable kitchen items, utensils that would survive the marine environment and so on. Again, each list was prioritised (1, 2 or 3), and our decision making was similar to above. 

Once the items for ‘Clothing & Living Aboard’ were entered and prioritised, we inserted a new column into both spreadsheets.  In this column we assigned three abbreviations – BIF (Buy In France), FTF (Freight to France for items we already had), and BAF (Buy And Freight i.e. buy in Australia). From here we were able to create and print shopping lists by using the Excel ‘Sort’ function. Easy, Peasy!

Our Buying Process

To date we are about quarter way through SS1, and half way though SS2 & 3.

Being December – January we took advantage of the Christmas-New Year sales to purchase a number of items both online and in store, particularly for the clothing and living aboard categories.  Peter is focused on SS1 and the ‘big ticket’ items including life raft, life jackets, EPERB’s, communication and the like. He is chatting with a number of manufacturer’s and suppliers who have been extremely helpful.  Using the SS1 spreadsheet we can bundle equipment purchases according to supplier and hopefully when we buy negotiate a better price based on $$ spend. 

We are keen to support local suppliers, and as such will continue to purchase as much equipment and resources here in Australia. For some equipment, warranties and ease of servicing are important considerations as well. One downside is the freight charges associated with this approach, but we are prepared to accept the additional cost. 

Creating three spreadsheets – Sea Goddess, Clothing and Living Aboard, prioritising items and investigating equipment options, specifications, suppliers and pricing has been a worthwhile investment of time and energy.  It has focused our purchasing process and ensured we are getting the right products at the best price.

If you would like a copy of the equipment and resources included in our spreadsheets, drop us an email http://seagoddessadventures.com/contact-us/

Visit again soon to read about how we used Post It Notes to manage the myriad of tasks with a 30th June deadline.