We are glad that we have time to get Lulu ready for our transatlantic sail, because we have factored in the possibility that some things will require extra administration along the way. Our latest challenge has been buying an EPIRB, which is an emergency radio beacon that can alert emergency services via satellite if our boat ever is in serious trouble. We tried buying one in the summer, but the vendor clearly didn’t know what information they needed and requested all sorts of unnecessary information, which made me nervous enough to cancel the sale.
Since we have to have an EPIRB for the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers), I tried again to buy one, this time from a different vendor who seemed to have a better handle on what information they needed to be able to program the EPIRB for Lulu. I included the necessary information in the order, and our new EPIRB arrived at the house in short order. Only the vendor made a typo with our boat address, so in order to use it we either have to send it back to the UK and have it re-programmed and then sent back to us; or find a vendor in Sweden to do it.
This isn’t a huge hurdle, just irritating and again I am thankful that we have the time to get it resolved. One frustration is with the manufacturer McMurdo / Sea of Solutions is that they don’t let us as owners / users do our own MMSI programming. We would have double, triple and quadruple checked that the MMSI was correct. Fortunately, we found a vendor in Sweden who could re-program the EPIRB, and the original vendor refunded us the extra costs. We also are registered with the Swedish JRCC (emergency services), so one more item can be checked off on our list!