Being aboard with an infant

Being on a boat with a small baby, changes a lot. The lesser sailing time is one thing. But for us also the engine running time gets up. You can´t tack up on a force 5 with an infant rolling around in the cabin.
I met Sjaak last week in the harbour, who sailed with 3 childs on his boat. He said that every year a child grows is a sailing hour. Well you could argue with that.
On the other hand I sailed once in a fleet with a couple who raised their child during an Atlantic surrounding. Their son of an age of 3 as I met them, was well very close on the skirt of his mother, to say so. I met other 3 years olds, who seems much more open to the world and other children. I think, also hope, that these 2 extrema. In the end everybody has to find a way for themself. And for us ?

Well, there are certian things which might catch up on 27" boat for a small familiy. Geronimo has two cabins, the main cabin and the aft cabin. In the main cabin you have this big bed, if you lower down the table. It is an excellent playing area for an infant during stays in the harbour. But you lose the area as a living zone, especially during a rainy day. But more to this later.

Due the fact that an infant goes quite early to bed, you have to change your normal day routine. The problem is that the kitchen is next to the "big bed". So if you cook it is of course a little bit noisy, bad for baby´s sleep.
So you have your diner quite early or as we have done it, quite a bit, use a portable cooker and cook outside. What we will do to improve our life on Geronimo?

Buying another boat, no not up to now.

Well first of all we will order a couch roof for the galley. That gives us some additional room in the cockpit, especially for rainy and cold days.  We already have a cockpit tent, but if the wind comes sideways, it´s becoming nasty.

Second step is to rearrange the main cabin, but that will be done in the winter. The idea is to change the washroom area to a separate cabin and use the starboard aft cabin as bed with connection to the main cabin. The washroom area will be completly rearranged.

My wife in I think that we will motor a bit more than we have done the past. In the past the engine was just for getting in and out of the harbour, but now how will you handle your child in a force 5 or 6 when you traveling agianst it. The engine seems the comfortable way for it, but not the nicest.
So fhe first big step for improving our lifes on Geronimo is to improve the soundabsorber of the engine room. It is quite noisy in the aft cabin, where Chris sleeps during traveling. But thats an easy task.  I already ordered the Noise Absorber Foam 2600 and will install it this weekend. My test results will follow.

As you can see Chris sleeps very well in his "sleeping basket" back in the aft cabin. I also applied an transperant wind shield for the entry, so that Chris won´t be hit by the wind or incoming waves. 

In the moment we just use the Chicco Travel Seat just for feeding but, when Chris will sit without help the plan is to put him in the seat outside with us. You can fix it to a hatch, with it´s own straps.

What we also bought for chris is the Julbo Looping 3 child sunglass to protect his eyes from the sun

and the wind. It fits perfect and he doesn't start argueing with you, if you put them on. So I can recommend this glasses for a baby.