ARC Altantic crossing with baby- feasible or stupid?

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ejbcook

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Hi, My husband and I were planning to do the 2013 ARC Atlantic crossing in November on our friends boat which is a First 40.7. However, I have discovered I am now pregnant which complicates matters! The baby is due in June and will be 5 months old when we would set off. I am desperately keen still to do it and the other members of crew are happy to have the baby on board (they were the ones that suggested I still came). My husband however thinks it is too risky.
We have done quite a bit of yacht racing and a few longer trips including a crossing from Cork in Ireland across the Bay of Biscay to Spain which was very rough at times but would not call ourselves experienced sailors. Our friends who own the boat are much more experienced. We are both doctors so have medical knowledge and would take a pretty comprehensive first aid kit.
I plan to still be breast feeding at 5 months and wouldn't want to leave the baby for the 2-3 weeks it would take. We have found a few blogs on the web of people that have taken babies on long sailing trips but don't know if we are being stupid to even consider it?
Any advice would be gratefully received!
 
I don't see that it would be dangerous, but at five months the bairn will be on the cusp of crawling. Able to roll over. At five months we were seeing development literally every day. Not the right time to be stuck on a boat.

Assuming this is your first I don't think you'll even want to do it once the bairn arrives

I think you'll be better or sticking to cruising a few hours at a time and spreading out a blanket to give the bairn some stimulating play off the boat in the gaps between sailing.

I actually think it might even be a bit cruel, the poor thing is really going to struggle sitting up on a rocking boat. Even the gentlest grass slope was enough to frustrate our daughters attempts to roll or sit up. I think 3 weeks of rocking would have driven her crazy.

So a no vote from me.

But there's no reason not to take a baby on shorter trips. Ours loves it.
 
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People have. I don't think you'd be being crazy or irresponsible. But it may still not be a terribly good idea.

At what point do you have to commit? Can you leave it undecided for now and see whether you still feel the same after a month or two of parenthood?

Pete
 
parents find it easier to cope with their own babies crying better than others do. On a boat theres no getting away from it, and if you have just got to sleep after a night watch....

You would also be more of a passenger than crew, and if you did a watch, someone else would be doing babycare, missing their down time.

If it were yours and your husbands boat and going on a cruising holiday, I would say yes, go for it.
 
Having done the crossing last year I could not imagine doing it and being being responsible for a wee baby. It would take away all the pleasure of the crossing with the constant worry. Sorry, thumbs down here.:(
 
Nothing as heartening as seeing a 5 month old slide on his nappy to leeward (away from the galley) and with grim determonation crawl back to drum and stick (pan and spoon). Hey all you negatives types, read carefully: breastfeeding, both parents are doctors, he will get better care than at home or medically at my, retired from, hospital (and I was head of paediatric surgery). I have sent a pm to ebj, but we are in Panama so it may not arrive and I ask her to send a private message to me if not got mine but bottom line is go for it and if it helps happy to give any further medical advice I can add to your expertise. We are on sailmail when not in port.

dratsea (bit of clue there - dr at sea)

www.Ytsarajane.blogspot.com

And not sure I have put the blog on here before, let me know what you think of it - J (but Sara has done most of the work, I just took some of the pictures)
 
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You're both doctors so no doubt pragmatic but I'd say you shouldn't make the decision until a month or two before you go so that you know your baby and any quirks or issues and what they mean in terms of any special care. Beyond that I think it's great provided:
  • all others on the boat are baby tolerant and baby literate and
  • you have enough crew to cover the loss of two members, as it could be one sick/injured and one baby minder.

Lastly the boat must be baby safe - can you put baby on the saloon floor and know that nothing will end up on her head? Failing that can you rig a lee cloth on one berth in the saloon as a play pen or something like that? Where will he/she sleep? In a cot? If so where does that go? Is there a safe area on deck where he/she's close to adults, but not in the way? That sort of stuff.
 
You're both doctors, so you understand those risks and precautions.

The only thing I would add is, don't in any way rely on or expect help from the 'group' of boats on the ARC. Apart from radio contact you are unlikely to see any other yacht for the entire trip.

I know someone who did a 2 year trip round the world. She was 21 when she started, and she returned with a husband AND a baby (born in NZ I think)! All were fine.

Good luck, whatever you decide!
 
grumpy_o_g said:
You're both doctors so no doubt pragmatic but I'd say you shouldn't make the decision until a month or two before you go
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+1. Plus I've discovered that even the firmest of commitments mean nothing when a baby's involved! So even if the OP does commit it won't mean much.

grumpy_o_g said:
Where will he/she sleep? In a cot? If so where does that go?
Click to expand...

IME a standard cot or travel cot is a bit impractical on a boat. (Our travel cot takes up a double berth.)

Something like this fits in a standard berth and can be easily adapted to be tied in place:

http://www.bambinodirect.co.uk/Worl...ce=BAfroogle&gclid=CICz0Myj2LQCFaTMtAodNFkAJQ

For three weeks on an ocean making a bespoke one out of something harder wearing might be a good idea.



We've got a 15 month old, so five months is a fairly recent memory. I think crossing an ocean on a smallish boat won't be the best thing for the child. IME 24 hour attention and stimulation, routine, boob, a carpeted lounge floor & the grass in the garden on a sunny day are what's important to a 5 month old. A rocking boat is not a 5 month old's idea of a good home. Very hard to put forward objective evidence for any of that so the OP will just have to decide for themselves between now and next winter.

One positive I can think of is that at 5 months the bairn's unlikely to feel sea-sick (although ours seemed to once - it's hard to be sure.)

Of course, the OP will have a very good idea if 4 weeks on a yacht is the right thing for her baby by the time it's 5 months old. Just a case of waiting.
 
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prv said:
Tow it behind to get most of the shit off, then hand-wash in a bucket.

Erm, I'm talking about the nappies, not the baby :D

Pete
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Nappies no problem: Bio-degradable nappies and chuck them over the side.

Clothes might be an issue. I imagine that washing baby clothes in salt water's not a good idea so it will need fresh water. Our washing machine's been going non stop since ours was born.

I'd guess one commodity that is available in abundance on an ocean crossing is time, so as long as the water's available volunteers to wash sick and poo off clothes should be plentiful.
 
I think reality will set in when the baby arrives but I admire you for even thinking about it.
Your husband is a lucky man.

Out of interest, on a boat with no medical facilities, what kind of care can a doctor realistically offer a baby that a non doctor can not? When my children were ill, it was either go home and shovel the calpol in, or go to the hospital for some blood tests.
 
Some years ago know we met a Dutch couple with a 9 month old baby on their boat in Solent. They were on their way home after 3 years away!
 
ejbcook said:
Hi, My husband and I were planning to do the 2013 ARC Atlantic crossing in November on our friends boat which is a First 40.7. However, I have discovered I am now pregnant which complicates matters! The baby is due in June and will be 5 months old when we would set off. I am desperately keen still to do it and the other members of crew are happy to have the baby on board (they were the ones that suggested I still came). My husband however thinks it is too risky.
Click to expand...

Stupid gets my vote. Its not the risk - the ARC is a boring milk run. Its the practicality of a crying baby at sea for that length of time not just for the baby but for you and for the other crew in particular.

Currently I have 3 grandsons, two of which are under 1 , one is 3 and a fourth is on the way. Watching my kids learn to be parents for the first time takes me back through the same exercise when I did it. All the worries ( usually unfounded) which required doctors visits or midwives, or just trips to Boots. All the sleepless nights and lack of sleep. How about nappy changing and bathing - how are you going to do that? What about feeding - you might think that you come with built in feeders but they dont always work on the first one as my offspring have found out. And now 30 years later, the effects on me of having in the house crying babies that wont settle will be mirrored by the effect on the other crew of your boat. Bad enough with your own offspring crying but when it keeps other off watch crew awake.

I love my grandkids to bits, but I would not take them on my boat even just overnight. The idea of an ARC with a 5 month old first born is straight daft in my view. Its simply not the place to learn to be a mother for the first time. And the practicalities of this for the rest of the crew are not good.

P.S. Just read your post properly for the first time - see you are both medics. Not sure whether that will make it easier or worse for you. Its the old saying "a lawyer who acts for himself has a fool as a client". You will not be dispassionate viewers of any problems you have but will know all the nasty things that just might happen. And your knowledge of the basics wont remotely approach that of a midwife.
 
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Remember the couple who were recently rescued on passage from Raratonga to NZ after boat had rolled -what would have happened to the baby?!
 
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