Foul Weather Gear

Check out our new foulies!

While in Arkansas, my sister mentioned to me that she had a cardboard box labelled "foulies" tucked away in her apartment and that maybe, just maybe, there might be something we could use on the boat in it. She used to live up in the Pacific Northwest with her dad, who is a big-time sailor and took her on various boating excursions off the coast of Washington state. When I got to her house, she opened the door wearing this magnificent Henry Lloyd jacket from the 70s or 80s and a pair of white bib pants made out of PVC. She looked like she stepped right off of a Japanese fishing boat.

We spent the next 45 minutes trying on her two sets of jackets and bib pants as though we were playing dress up in our mom's closet, except this time it was foul weather gear instead of high heels. Needless to say, I took the whole box back to Texas. I mean, who can pass up free foul weather gear steeped in family history? Not I. Unfortunately, Vlad's arms were too long for the jacket, and the other jacket had a bum zipper. But the bibs fit perfectly!

We're topping it all off with a couple of jackets that were on sale for $99 from West Marine, and we should be set. According to the Cruisers Forum, there's foul weather gear available for $85 on Overstock.com. I believe our fellow cruisers in training over at Sundowner Sails Again got their foulies at Overstock, and they seem pretty pleased with them.

I realize that we're not going to be using this gear often as most of our sailing will be in tropical climates. Even so, there are no substitutes when we do need them. So I want to give a shout out to my sister Emily. You saved us a bundle of money on something that will keep us dry on the stormiest of seas.