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Avignon is a 37 foot long, 1986 Tayana 37 Cutter – a throwback double-ender with a “canoe” stern designed by the legendary Bob Perry, and built by the skilled craftsmen of Ta Yang Yacht Building Co. in Taiwan.

With 11 tons displacement, she is heavier than most boats of her size, with a thick fiberglass hull, all teak interior, and full ballasted keel. She is designed for blue water cruising rather than racing, so while she may not be very fast, she is as seaworthy as a whale and fully capable of conveying us and all our crap across the sea in relative comfort.

There are enough berths to sleep six people at anchor, including a double V-berth suite, quarter berth and a saloon table that converts into a bed. Notably, and unusually even for larger yachts, there is a separate shower stall in the head. Ample storage space abounds, which is a very good thing considering all the gear, spares and boat stuff we carry. There is probably room to provision for three months for the two of us and the pets, if we really played tetris!

Our two fuel tanks together hold 90 gallons of diesel, which is theoretically enough to motor 900 nautical miles – about five days – without refueling. We also carry 100 gallons of fresh water in our tank – over two weeks supply for us – and have a reverse-osmosis desalinating watermaker to keep the tanks topped off. Drinking water runs through filters and ultra-violet purification devices before human consumption.

Avignon’s electrical system is built around Firefly Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM)  batteries – 12V 450Ah for the house bank and a 100Ah starter battery. Next to Lithium, these batteries are the best on the market for deep cycling applications and can withstand a partial state of charge much better than other batteries. 560 watts of solar panels and a 400 watt wind generator charge the batteries most of the time. A 3kW inverter converts 12V power to 120V – the kind we need to charge computers, phones and cameras.

Our nav suite includes Furuno radar, AIS and sensors, all of which are accessible wirelessly via tablets on NavNet TZTouch. We carry at least one dedicated backup GPS – and of course our phones and iPads also have GPS receivers.

We have taken pains to equip Avignon with as much safety and emergency equipment as we can afford, including ship’s EPIRB, personal EPIRB / MOB beacons for us and the pets, man overboard sling, emergency ladder, and thoroughly stocked medical kit.

Inflatable life rafts cost thousands of dollars and have to be serviced every year at considerable expense; they are also heavy and bulky. We choose not to carry one since our Portland Pudgy dinghy can be converted to one by way of a detachable, mouth-inflatable exposure canopy that stores away nicely. The Pudgy is made from molded high density polyethylene and is basically unsinkable. Best of all is its sailing kit, which would allow us to make way toward safety rather than drifting aimlessly.