Giving old luggage the 5th degree…
Today we pulled out all the luggage. We weighed and measured it and looked at replacements. We decided to replace everything with collapsible bags for this trip. What does that mean? Our existing luggage weighs 52 pounds. The replacement luggage weighs only 27 pounds and actually has a bit more capacity. The extra 25 pounds can be used for extra gear or for reducing the load.
The ship has a valet service to deliver luggage from our house straight to the stateroom. And they don’t mind charging about $10 per pound for the convenience! We may decide to ship one small bag of West By Sea consumable equipment ahead of us.
Here’s the layout of our stateroom and home for over three months during the trip. As you can see it’s pretty tiny.
West By Sea stateroom
We need a stateroom to be functional for:
- Sleeping, bathing, dressing, relaxing
- Office space for West By Sea production gear & writing
- Storage for clothing, luggage, gear and souvenirs.
It looks like the room will have everything we need. But four big bags filled with our stuff, your postcards & objects and the production gear is going to fill it up quickly. Tomorrow night we’re doing a “mock pack” as we wait for the new luggage to arrive.
