In 15 days, we migrate to boat life for 6 months. Hotels and
airlines have been booked, haul-out and repairs have been arranged,
charts have been loaded, ports and anchorages explored, the lawn
mowed and hedges trimmed, house-sitters arranged, and various new
boat tools and toys bought.
But leaving home is not “doomsday”.
One of our final-countdown activities – probably our least favorite
but most important – is updating our doomsday book.
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| As long as we're talking about doom... Med moorings await us ! |
This is a file (black cover, of course) that contains all the information we need to transmit to those left behind in the event of our demise or incapacity to act. It contains contact information for extended family, insurance information, where to find wills and testaments, bank information and deeds. We send a short summary for first-response information to Patrick’s kids, and print out the rest for later reference.
No, we aren’t paranoid, but you never know and we certainly don’t
want to leave a mess behind. Our insurance covers repatriation and
some funeral costs, as well as professional assistance for jumping
through all the administrative hoops involved in sudden accidental
death in a foreign county. There’s no way the kids could know what
assistance is available through our existing insurance unless we tell
them, and it’s not in the flurry of shock that such discoveries
could be made in a timely fashion.
It seems appropriate to finish this task at Easter, a holiday
commemorating rebirth or triumph over death. And now for some
chocolate !!!
5 comments:
My mother has a similar approach and what we call her "Book of Death." She's so organized :-)
Oh man, thanks for the reminder. Doomsday book, indeed. That's a good way to put it. I'm leaving stuff like that with my sister, but I like the idea of organizing it all for her. I'll add that to my list.
Sorry to create new jobs for you ! But once it's done, it's easy to update and it's always a good reminder for us about our insurance coverage for different things.
Such a good idea. Would make life so much easier for your loved ones should they have to deal with any disasters!
I thought long and hard about that too after we visited the Rescue Coordination Centre. More along the lines of how loved ones could help if we got in to trouble. Some of my ideas here if you are interested https://astrolabesailing.com/2016/07/28/rescue-me/
Here is hoping all that preparation is unwarranted!
Thanks Astrolabe, and your article is a great resource ! It reminded me to check our EPIRB contact list and to make new photocopies of our ID documents to put in the ditch bag. It's never fun to think about these situations, but there is a sort of peace of mind about it, too.
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