THE PERFECT SLEEPING BAG FOR SAILING - WHICH ONE?

Sailing has something in common with camping. Instead of carrying your shelter on your back, it carries you into the unknown to some extent. These two types of tourism undoubtedly share one thing: unique accommodation conditions. Without a doubt, just like when camping in a tent, when on a boat, you need a good sleeping bag to sleep well and gather energy for the whole day.

Which sleeping bag will be ideal for sailing? It largely depends on whether you are going on a cruise in the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, or the Masurian Lakes. As you can easily guess, the nighttime temperatures near these bodies of water can vary significantly.

Let's talk about our beautiful Polish Masurian Lakes. They are beautiful, and they are the closest and easiest to reach, even in the era of pandemic restrictions (which, hopefully, will finally leave us).

SLEEPING BAG FOR SAILING - WHAT'S THE FUSS?

When you embark on a cruise, a sailboat becomes your home for several days or even weeks. You spend most of your day on the yacht, eating, working, resting - and above all, sleeping. In a small berth, you usually have a thin foam mattress, but you have to take care of the rest of the bedding yourself. That's why a sleeping bag should be an essential part of your sailing gear. It should provide you with a comfortable night's sleep (or the fraction of it that remains after singing all the sea shanties by the campfire) and wake up refreshed and ready for another adventurous day.

Warmth and Comfort

If you think that summer means hot days and warm nights, we may disappoint you: it can sometimes be as cold as a desert in Masuria - in the sense that the temperature after sunset can significantly differ from that during the day. However, when planning a vacation by the lake, you have to consider the omnipresent wind and cold. In any case, whether in a marina or in the wild, when sleeping on a swaying boat, you only need one thing to be happy - thermal comfort. A properly chosen sleeping bag will provide you with that, one that is characterized by an optimal temperature range suitable for the natural conditions of Mazurian holidays. We have written so much about temperature ranges in sleeping bags and how to decipher them that we won't repeat ourselves. If you want to refresh or deepen your knowledge on this topic, check out the post How to Interpret Temperature Ranges on a Sleeping Bag.

During summer sailing, sleeping bags with a comfort temperature around 10 degrees Celsius are the best choice - for example, the lightweight CORE 250 weighing only 450g, one of the versatile summer models. In colder conditions, such as spring or autumn, a sleeping bag designed for freezing temperatures or even slightly below zero (for those who get easily cold) would be better suited for sailing. The ultralight RADICAL 1Z, the younger brother of one of the most technologically advanced sleeping bags in the world, the RADICAL 16H, is certainly up to this task. Of course, when going to Masuria in spring or summer, there is no point in bringing expedition sleeping bags with extreme temperature ratings of "minus a million." It simply won't work, and after the first night, you will probably find it better to sleep without anything and endure some cold rather than waking up drenched in sweat like a boiled sausage.

Down or Synthetic Sleeping Bag?

Well, you're on Pajak's website, and we believe in down like nothing else! But we don't praise it without reason. Down is warmer, lighter, and compresses to really small sizes. Even if you have to travel to the port where you plan to embark on foot or with ten transfers plus a walk (even though it's the 21st century and transportation is well-developed in first-world countries, there are still some villages in the Land of a Thousand Lakes that are really hard to reach) - a down sleeping bag will certainly not be a significant burden on your luggage. If you're worried about its moisture-absorbing properties in the damp cabin of a yacht, we assure you that a properly made down sleeping bag dries quickly, and it's even better when you're inside it. The heat from your body will simply evaporate any moisture from the filling of the sleeping bag. You can also rely on a bit of morning sun and hang the sleeping bag outside for a few minutes before unmooring to let it air out. And if the weather forecast for the sailing trip doesn't look optimistic, you can always use the technique of polar explorers and mountaineers: by wearing a thin synthetic layer over a high-quality down sleeping bag, you can shift the dew point away from the down and prevent it from getting wet.

Mummy or Quilt Sleeping Bag?

Here, it largely depends on your individual preferences. At pajaksport.pl, you will find both mummy-shaped and traditional envelope-shaped sleeping bags with excellent, fully deserving of the title "modern," features - lightweight, compressible, and providing thermal comfort. An advantage of the mummy-shaped sleeping bag is undoubtedly the hood that protects the head and the anatomically tapered silhouette - two factors that minimize unnecessary energy loss. In addition, many models (e.g., CORE 250, CORE 400) have a 3D draft tube and a collar around the neck, which provide additional protection against the cold. This makes the mummy-shaped sleeping bag indispensable on cold nights. Moreover, you can pull the drawstring in the hood, exposing only your nose, and thus disconnect yourself from the world, sending a clear signal to the rest of the crew: do not wake unless necessary!

On the other hand, a quilt-type sleeping bag, like the QUEST BLANKET, can be fully unzipped and used to cover, for example, your partner if you are lucky enough to share the same bed. Since the envelope-shaped sleeping bag has a wider bottom section, it also works well when you feel like taking a nap during the day, on the water - during tilting, you will be able to spread your legs wide for stability and avoid rolling from one end of the bed to the other with every wave.

An extremely practical solution is also the QUEST SWITCH with optional leg and arm openings. You can crawl inside it while sitting in the cockpit and enjoy playing cards or a refreshing drink, even if the evening is chilly.

Although sleep is not always at the top of a sailor's list of needs, when it's time to rest, every wave enthusiast wants to sleep as well and comfortably as possible. A suitable sleeping bag is simply essential for this. So if you're going on a sailing trip and looking for a down sleeping bag for yourself, visit pajaksport.pl - this way, you can be sure that your sleeping bag won't let you down during your water vacation!

Image source: pajaksport.pl