I preface this with that I really have not met many (if any) serious sailors as type 1 diabetics.
Sailing comes in many opposing variations — sometimes we go for a short cruise, or a long cruise. Sometimes we race around the buoys for a few hours. More often than not I am finding myself on the water all day racing with a couple of 20-30 minute breaks between races. And every now and then I am involved in much longer distance races (50, 90, 185 mile) that can take a day or two to complete. Although I have yet to be talked into it — this years’ Bermuda race (635 miles from Newport, RI to Bermuda) took a solid 5 days of sailing — one of the slower years for the race.
While racing sail boats, your movements are mostly confined to specific, pre-defined areas. Therefore, the most important part of the whole day is going from land onto the water. You need to be stable – limited Carbs on Board and limited Insulin on Board with a normal BG since there is limited access to gear. Although I normally run somewhat high BGs before boarding — mostly due to adrenaline of getting out to the race course. That normally settles itself without any correction since there is plenty of work to do to get the boat race ready.
Longer races of 1-2 days are a little more interesting and require backups - I have never needed to do a site/Pod change at sea. However, I always bring backups, as well as Lantus and Novolog pens so that I could switch should I have a failure of some sort.
To temp basal or not?
For me, I do not temp down. Typically, the work on a sailboat are quick bursts of energy and undetermined times. However, I also eat rather irregularly onboard a boat (mostly with small snacks). Rarely do I bolus for these snacks unless it is something like a sandwich. A cookie or chips will simply raise my BG as I am hopefully feeding the basal.
I raced most of my life on MDI, and find it much more comfortable for sailing. However, trying to give yourself an injection in heavy seas trying not to get knocked around too badly is a bit of a fight. As in life, there are positives and negatives to everything.
