A singled handed sailor Aussie told me that she uses World Nomads for her health insurance while cruising. I've used World Nomads before for my various trips, so I checked out their rates for a 9 month period. (I've never filed a claim, so I can't vouch for their services.) They offer two (fairly reasonable) rates: the "Standard" @ $685 and the "Explorer" version @ $988. One of the differences between the policies is the activities that they will cover.

I find this a fairly interesting list. An expedition in Greenland, clay pigeon shooting, canyon swinging, and running with the bulls must statistically be fairly safe things to do, while caving, ballooning (understandable after the Egypt and Texas crashes), riding in a light aircraft, and cliff jumping must statistically involve injuries and death.

But this: swimming (1), snorkeling (2). Wait, snorkeling is more risky than swimming? In the Beach-to-Beach Power Swim in St John USVI, they offer snorkeling as an "assisted" class to people who can't/don't want to swim the entire swim courses. Often when "snorkeling," I just use swim goggles with small fins... I wonder where they draw the line? And snorkeling is the one activity on this list that I might do routinely that would put me in the 2 category and bump my costs by $300/yr.

(I reckon that there are simply a lot more people who go snorkeling, rather than, say, zorbing, and when you put a lot of inexperienced people in the water in popular areas with a lot of motor boats, bad things happen.)

It may end up being a moot point, because I may be able to get boat insurance that also covers medical emergencies. This would be ideal. In addition, I'm told that you can get a lot of your routine medical work done in the islands for a lot cheaper, so you don't need medical coverage for these things. (A root canal costs $80 or so out of pocket?)

I put in a quote request to the company that's supposed to be the best. I'll see what they are able to offer me, with my zero experience and old boat, if anything.

I’m also reminded that Diver’s Alert Network (for scuba divers) offers annual health medical insurance. I will check them out too.