The most common personal safety/discomfort things to watch out for when sailing are:
* Sunburn
* Drinking enough. You will be sweating more than usual. You need to drink plenty of liquids to make up for it. In between the rum drinks, anyways!
* Staying dry. If you are wet – especially with saltwater – and have any clothing rubbing, you might chafe. Gold Bond may help those who get that problem. Make sure you wash after coming out of the ocean with fresh water; there is always a shower on the back deck.
* Rope burns. If you don’t know what you are doing sailing, this can happen. Gloves. And listening to the Captain when they tell you how to handle a line on a winch.
* Smashing some body part. The boat weighs 10 tons. If it’s moving, you are unlikely to stop it by putting your body part between it and an unmovable object.
* Getting enough sleep. This will not be too bad of an issue on a boat if it has a generator and AC. Without it, it’s hot/stuffy and hard to get to sleep. Make abundant uses of all fans and hatches to get a cross breeze! Even with the temperature under control, the boat is moving around a bit, which at first may cause you some less than ideal sleep.
* Tenderfeet. Are you used to going barefoot at home? You will mostly go barefoot on the boat; perhaps you want to toughen up for feet for a couple of weeks before you get there? Or boat shoes.