Grab Bag items

[Dockhead]

Whatever you decide to put in your grab bag, I strongly recommend that everything which is actually life and death should be either packed in the raft, or on your person. If you read real life accounts of abandonings to rafts, you'll find that it often happens that the grab bag doesn't make it into the raft for whatever reason.

Someone on here mentioned that he packed a PLB inside his life raft. I think that's a bloody good idea. I think and EPIRB or PLB is second on the life or death list right after water.


My EPIRB lives in my grab bag, but I keep a PLB on my person. That's a poor second to packing it in your raft, in my opinion.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Whatever you decide to put in your grab bag, I strongly recommend that everything which is actually life and death should be either packed in the raft, or on your person. If you read real life accounts of abandonings to rafts, you'll find that it often happens that the grab bag doesn't make it into the raft for whatever reason.

Someone on here mentioned that he packed a PLB inside his life raft. I think that's a bloody good idea. I think and EPIRB or PLB is second on the life or death list right after water.

My EPIRB lives in my grab bag, but I keep a PLB on my person. That's a poor second to packing it in your raft, in my opinion.

One of those wild (as in wild-card) types of decisions, isn't it.

I do know of one circumstance where the captain and crew were in the process of abandoning to the liferaft, but upon inflation, the LR blew away in the huge gusts and massive seas, so they abandoned into the dinghy which had been secured to the foredeck.

As the primary boat was sinking, they were able to cut the dinghy free so it was floating upside down near the sinking boat. They swam over and were able to cling to it (still upside down) until after three tries, using all of their combined strength, they righted the dinghy, climbed in and bailed.

Of course, no water, no grab bag, no nuthin'.

They were picked up 5 days later by a passing freighter. By then, their numbers had been reduced from 5 to 2, unfortunately.

(One died of blood poisoning - rigging caught her leg as the boat was going down, fairly substantial leg wound and severe bleeding; the captain and one crew, driven to despiration by thirst, drank sea water - causing hallucinations - and jumped into the water despite crew protestations, convinced that they could swim to the "nearby shore"; they were eaten by sharks.)

No, I am not making this up.
LittleWing77

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

One of those wild (as in wild-card) types of decisions, isn't it.

I do know of one circumstance where the captain and crew were in the process of abandoning to the liferaft, but upon inflation, the LR blew away in the huge gusts and massive seas, so they abandoned into the dinghy which had been secured to the foredeck.

As the primary boat was sinking, they were able to cut the dinghy free so it was floating upside down near the sinking boat. They swam over and were able to cling to it (still upside down) until after three tries, using all of their combined strength, they righted the dinghy, climbed in and bailed.

Of course, no water, no grab bag, no nuthin'.

They were picked up 5 days later by a passing freighter. By then, their numbers had been reduced from 5 to 2, unfortunately.

(One died of blood poisoning - rigging caught her leg as the boat was going down, fairly substantial leg wound and severe bleeding; the captain and one crew, driven to despiration by thirst, drank sea water - causing hallucinations - and jumped into the water despite crew protestations, convinced that they could swim to the "nearby shore"; they were eaten by sharks.)

No, I am not making this up.
LittleWing77

Ghastly story.


It is unfortunately common for the life raft to be lost in the manner you describe. You really have to be damned sure to make that life raft painter fast before throwing it in. Then when everyone is on board, you CUT the painter with the knife taped inside the raft for that purpose. But of course in the heat of the moment in the middle of a disaster, stuff happens.



I have TWO life rafts on my boat.

[stevenit]

Thanks to all.