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How would you rate this ditch bag?

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The Complete Overboard Bag - Rate It

5K views 35 replies 14 participants last post by  MedSailor 
#1 ·
#2 ·
It appears quite well thought-out. I have only a few concerns. One is weight. We have a standard ditch bag with lots of flares and water along with some food and miscellaneous stuff. It is quite heavy and would be quite a load in rough conditions which certainly could be the case in an emergency situation. This bag has more stuff than we have so would be heavier. Next concern is how bulky it would be with the Jerry can and float. Would be hard to stow on most boats. Final concern is that the EPIRB should not be in the bag since you might well want to fire it off hours before getting in the raft. Also we have our portable VHF out since we use it. Could have two I guess but it makes more sense to be using it frequently since you know it is working well. One in the bottom of the bag might not. In our emergency plan, the responsible for the bag first puts the EPIRB and VHF into outer pockets.
 
#3 ·
Ditch bags depend entirely on area of anticipated use.
This kit seems to be a kitchen sink approach - nice to think of everything but seriously impractical - for example he puts everything in 'layers according to use' - that means his passport (document bag) is somewhere on the bottom of the bag.
Want to bet on that?

Reading material? I mean seriously? I read a book a day when I'm bored, how many days to I need to be entertained while waiting for rescue.

Nice article, props to Alvah, but doubtful in practice.
 
#4 ·
The contents are good. Same bag could be brought onboard an airplane everytime you fly (just add a parachute). Lots of stuff but chances are you'll never use it. Even if you go over.

All waterproof:

EPIRB/PBL with GPS
VHF
whistle
visual signal device.

That should cover 90% of all people sailing. Offshore (which I'm assuming this article was about) a lot more stuff is nice. But things like a first aide kit and liferaft repair, need to be already packed into your liferaft before it inflates. So you throw it over, and it's already there. And that thing is going to be heavy. 1 gal of water is 7 lbs. This is the reason that racing regs make you place a liferaft in a place that you can deploy it in xx amount of seconds. Those things are like 70 lbs and you can't lift them up companionway steps in a seaway.
 
#5 ·
Interesting list. The “assembly” looks a little bulky and ungainly to me and I wonder where it would be stored and ease of deployment. For part of our Pac Cup safety inspection we had to demonstrate the ability to deploy the life raft in 90 seconds. No easy feat when it was an eight man weighing around a hundred pounds plus having to move the ditch bag up the companionway at the same time. Like others, we configure our ditch bag for current needs so the contents vary from time to time.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Holey ducks bum! There's more equipment in that bag than my whole boat!

I bet Cruising World is gunna start selling that thing for thousands!

All the old salts are going to hammer me, but I don't rate getting in the life raft as a survival option. It's rank last in my mind and I'd prefer to scoop floating junk off the surface than have my emergency COmunications kit stuffed into my bag.
I am with killarney_sailor in that I want the EPIRB at the nav station, my handheld in the cockpit in its spot, HF receiver where I can use it each day, etc.

What I do have in my grab bag is all the out of date and wrong canned food I've bought.... Ummm In France I bought some tins of meat but when I got home and translated the label... :puke. Anyway I don't want to have to eat the stuff.
Bottled water, can openers etc, flares. That's about all. Oh, the stupid little mirror.

My first aid kit is very close, but not in it. My wetsuit is also close. That I want on before anything, even in the tropics.

So my grab bag is Not able to be grabbed in a mad rush... But few emergencies are that much of a mad rush. And as I said I will not rush into a liferaft.

To fill my grab bag would take only one minute. If I don't have that time then the situation would probably be fatal anyway.

If I threw the Cruising World grab bag into the liferaft it would sink it. :eek:


Mark
 
#7 ·
I agree, way too much good stuff for me. With the sailing I intend to do, I should be rescued within 5 days, if weather is bad, 10 days.

My ditch bag is small.
Manual water maker and plastic cup
Waterproof energy bars x 5
Mirror and dye
Passport
Fishing hooks and line, just give me something to do
Portable VHS, Eneloop batteries, solar charger (optional)
SPOT II
Emergency blanket and washcloth

With my fanny pack on me all the time, I will have sunglasses, WP iPhone, multi-tool, and other goodies.

I always prepare my ditch bag. Just like bringing an umbrella, it you have it, it will never rain. It works every time; my grand Mom said so. :D
 
#11 ·
With my fanny pack on me all the time, I will have sunglasses, WP iPhone, multi-tool, and other goodies.
Other than the questionable sartorial deficit of wearing a fanny pack... if it ain't waterproof, you're just carrying a whole bunch of now useless dead weight once you step up into the liferaft and get drenched along the way.
 
#8 ·
Looks good to me. Well thought out I think and I like that he addresses warmth. Protection from the sun/heat and the cold are important and often overlooked.

The only item I have a real issue with is the canned fish. Really? Hopefully you can catch fish and you won't want any more from the can. Also canned foods are too heavy and subject to corrosion. Additionally protein requires a lot of water to digest and carbohydrates will be scarce so you should pack as much carbohydrate and fat rich foods as possible.

If you recall, Steve Calahan's most useful tool was his spear gun. I would pack a Hawaiian sling myself.

MedSailor
 
#10 ·
Would I want that bag if I was ditch'n?.. yes. Will I ever put something like that together? doubtful. I gave it a five because my lifeboat training and stcw endorsement say's I have to, but my actual ditch bag is Often a trash bag full of bottled water and some granola bars.
 
#13 ·
Some wisdom I heard this weekend, spoken by an old orthopedic surgeon/sailing companion of mine, while sitting on the cold wet rail of a boat at 40deg of heel.

"an imperfect plan executed early, is infinitely better than a perfect plan executed too late."

My boat currently has no ditch bag at all, but on paper, I have drawn up a couple "perfect" ditch bags. If my boat sinks tomorrow, I will really have wished that I had the "bag of bottled water and granola bars" at the ready while I was still getting around to building the "perfect bag".

MedSailor
 
#17 ·
It would seem to me the only reasonable option to having such a ditch bag readily available and not be lost in the boat or lost at sea would to be having it somehow attached to the life raft and be deployed with the life raft. Keeping fresh provisions and workable safety equipment would require everything to be packed just before you leave shore. Pack it for the trip you're taking then set sail.
 
#19 ·
Have there been any long term life raft survivors since EPIRBs?

Steve Callahan and that mob in the 1970s and 1980s, but has anyone needed to survive more than 3 or 4 days since the widespread use of EPIRBs and Sattelite phones??

Tony Bullimore had to for 3 days in the southern ocean.

Can we save on all that ditch bag crap with EPIRBs and Sat phones? Consider that bag costs THOUSANDS! The hand held water maker is us$1,250!!!! That's more than a sat phone.


Mark
Ps I am also replacing the reading material for dirty magazines :)
 
#20 ·
Have there been any long term life raft survivors since EPIRBs?

Steve Callahan and that mob in the 1970s and 1980s, but has anyone needed to survive more than 3 or 4 days since the widespread use of EPIRBs and Sattelite phones??

Tony Bullimore had to for 3 days in the southern ocean.

Can we save on all that ditch bag crap with EPIRBs and Sat phones? Consider that bag costs THOUSANDS! The hand held water maker is us$1,250!!!! That's more than a sat phone.

Mark
Ps I am also replacing the reading material for dirty magazines :)
A good question to be sure, but I would like to point out that Steve Calahan DID have an EPIRB that was was recently serviced, but failed to function.

Similar to the GPS v Sextant debate technology has changed the tactics for some. In the Vendee Globe race for example (where a bunch of single-handed lunatics race from France, then circumnavigate Antarctica on 50ft boats) none carry extensive life-raft supplies. Instead they carry several Epirbs. If I recall the race regulations REQUIRED three, but many carried 4 or 5. They are definitely counting on technology and a swift rescue, and they're sailing in many areas where there isn't even any shipping. :eek:

As much as I LOVE reading man v wild or man v sea survival stories, I do think that with the price of EPIRBS and PLBs being so cheap, it would be smart to have several. Nobody wants to think of the possibility of a serious injury during or prior to abandonment, but the statistics show a high rate of injury for life raft occupants. It might be that your time and ability to affect your own survival are limited by your injuries and all you can do is activate your one-handed PLBs every 48hrs....

MedSailor
 
#22 ·
Right, Calahan's EPIRB was likely a 121.5MHZ EPIRB but while it was theorized that nobody was close enough to hear it, it was also theorized (by Calahan himself) that it malfunctioned. In other cases where a survivor went into the raft and the EPIRB did malfunction it's likely that we never got to hear their story because they eventually became shark poo....

Most people who rely 100% GPS and don't have a sextant aboard carry multiple GPSs for an offshore trip. I think the same logic should be applied to EPIRBS and multiples should be carried if you aren't packing all the other equipment required for a lengthy raft trip.

Another idea I had to effect a quicker rescue would be to invest in a handheld ham radio. They come in submersible versions for around $300 (the cost of a PLB) and non-waterproof ones for around $100.

The reason for handheld ham is that you can see aircraft overhead by their strobe lights and could call them on the international aircraft distress frequency and they could relay your mayday, verify your position etc. Or, as recently seen in the news they could fly down and spot you themselves. :D The handheld HAM also doubles as a VHF helping you affect your rescue directly when you sight a ship and also allowing you to alert rescuers via contacting a plane.

For those concerned about not being HAM licensed, it is not a crime for a non-HAM to use a HAM radio and or frequency in an emergency. It would behoove you though to familiarize yourself with the radio beforehand as they are usually more complex and intimidating than a VHF.

For the technologically inclined I would thing the following would make a good minimum kit for getting found and rescued. Prices are retail and can be found cheaper:

PLB 406MHZ $300
Handheld waterproof VHF $100
Handheld waterproof GPS $100
Handheld non-waterproof HAM radio and waterproof radio bag $150

$650 and a few extra dollars for the fanny pack it would all easily fit in. :D

This allows you a primary method of alert (the sattelite PLB) with a backup (using the HAM to call airplanes). It allows you a primary method of helping your rescuers (using the VHF to direct the ship to your tiny raft and talk about the boarding plan) and a backup in the form of the HAM. The GPS helps augment the radios as you can tell the rescuers exactly where you are and your rate of drift. Anything you would add to this, like a full EPIRB or backup PLB or VHF would all be to the good.

MedSailor
 
#23 ·
Was doing a little research on tall ships and across an account of the sinking of the Canadian tall ship Concordia 2 years ago.

Read the parts about the EPIRB and how long it took the Brazillions to get off their butts and send a plane out. Scary stuff.

All aboard successfully abandoned ship. As the capsizing was so fast, no radio distress call was made but a distress radiobeacon (EPIRB) was hydrostatically released and automatically activated[10] when the vessel sank.
The Concordia sank at 1423 hrs local time Wednesday. At 1425 Concordia's Bosun Geoffrey Byers swam to retrieve the EPIRB and brought it aboard the rafts. The Captain directed that someone hold the EPIRB upright at all times and keep it safe from damage.[11] The EPIRB signal was received at 1505 hrs by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-12. The position of the sinking, 27°28′S 40°53′WCoordinates: 27°28′S 40°53′W, was resolved at 1525 local time. The TSB report noted the EPIRB database only listed one telephone number for the Concordia and that number had not been in service since 2004.[3]
The following morning at 0806 hrs the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre Brazil sent a fax to Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Halifax requesting information about the Concordia.[3] After attempting to contact the Concordia a Brazilian Air Force aircraft was dispatched at 17 hrs local time Thursday and sighted the liferafts 3 hours later.[12]
The survivors spent nearly 30 hours in liferafts before the aircraft spotted them. Flares were fired from the rafts, and the aircraft blinked its landing lights in response and directed nearby merchant ships to the scene. The lights of the Mitsui O.S.K. Lines[13] woodchip carriers Hokuetsu Delight and Crystal Pioneer were sighted by the survivors at 1:30 am local time and the rescue was completed by 8 am local time.[11]
41 hours after the sinking the crew were safely aboard the rescue ships.[14] All 64 people (48 students, eight teachers and eight crew) who were on board were rescued from 3 large and 1 small liferafts.[15]
Maybe a PLB isn't good enough.
Maybe a sat phone is very important so you can ring your own country and get them to tell the country your wrecked near to get activated.

Heard a similar story a few years ago of a boat sunk near Costa Rica and took 3 days before they started the search, that's 3 days AFTER they set off the EPIRB.
 
#25 ·
Read the parts about the EPIRB and how long it took the Brazillions to get off their butts and send a plane out. Scary stuff.
Ummm...... I'd kiss the feet of any nation's coast guard that was willing to spend the money on the fuel and risk the resources to save a foreign national like me. As for calling uncle Sam and having them call the local CG it would all depend on the relations between nations at the time wouldn't it? Besides, isn't that what happens when you press the EPIRB button? Doesn't the US get the signal and take if from there?

Here is a fine example of a boat in distress handled by a foreign coast guard.


MedSailor
 
#24 ·
Ring..ring...
Hello, thanks for calling the USCG. For english, press 1...
Thank you. To better serve you, we have changed our menu options. Please listen carefully.
For a SeaTow DSC radio check, press 5.
If you are calling to report an illegal marine sanitation discharge, press number 2.
If you are calling to report a vessel in distress, press 00000!!!
If Your vessel is in peril, you have called for an offshore dustoff, you are carrying give/take $50K on your person and are ungrateful that your CG came to your assistance but didn't assist you in quite the way you want to be assisted... please hold.
If you consider a fanny pack to be the height of nautical fashion, Sheldon says, "Bazinga!"
If you have the time to listen to this menu, maybe you're really not in too much trouble, and you should get off the damn phone and help the rest of the crew pumping, fixing or whatever it is that needs to be done on your boat that obviously isn't sinking.
 
#29 ·
Re: Best-Case SAR Scenario

An interesting article on the best case search & rescue scenario:
]
Well that didn't happen in the 2010 sinking.
A sat phone call would have chopped off the first hour, and verified the emergency in one go.
That given scenario only works because its within 450 nms of a propper country (south Africa). Try it a hundred miles further north on either side of Africa and the system burps.

Anyway, the boat in the drawing is close enough to shore to swim. ;)

By the way, Amver is mentioned, I'll bet no one here lists their voyages on it!
I would but I don't have email at sea.
 
#30 ·
No prepared ditch bag is complete (even someone elses list), you can always customize it to your needs. It will have stuff you don't need and/or don't apply to you and there will always be other stuff you can add. Ditch bags "evolve" as yopu discover your needs and find out from other people "tips" and thier mistakes
 
#31 ·
Am I the only one that thinks having to wait 2-3 days before getting rescued from the middle of an ocean is actually pretty damn good?

You don't really need a whole lot to survive that. Just some water, sunscreen, bit of food to keep energy levels up so you're not dead weight during the rescue, repair kit for the raft.

Do you really need a book or radio to keep from getting bored? And snacks to keep morale up... for the 3 whole days it takes to get rescued??? I mean, if you're going to give up all hope and drown yourself the 2nd day out I don't know if not having a snickers bar or last month's issue of Glamour is really your core problem.

I'd toss out 80% of what's in his kit, shave off about 40lbs from it in the process and fit in a couple more PLB/ELB, then spend the extra budget on a good quality life raft and making sure it's in solid shape every year.
 
#34 ·
I'd toss out 80% of what's in his kit, shave off about 40lbs from it in the process and fit in a couple more PLB/ELB, then spend the extra budget on a good quality life raft and making sure it's in solid shape every year.
I agree with you.

The 80% you'd toss out is worth a lot of money too and that money may be better spent on something that stops the boat sinking in the first place... Like better weather services for offshore passages etc.

How many times have you been told: "you can't afford not to have this! Your life may depend on it"?
I get told that all the damn time by everyone for everything, even the doctor the other day wanted to book me up for a lot of tests that do nothing, show nothing but are EXPENSIVE. And look askance at you when you tell them to shove it!

If I bought everything people tell em is a "Must Have Your Life Depends on it" I would never have been able to afford to start cruising! I would still be at home! Dying an early death of boredom.

Yes, it would be nice to have pillows and a magazine rack in the life raft but if it stops you leaving in the first place?

Mark. Beware those that tell you what you MUST have.
 
#32 ·
OOPS batteries in the GPS and EPIRB are bad, no one knows where I am and I don't know where I am....unless of course I also include a sextant....just a basic plastic one (actually called a "life boat sextant", will be accurate enough. Hand held VHF?....vhf is basically line of sight.....how about a handheld SSB. Another thing would be a solar battery charger. A life raft is pretty close to the water how about a parabolic kite w/ flags.
 
#33 ·
I'm pretty much with Lauderboy on this but heavily dependant on where you're sailing.

In the Indian Ocean you're surrounded by a lot of countries have have no semblance of SAR, don't answer radio calls, don't speak your language if they do, have now way of getting to you and more importantly don't give a toss whether you live or die.

But in most other locations rescue happens pretty quickly (48 hours is not life threatening). And if the equipment that you do keep in your bag to communicate (handheld GPS and VHF, satphone) had decent batteries and the odd spare when the voyage started, they'll almost certainly still be good when the voyage is over. Ensuring that is really not hard. And if you do get one dodgy battery, a) a spare will fix that and b) it will only take down one form of communication. Believing that two bits of kit will simultaneously go down is bordering on serious paranoia.

After comms, the most important thing to me is water and I'll sacrifice most other heavy kit to carry a few litres of extra water. Then it's paperwork (passports, ships registration) and cash.

All other stuff is location dependant - don't weigh your ditch bag down with a survival suit when you're sailing from Bora Bora to Samoa. So my ditch bag gets assembled using specific voyage logic at the start of each voyage
 
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#35 ·
What's better, a life raft or the dinghy with the 10 or 15 hp engine on it?


My dink is strapped to the foredeck when I'm doing a crossing, but sure as chips I would have it in the water with the outboard on it, tethered to the life raft.

A dinghy with a good outboard can get you to passing ships, islands, out of currents or into currents. Most importantly if a rescue plane does drop a pizza you can get to it.
 
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