Just curious how you would rate the contents of this ditch bag.
How to pack a ditch kit: The Complete Overboard Bag | Cruising World
How to pack a ditch kit: The Complete Overboard Bag | Cruising World
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.With my fanny pack on me all the time, I will have sunglasses, WP iPhone, multi-tool, and other goodies.
Callahan and the Robertson crew both said their teeth were in amazing condition when their time at sea ended. So no need for a toothbrush in the ditch bag.If you recall, Steve Calahan's most useful tool was his spear gun. I would pack a Hawaiian sling myself.
MedSailor
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.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
Maybe a PLB isn't good enough.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]
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?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.
Well that didn't happen in the 2010 sinking.An interesting article on the best case search & rescue scenario:
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I agree with you.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.