A fellow BOC'er wrote started a different thread about his 4788 catching on fire (the fire originated in the engine room) while under way. He and his crew had about five minutes from the initial smell of smoke to jumping into the water. Couldn't put the dinghy into the water as the electrical connection to the davit was fried. They couldn't get to the cockpit because the salon was sitting over the roaring fire.
That got me thinking about what we would have done, and it wasn't a pretty set of thoughts. Let's see, I have some expired flares under one of the salon settees, couldn't get to them. A flare gun in the storage area along the port salon wall. Couldn't get to that. My new electronic flare/signal device is hanging on the cockpit ladder that goes up to the flybridge. Could maybe get to that. The Admiral hasn't been shown how to use the DSC for a distress call, so if I were incapacitated there'd be some issues there. So I am changing all of that this week.
I started by buying an EPIRB. West Marine has a new model from ARC on sale for $250, with a $50 mail-in rebate. https://www.westmarine.com/buy/acr-e...FYuifgodWqUO-g Ordered and received at the end of last week. I registered it with NOAA and got my confirmation back. I will have a stick-on decal in another week.
For a ditch bag I picked up a waterproof plastic ammo case from Harbor Freight. The EPIRB, two personal emergency strobe lights, and flare gun with flares will go in there. On the side of the ammo case will be instructions (made on my label-maker) for emergency situations. I will write them up this week, but something like: How to send a MayDay call; how to report location (both Garmin chartplotter and iPad Navionics in case electric power is lost); how to activate the DSC; location of bright orange life vests; grab the handheld VHF; grab my cell phone in its waterproof case; wait on the bow until you have to jump; then, finally, jump in and wait.
Talking with a fellow boater we reviewed the plan and agreed one more risk was being in bad waters (think Cattle Pass on the way to the San Juan Islands if you're in the PNW). If two or more of us jumped into six-foot or higher waves, would we be able to find each other and hold on to each other? Probably not. So I have added to my list getting carabiner clips and making lines with clips so we can hook up together and then jump into the water holding hands, but the lines will keep us connected if/when we lose our grip.
I'm not worried about food and water because in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) the water temp is such that we'll have about 15 minutes of full alertness, another fifteen minutes of compromised mental/physical abilities thanks to hypothermia, and another half-hour of survivable coldness before we check out. We don't need energy bars and bottled water for that.
Any additional thoughts from the boaters here? FWIW we're not interested in buying an inflatable life raft or getting survival suits as our current boating destinations are all within a ready reach of the USCG/ Canadian Coast Guard.
That got me thinking about what we would have done, and it wasn't a pretty set of thoughts. Let's see, I have some expired flares under one of the salon settees, couldn't get to them. A flare gun in the storage area along the port salon wall. Couldn't get to that. My new electronic flare/signal device is hanging on the cockpit ladder that goes up to the flybridge. Could maybe get to that. The Admiral hasn't been shown how to use the DSC for a distress call, so if I were incapacitated there'd be some issues there. So I am changing all of that this week.
I started by buying an EPIRB. West Marine has a new model from ARC on sale for $250, with a $50 mail-in rebate. https://www.westmarine.com/buy/acr-e...FYuifgodWqUO-g Ordered and received at the end of last week. I registered it with NOAA and got my confirmation back. I will have a stick-on decal in another week.
For a ditch bag I picked up a waterproof plastic ammo case from Harbor Freight. The EPIRB, two personal emergency strobe lights, and flare gun with flares will go in there. On the side of the ammo case will be instructions (made on my label-maker) for emergency situations. I will write them up this week, but something like: How to send a MayDay call; how to report location (both Garmin chartplotter and iPad Navionics in case electric power is lost); how to activate the DSC; location of bright orange life vests; grab the handheld VHF; grab my cell phone in its waterproof case; wait on the bow until you have to jump; then, finally, jump in and wait.
Talking with a fellow boater we reviewed the plan and agreed one more risk was being in bad waters (think Cattle Pass on the way to the San Juan Islands if you're in the PNW). If two or more of us jumped into six-foot or higher waves, would we be able to find each other and hold on to each other? Probably not. So I have added to my list getting carabiner clips and making lines with clips so we can hook up together and then jump into the water holding hands, but the lines will keep us connected if/when we lose our grip.
I'm not worried about food and water because in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) the water temp is such that we'll have about 15 minutes of full alertness, another fifteen minutes of compromised mental/physical abilities thanks to hypothermia, and another half-hour of survivable coldness before we check out. We don't need energy bars and bottled water for that.
Any additional thoughts from the boaters here? FWIW we're not interested in buying an inflatable life raft or getting survival suits as our current boating destinations are all within a ready reach of the USCG/ Canadian Coast Guard.
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