What would you put in a Ditch Bag?
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:44 pm
Here in Puget Sound, and assuming we travel internationally ( Heh heh! Sounds wierd calling Canada international!! ) here is a partial list of what I have readily available . . . .
1) Small hand held mirror. I prefer the compact ladies make up mirror with a flip cover.
2) Handheld VHF radio
3) Handheld GPS
4) Flare Gun
5) Standard small emergency kit. Bandages, etc.
6) Legal documents, IE Driverslicense, Credit cards, passport, etc.
7) Ability to build fire
8 ) Very sharp pocket knife
9) Rain gear, coats.
Hmm, that's about all I can think of now.
Please note the LACK of EPERB, food and life raft. Since we track where we are via GPS and have a spare hand held GPS we can locate ourselves easily.We also bring a dinghy with us most of the time on Destiny and Lady Jo is positively buoyant!
Here in Puget Sound help is always within an hour away. Critical thing is getting the word out you are in trouble and being able to identify WHERE you are! We regularly here calls for help on 16 in the summer especially on busy weekends. SO many times you here the Coast Guard requesting input from other boaters as to if they heard the call for help, where they were and how strong the signal was. This is a method of triangulating on the transmission location. Just this last year coming home from Paulsbo we were sailing along slowly and heard "the call". They guy took 20 minutes to figure out WHERE he was! We had sailed right passed him after his initial call for assistance. We had seen his boat dead in the water and no one was waving, no flare, no upside down flags, not even a burning barrel on deck, etc . . .
Long story short had he been able to identify his location, we'd had been there within 5 minutes of the initial call. He likely spent a lot of money that day on vessel assist.
Scott
