Grab Bag contents: three questions

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dom

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The recent Oyster sinking made me think about the contents of my grab bag:

  • 6x 500ml bottles of water (in addition to what's packed on raft)
  • 24x muesli bars
  • 3x waterproff LED torches
  • 1x mini-flare pack
  • 2x sea-dye pouches
  • 5x silver blankets
  • 4 pairs Thinsulate gloves
  • 4 Musto beany hats
  • 1x Pkt of Stugeron
  • 1x Smartfind AIS Beacon
  • 1x mirror
  • 1x Silva orienteering compass
That's it: at present I do not ask the crew to bring additional supplies of any medicine they are taking (asthma, heart, antibiotics, or whatever) to store in the bag.

I'm banking on being able to grab the handheld, activate Epirb, send VHF distress signal, collect passports, put on fleeces, oilies + LJ, pull liferaft out of its on-deck stowage point and launch, etc.

So my three questions are:

  1. Am I missing anything?
  2. When I run the crew through a practice drill, what time should I aim for: 5 minutes?, 3?, 1?
  3. Should I ask for a spare supply of any essential medicine in advance of an offshore passage?
 
dom said:
The recent Oyster sinking made me think about the contents of my grab bag:

  • 6x 500ml bottles of water (in addition to what's packed on raft)
  • 24x muesli bars
  • 3x waterproff LED torches
  • 1x mini-flare pack
  • 2x sea-dye pouches
  • 5x silver blankets
  • 4 pairs Thinsulate gloves
  • 4 Musto beany hats
  • 1x Pkt of Stugeron
  • 1x Smartfind AIS Beacon
  • 1x mirror
  • 1x Silva orienteering compass
That's it: at present I do not ask the crew to bring additional supplies of any medicine they are taking (asthma, heart, antibiotics, or whatever) to store in the bag.

I'm banking on being able to grab the handheld, activate Epirb, send VHF distress signal, collect passports, put on fleeces, oilies + LJ, pull liferaft out of its on-deck stowage point and launch, etc.

So my three questions are:

  1. Am I missing anything?
  2. When I run the crew through a practice drill, what time should I aim for: 5 minutes?, 3?, 1?
  3. Should I ask for a spare supply of any essential medicine in advance of an offshore passage?
Click to expand...

Spare batteries.
In the case of Daniel Fournier (YM May 15) he reckoned he had 3 mins before the first signs of the fire and the boat exploding. He was alone, fit and experienced but nearly died. He wondered what would have been the scenario with sleeping crew, children or injuries.

As the inside of his boat was an inferno, you cannot necessarily count on accessing all the things held Inside and so he made a strong case for things to be held in the cockpit : grabbag, gas cut-off switch, fire extinguishers, VHF etc...
 
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LadyInBed said:
And a partridge in a pear tree :)
Click to expand...

Oh don't: missus d has just said that I should put up the Christmas Tree since it's too windy to sail: that means the confounded lights that never work, those wretched little electric triangular candle things and to cap it all the inevitable trip to Homebase to replenish the missing bits :numbness:
 
Sybarite said:
Spare batteries.
In the case of Daniel Fournier (YM May 15) he reckoned he had 3 mins before the first signs of the fire and the boat exploding. He was alone, fit and experienced but nearly died. He wondered what would have been the scenario with sleeping crew, children or injuries.
Click to expand...

Three minutes is scarily fast, but I suspect you're right.
 
He made the point that nearly everything Inside a boat is inflammable - including a lot of the wet weather gear you wear. He is a recently retired colonel in the French Fire service.
 
One comment I read a long time ago from a rescued crew was to remember passports, credit cards/money and car keys as when they eventually got ashore they had no papers no money and when eventually back home, no car keys either for the car left at their departure point. This was a British Motor yacht ( 'Welsh GIrl' IIRC) crew were picked up by a German ship in the lanes off Ushant after a fire/sinking and stayed on board the ship until it's next stop, so then had to find their own way home. After that we always routinely stored our passports, money etc. in the grab bag for any long passages offshore
 
We had much the same as your list in our grab bag and we also had a satphone charged and ready to go but no paid time on it - the emergency number is free. The reason we had it is a satphone is much faster, a couple of minutes max, than an EPIRB that can take up to an hour to pick up satellites. We didn't cary an AIS beacon in the middle of an ocean there are no ships. As mentioned above we did carry spare torch batteries.
 
Wot everyone else said, plus we always put car keys, passports, glasses, money and phones etc in the grab bag at the start of a long trip with the grab bag in the cockpit ready (tied on). So its launch the liferaft, grab the bag and go without having to go below at all.
 
dom said:
The recent Oyster sinking made me think about the contents of my grab bag:

  • 6x 500ml bottles of water (in addition to what's packed on raft)
  • 24x muesli bars
  • 3x waterproff LED torches
  • 1x mini-flare pack
  • 2x sea-dye pouches
  • 5x silver blankets
  • 4 pairs Thinsulate gloves
  • 4 Musto beany hats
  • 1x Pkt of Stugeron
  • 1x Smartfind AIS Beacon
  • 1x mirror
  • 1x Silva orienteering compass
That's it: at present I do not ask the crew to bring additional supplies of any medicine they are taking (asthma, heart, antibiotics, or whatever) to store in the bag.

I'm banking on being able to grab the handheld, activate Epirb, send VHF distress signal, collect passports, put on fleeces, oilies + LJ, pull liferaft out of its on-deck stowage point and launch, etc.

So my three questions are:

  1. Am I missing anything?
  2. When I run the crew through a practice drill, what time should I aim for: 5 minutes?, 3?, 1?
  3. Should I ask for a spare supply of any essential medicine in advance of an offshore passage?
Click to expand...

Where are you equipping the grab bag for?
 
How about some toilet paper, wet wipes and some zip-lock plastic bags?
I f you wear contact lenses, put an old pair of glasses in for when you have to take you lenses out
If you need them, reading glasses
GPS

TudorSailor
 
That is so strange, just going through the same process.

I guess the top priority is to be found, so I think an emergency beacon might be included.

Chances are you might get horribly sea sick - rafts are much more uncomforatble than you think - so more Stugeron.

A medical kit.

A GPS.

A handheld VHF radio.
 
Kind of depends on number of crew and how far from shore

Cruising coastal our priorities are phone in waterproof case (worn at all times), plus handheld VHF and PLB.
Some other stuff in the standard liferaft contents. But primary objective is to reliably be able to call for help.
Generally also water bottles in cockpit anyway, but in extremis can survive UK weather for some time without food, and a while without water. Perhaps should add these when in remoter parts of Scottish Islands, but not elsewhere.

Clearly very different with 6 crew mid ocean
 
Looking at your list you will run out of water before you run out of mussily bars, water is the thing you will need most after the position finding kit epirb etc. Consider putting a hand operated water desalinator in the life raft hard work but they will produce drinkable water, also a solar still. If you are in coastal waters including Biscay then with an epirb and or sat phone you can expect to be picked up relatively quickly, on the other hand offshore / remote may have to tough it out for some time so whats in the bag does depend on where you are going. Prescription medicines if they are life saving type, insulin etc then each person should make their own provision which should be a small package ( not a suitcase) kept where they can access it quickly but not in the ships grab bag.

If you have not done one go on a course and experience in controlled conditions the reality of a liferaft. It's eye opening.
 
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Very interesting replies; I don't put a plb in the bag because I was banking on letting the Epirb off, and I prefer everyone on deck offshore to wear the AIS mob beacons these days, for ease of pickup if someone falls off. Water is limited because some water is already packed, but petehbs suggestion of a hand desalinator for far offshore is a good idea.

Re what I'm equipping the boat for: I mostly sail two up and don't go that far these days: Falmouth => Kinsale, or Camaret to La Coruna is kind of the limit really. To be honest if I get all of my ducks in a row I'm probably in with a very good chance in these waters with the kit I have.

But what we're not so good at is keeping everything to hand, ship shape and Bristol fashion, especially at night: like for example to th eextent of keeping a torch in pocket so if lighting KO'd I/or missus could instantly collect and put on thermals, underlayers, oilies, LJs, boots, fleeces, gloves, etc.

In fact if I'm honest 3 minutes from "Oh sh**!" to fumble fumble, dressed, liferaft released and readied for launch, tossed into the water, inflated, grab bag clipped on and tossed in and finally scramble into raft and cut the line ...NO CHANCE! In fact next weekend I'm going to time it in the dark (with only a torch and with winter gear scattered between saloon settee and heads (ebby dries and warms stuff there) to test see exactly how long it takes. If the time is hopeless, there will be some work t be done :nonchalance:
 
I suspect that relying on the EPIRB on board is that it is surprising how far you can drift - even with "coastal" sailing if you end up in the raft in bad weather as the sun sets it maybe sometime before you are recovered by which time you may be some considerable distance away. It is surprising how difficult it is to find a target when you arent sure exactly where it is.
 
Its called a G R A B bag not a bag to fill as you leave.

EVERYTHING you NEED to survive and be rescued must be in it if its not in the raft. There is however a difference from NEED and WANT. So you will be cursing loosing your passport, but you wont die as a result. Same for car keys, house keys etc. Assuming you keep money in a bank there WILL be a way to retrieve it and once you have money all those other issues can be sorted.

Lots of medication won't save your life. Some will. So yes insulin in a type 1 diabetic (type 2 - you may not have to worry you wont be on that many calories!), certain cardiac meds. Yes if you have high blood pressure it may be worth having your BP meds on the raft as you may be a tad stressed. BUT its probably not the end of the day. Inhaler (at least the reliever) worth having.

No need to be an extra package - just keep the essential meds in the grab bag and access them from there making sure not to jeopridse its contents when accessing. So perhaps a seperate bag clipped to the main bag.

I think 3 minutes is optimistic. I'd expect to be on deck in 30 seconds tops, no DSC alert sent, no EPIRB activated if you know you have a PLB. Need to grab LJ and oilies and grab bag in 30 seconds (put them on, on deck if need be). I'd aim to have my DSC and EPIRB reachable from the cockpit so you can reach back for them once out in the relative safety of the deck if time allows.
 
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