Grab bag contents.

B

burgundyben

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Cruising area - Solent, Lyme Bay, Devon, Cornwall, Channel Islands. Typically with 2 persons onboard. No life raft but outside Solent the Avon is inflated and in cockpit.

Spurred on by the LED/laser flare thread and that my inshore flare pack is time expired as of Dec 2014 my grab bag for this season needs a re-fresh.

Large Louis-Vitton poly bottle will contain.

Handheld VHF
Handheld GPS
Spare battery for both above
2 red smokes (time expired)
2 red hand held (time expired)
1 PLB
2 500ml bottles of water
2 chocolate bars
2 survival blankets
Passports, phones, wallets.
Spare pants.

Not proposing to purchase new pyro. Potentially a contentious point.

Should I have a small first aid kit in the grab bag?
 
For comparison, here's my list for a similar cruising area:

Electronics
PLB (poor man's EPIRB)
VHF
GPS
Mayday card
3 x torches (one on a string at the top of the bag)
Strobe
24 x batteries

Flares
4 x rocket
4 x hand
2 x buoyant smoke

Food
8 x 0.5l water
Liferaft ration shortbread
Kendal mint cake

Warm Kit
4 x thermal protective aids
4 x woolly hats

Tools & Materials
Multi-tool
Writing slate / cutting board & waterproof pencils
Gaffer tape
Electrical tape
Cordage
Cloths
2 x pots / bailers
Space blanket (warmth / visibility / radar reflector)
CD (sun signaling)

Comfort
2 x glow sticks
Spare glasses
Glasses wipes
2 x pack tissues
Playing cards

Loose
Dry bag for extra gear (in outside pocket)
Whistle
Laminated document card (copy of passport, debit card, etc)
Extra plastic bags (for seasickness or to keep extra kit dry)

The most important bit by far is the PLB though :)

Pete
 
prv said:
For comparison, here's my list for a similar cruising area:

Electronics
PLB (poor man's EPIRB)
VHF
GPS
Mayday card
3 x torches (one on a string at the top of the bag)
Strobe
24 x batteries

Flares
4 x rocket
4 x hand
2 x buoyant smoke

Food
8 x 0.5l water
Liferaft ration shortbread
Kendal mint cake

Warm Kit
4 x thermal protective aids
4 x woolly hats

Tools & Materials
Multi-tool
Writing slate / cutting board & waterproof pencils
Gaffer tape
Electrical tape
Cordage
Cloths
2 x pots / bailers
Space blanket (warmth / visibility / radar reflector)
CD (sun signaling)

Comfort
2 x glow sticks
Spare glasses
Glasses wipes
2 x pack tissues
Playing cards

Loose
Dry bag for extra gear (in outside pocket)
Whistle
Laminated document card (copy of passport, debit card, etc)
Extra plastic bags (for seasickness or to keep extra kit dry)

The most important bit by far is the PLB though :)

Pete
Click to expand...

Blimey! That a 'grab sack' not a 'grab bag'! :)
 
When PRV got to the 4 litres of water I was envisioning a boom crane to lift it into the life raft!!

For UK costal and Channel Islands, why the need for food?

Electrical tape is useless in damp or wet conditions, far better to carry self amalgamating tape.
 
Interesting throughts re: PLBs or EPIRBs.

Something which the commercial industry is considering more and more are AIS based PLBs. They're £200 a pop, but fitting it to your lifejacket is not only useful when a grab-bag is required, but if you go for an untimely swim, it'll show up nicely on the radar / charts.

Thoughts?

Oh, another thing for the grab-bag would certainly be strong sun-block! Maybe a hand-held osmosis pump if you want to go all out?
 
Groot T said:
Interesting throughts re: PLBs or EPIRBs.

Something which the commercial industry is considering more and more are AIS based PLBs. They're £200 a pop, but fitting it to your lifejacket is not only useful when a grab-bag is required, but if you go for an untimely swim, it'll show up nicely on the radar
Click to expand...

An AIS beacon won't show on radar, unless your set overlays AIS info, only a SART will do that but they're too big to be carried personally, more like an epirb where they're for the vessel.

I carry both an AIS beacon (Safelink R10) fitted to my deckvest so it activates if the lifejacket does, and a PLB (Safelink Solo or a Fastfind 210 depending on which I've got with me) but in my mind they fulfil different purposes, the AIS is to help my own boat recover me if I go overboard, watch the video of the Derry/Londonderry MOB on the clipper and you'll see the difficulty they had in spotting the chap in amongst decent sized waves. The PLB is more for a full abandon ship, to mobilise SAR assets, rather than an MOB situation (although it could of course be called into action for that). The AIS only has a limited range which unless in really congested waters might not be sufficient whereas the PLB is satellite based so very long range coverage.

As such I would say they complement each other rather than are alternatives.
 
mm42 said:
An AIS beacon won't show on radar, unless your set overlays AIS info, only a SART will do that but they're too big to be carried personally, more like an epirb where they're for the vessel.

I carry both an AIS beacon (Safelink R10) fitted to my deckvest so it activates if the lifejacket does, and a PLB (Safelink Solo or a Fastfind 210 depending on which I've got with me) but in my mind they fulfil different purposes, the AIS is to help my own boat recover me if I go overboard, watch the video of the Derry/Londonderry MOB on the clipper and you'll see the difficulty they had in spotting the chap in amongst decent sized waves. The PLB is more for a full abandon ship, to mobilise SAR assets, rather than an MOB situation (although it could of course be called into action for that). The AIS only has a limited range which unless in really congested waters might not be sufficient whereas the PLB is satellite based so very long range coverage.

As such I would say they complement each other rather than are alternatives.
Click to expand...
Out of interest, what is the advantage of a PLB over a hand held VHS with GPS and DSC capability? That seems a three in one and is cheaper than a PLB ?Edit.. ah, linked to SAR...
 
Last edited:
ctva said:
When PRV got to the 4 litres of water I was envisioning a boom crane to lift it into the life raft!!
Click to expand...

:)

It's a standard McMurdo grab bag, albeit their "large" model. It fits neatly on a shelf behind the companionway steps and I can lift it without difficulty, so why not fill it?

ctva said:
For UK costal and Channel Islands, why the need for food?
Click to expand...

Fair point in that you're highly unlikely to starve to death in the English Channel. But if something goes wrong with the PLB and you're not in the shipping lanes, you might have to wait a while before something comes into the puny range of a handheld VHF at sea level. A belt of sugary energy helps you stay warm, a few mouthfuls of something solid is always welcome (to me anyway) after being seasick, and in general it's a good morale booster for not much space and weight.

Pete
 
Groot T said:
Something which the commercial industry is considering more and more are AIS based PLBs.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Ideal for man-overboard from a crewed boat - appears on the plotter (and can sound an alarm if properly equipped) and will guide the remaining crew straight back. :encouragement:. This is what they were invented for, originally for racing yachts travelling downwind at speed in the Southern Ocean.

For a single-hander or after abandoning ship, not really appropriate although better than nothing. Range is fairly short (I think five or six miles, from memory?) and nobody is specifically listening anyway. Last I heard the Coastguard's kit did not sound an alarm if it picked up an AIS SART (though this may have changed) and the majority of plotters won't either. They should all display something (if AIS is fitted at all, of course) but with older firmware it may just look like a ship. Fine if you've just seen Bob fall overboard and you know that new arrow must be him, but it won't necessarily call attention to you on board another boat.

Pete
 
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