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Romanticism aside....406 EPIRB with GPS interface if offshore.

My feeling is that the ditch bag is limited in size and abandoning ship
is often a time critical evolution putting "lifeboat" navigational gear
pretty far down the priority list.  There was a long discussion last
year on the Island Packet list (at sailnet.com) regarding what if any
value a battery handheld GPS had in the ditch bag.

My perception is that the ability to survive until rescued takes
precedence over some concept that you can self rescue by sailing to the
nearest land.  This means getting word out you are in trouble, items to
enhance being found, followed by items to maximize the time you remain
alive have priority.

Jim Dullea
Tech Marine Business, Inc



-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM] On Behalf Of Cliff
Sojourner
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 2:08 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: Re: lifeboat navigation

David Weilacher wrote:

> Read a book called "Survive the Savage Sea".  It is a story of a
family
> whose sailboat was attacked by whales.  The boat sank within 2
minutes.
> They took to a liferaft and dinghy.  It doesn't go into the details of
> navigation nearly as deeply as I would have liked but the man's
navigation
> skills and understanding of his environment were obviously prolific.

I have Dougal Robertson's book right here.  one of the things he says,
and
Steven Callahan said in his book "Adrift", and nearly all my other
survival
books say, is that you can't navigate when you can't sail.

Robertson's dinghy was too small to carry the family, and the lifeboat
just
wouldn't move.  indeed if he were able to sail then he could have beam
reached back to Galapagos.  if you can make 2 knots you can get
somewhere,
it will just take a while.  if you are making 0 knots then you are
really
just drifting with ocean currents at what, 10, 20 miles a day?

this is not to denigrate the psychological advantages of navigation in
the
life boat.  it gives you something to do, and may give some reassurance
and
feeling of control over the situation.  dunno for sure, never been
there!

so I guess this begs the question, what navigational items are
appropriate
to pack in the ditch bag?


Cliff

   

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