I may be living on a sailboat soon. My normal BOB might float for a while if I put everything into ziplock bags but is geared to terrestrial survival.

So, let's assume I have to abandon ship in the fog off the Northern California coast, or at midnight somewhare in the San Joaquin - Sacramento Delta after being rammed by a drunk going 100 miles an hour in a cigarette, or whatever. I need to start putting together a ditch bag to increase the odds of my survival.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Keep your BoB in a proper life jacket and tagline with a large halyard clip at the bitter end. Keep the BoB next to your main hatchway. If you have to abandon ship, clip the tagline to your life jacket and jump overboard with your BoB in your arms.

Keep a signal mirror, whistle, water dye, and bic lighter (in a ziplock or 2) in your life jacket pockets.

If you can afford it, keep a MK79 pencil flare launcher in your life jacket pocket.

If you have a handheld vhf-fm radio, get a radio condom for it.

Know what you're going to grab on your way overboard and know how to get to it in the dark!!

Ray Mears did one of his programs on a chap who ended up in his dinghy for months days. The real life savers were a spear gun he could fish with and bits and pieces he managed to fix a leak with. One thing I don't understand not being a sailor: why have a BOB seperate from the dinghy? Can't you keep it attached to the dinghy?
The Sock

yes, but it needs to be shielded from sea water/spray, and from sunlight.

Well, just look at our own ETS-article on Ditch-kits:

http://www.equipped.org/abndonship.htm

If you need a good underwater ditch bag, take a look at watershed bags. I use them extensively on all my gear, in my pack,etc.. These bags are tough and are rated for 200 feet underwater with a lifetime warranty. I would recommend getting a purge valve with it if your interested. I carried these while traveling and could keep control of all my gear when swimming. Your gear won't get a drop wet with these bags.

http://drybags.com/home.html

Not being a sailor either, I am probably all wet (pun intended), but what if bad things happened really really fast (as bad things tend to do), and the dinghy went down with the ship? I think that I would rather have my goodies with me, not something attached to a sinking ship...

I'm not a sailor either but those were my first thoughts too, OBG.

As with most survival gear, you keep it layered. Some gear (PFD, signal mirror, whistle, et al) should always be on your person. The grab bag with additional gear should be within reach as you start getting wet and whichever life-raft you have should have its own supplies.

While on the West Marine site (following links from DR's website) I stumbled on the The West Advisor. Looks like good info there, probably based on experience and what folks are buying.

Dry Bags are good to have, but once you go over the side, opening the bag will probably result in everything getting wet, so the items inside still need to be individually bagged; and once the seal is broken, your buoyancy is gone too if all it relies on is the air it holds.

Two bags that DR reported on are the ACR Electronics bag and the LandfallNavigation Abandon Ship Dri Bag. I kinda like the idea of a purpose built bag for this application. The bag itself is buoyant -- to a point. The LandfallNavigation Abandon Ship Dri Bag is how I'd go simply because it's a good place to store gear underway and if it ever does go over the side, DR tested it:

I couldn't find the West Marine brand bag that DR liked.

zip lock bags suck
I had used them in my lake hike / river exploration bag. They had worked for 1 year but my last trip everything got soaked

I think someone here posted a URL to a quality bag company.

For a ditch bag, one item that is really important is a cutting board.

Think about it, if your on an inflatable boat, how are you going to clean your catch?

When I use to sail, i cut a piece of wood that would fit the bottom of my ditch bag. Made it more sturdy, and doubles as a cutting board and anything else.

Keep some 3/4 full water jugs with your emergency raft.
3/4 full so they will float.
Perhaps store them in a short garbage can with a snap top.
If you do loose your boat and it the lid might pop off do to air pressure when the boat goes down.
I have read a few "it happened to me" type stories about
sinking's and they all mention not having floating water containers.

Another item some of the guys use when wreck diving is a OMS tube canister for the PLB. Just clip it on you and go, good to 660 feet so I think you won't have to worry about it getting wet.

http://www.omsdive.com/microfix.html



PLB-CAN-K 660’ Depth Rated Canister, slightly larger than the BCA298 to house the ACR Microfix PLB 9.19" OAL 2.5" ID 2.88" OD Buoyancy w/ PLB +0.15 lbs

http://www.omsdive.com/bc_access.html



Another option
I've been using a Nuuk for my GPS and Steripen and batteries, I don't know if it will fit the PLB, haven't tried it but I bet it will. This is my most used watershed bag and is good to 300 foot underwater at a price if $65.00 with a lifetime warranty and no O-rings or maintenance to do of the bag.

http://drybags.com/home.html

The MicroFix is waterproof to 5 meters (a conservative rating), so I don't think you really need to worry about additional protection vis-a-vis it being in a dry bag.

Watershed makes good bags. You likely are well aware of this, but I'll mention it because I so often see it happen is people struggle trying to open the rubber zip sealed bags by pulling them straight apart. WRONG!

Grab the loops on other side of the seal and pull them sideways towards each other and it opens easily. I've suggested that they put instructions on the bag, and they tell me they have considered doing that, but so far they haven't yet done so.

I know the ACR has a 15 foot depth rating but a lot of guys like to carry them diving as well in case the boat leaves you and the divers I run with vary depth from 150 to 300 feet underwater. If I got hit by a 100 foot rogue wave on a boat and by some miracle survived it, I would want to make sure my gear could handle more deeper water.


Also I will admit Doug, Watershed could do allot better on there presentation and use of there product and it's to bad they never took your recommendations but what can you do. Their web site doesn't give there product any kinda promotion whatsoever. If it wasn't for me trying one of there products out for experimentation, I would have never bought anything. I was so impressed with there products, I purchased all of there deck bags, all but one of there duffel bags and 1 backpack because they performed outstanding for the use I put them through. It was only when I got my bag when the warranty (lifetime) and depth rating (200-300 ft) was given. These bags have been so durable that all my electronic gear and sleeping bags and other critical stuff goes in them. I put all these bags in Osprey or north face packs depending on where I'm going and I can use them as a PFD (personal flotation device) if needed.

It was nice when I traveled overseas to have all my belongings carried on the boat taken with me while diving and not have to worry about boat handlers going through your stuff while underwater.

Example of grab bag: (2 watershed bags in a North face back pack)
Inside the bags 40 watt Solar cell and chargers,cables, GPS, Steripen, VHF radio, Combi filter, OR micronight Bivi, fire equipment, first aid kit, signaling equipment, compass and misc other things for example. Bags are rated at 200 feet underwater and the back pack is positive buoyant and can be used as a flotation device. Also I carried this backpack as a carry on overseas and even on puddle jumpers and had no problem with overhead bin storage or anybody giving me a hard time with the size.

Sure Shot Backpack from The North Face
http://www.mountaingear.com/pages/product/product.asp/item/211667/N/0/cmpn/900000/CMP/KNC-900000

For life raft/dingy use, I like clear Otter Boxes. Clear boxes so you can see at a glance what's in it. I also use color coded tags with a itemized list of what's in the box, attached to the box. Properly packed, they are water proof, and will float if needed. When empty, the Otter Boxes can serve as emergency water containers, bail containers, mixing bowls, etc..

I used a piece of sanilite cutting board in my old abandon ship bag, for life raft use.

A Otter Box with a nice fishing kit is not a bad thing to have in an abandon ship bag. Mine had several hundred feet of various weight line, 50 or so hooks, weights, swivels, floats, packaged bait, wire leaders, a floating Mora type knife, small knife sharpener, etc.

My potential ditch bag budget now far exceeds all other sailboat-related acquisition and first-year costs, except for consumables. Good thing I don't plan any extensive cruising until year 2!

FYI guys the eBags.com website usually has more and better photos of their products than the manufacturers and other vendors. You can zoom in and pan on each view. For example here is their page on the Sure Shot pack.

Even when I buy a pack somewhere else I often check eBags.com for better pics.

Living aboard is not much different than cruising IMHO, other than the time between supply stops, pump outs, etc.. You still have to maintain the boat and keep it in good condition. You living aboard costs may be close to the basic costs of cruising. You are spending the same time on the boat, maybe just not moving as much.

After inspecting the boat yesterday, things are getting more serious. Pending a satisfactory marine survey and at least one sea trial to shake out each sail and get some idea how she handles, I think we are going to do business.

SBRaider, you may be right about cruising costs not being much more than live aboard while berthed costs. That is one of the things I will be tracking carefully.

Assuming the deal goes through, I think for a year or so the boat will be absorbing costs to cure various hopefully-one-time problems in addition to whatever turn out to be “normal” live aboard and maintenance costs.