Sound thoughts Ken,

I keep at least a minimum kit on my person when in the field.

In the winter the easiest way for me to get seperated from my main kit/gear pack is to have my snowmobile go through thin ice. If you end-up on shore you have only the gear on you, and you are soaking wet, not a good situation. If time allows I am going to practice this situation in the next week or so as I need some new photos for an upcoming presentation.

Mike

Andrew:

I would sugest that if you can take your gear to a friend who has a vacume seal like a food saver or the equiliant. Take your gear that you know you will use only incase of an emergencey and seal it up with an extra ziplock back in it. This way your can save space and ensure total waterproofness of the gear in the vacume sealed bag.

The extra ziplock bag is for when you open the vacum bag you have another bag to put the gear in.

While I know you won't have the K-Bar in the watter, or rather I should say it in't your intention, I would sugest going with a more watter aprpriate knife as I know watter is a tricky item and can work it's way into the darndest places.

Finaly I would sugest a phylosophy that I see repeated here a lot, "Two is one, and one is none." Meaning that redundancy is your friend.

Consider checking out a couple kayak forums that deal with marine kayaking. They often have some pretty serious enthusiasts who prepare for almost anything in perhaps the most potentially hostile environment around. I have seen some awesome discussions of survival gear to wear in the assumption you are going to be separated from your boat.

Too much wool on your body when in the water can be dangerous
as it weighs you down. Nearly lost a scoutmaster one winter while canoeing.
He was a big fan of Filson clothes.

Also I've noticed
how much lower in the water others have floated when wearing
wool clothes after falling out of a raft. Makes it harder to
see obstacles downstream and to catch your breath.

Sure, you may get some holes in your fleece from a campfire, but it will dry faster anyway. In a survival situation, the last
thing I would worry about is how snappy my clothes looked.

I like the polypro heavyweight army longjohns for boating
as they are the lightest to carry, the fastest drying, and
add to buoyancy.

The idea is he has the wool available in the survival kit for wear underneath his windproof shell (the kayak jacket). Sorry I did not make that clear.

The only thing that touches my delicate body when on the water (or in as the case may be) is neoprene.... Provides that ever so nice buoyancy.

A real nice combination is a farmer john worn with a float coat. It works great for sea kayaking, but might not be quite so good for river work.

I'd love to buy a PLB. For larger groups and longer trips, the group usually all chips in to buy one. I don't consider it a necessity for shorter trips, because my wife always knows where I'm going and when to expect me back. I plan to get one as soon as I can afford it though, just in case.

I'll see if I can track down someone with a vacuum sealer - may let me squeeze some extra clothing into my drybag.

As hikermor said, wool is fine as long as it's under a drytop - I've never gotten more than a trickle of water inside my drytop, even swimming in class IV. A farmer john wetsuit and a drytop is great for on the river - especially if the wetsuit has padded knees! It stops being warm enough when water temps drop close to 40 degrees. I'll be upgrading to drypants for the Spring boating season so I can start paddling in March instead of April.

Hi Andrew. 2 comments.
The blue closed cell sleeping pad foam can be stuffed into the hold of a kayak and it forms itself to the inside fairly nice.
It takes less space than you expect. It can still be pulled out if you need something warm under you. It also protects the inside of the canoe from the gear.

One of the things I see with fire-steel rod is people don't scrape it hard enough when using it. A light scrape gives flashy sparks that don't burn long enough to catch bad tinder. It looks good but there is not much heat in it.
A good deep hard scrape will give big fat sparks that burn for a bit longer.
A small square edge on the back of your knife makes a very good scraper.

I agree with the suggestion that you buy one of Doug's pocket survival packs and add to it.

the knife you attach to your PFD
heatsheet
Couple of zip-lock baggies or Gerber bags (search) to carry water in.
4-6 MP1 tablets

AND- I'd re-think "deployment". It isn't hard to be separated from your boat and the gear you stow in the dry bag. Doug's kit, even with a heatsheet, can be attached to your PFD (or some PFD's have a secure pocket. Somehow, on your person. Consider http://www.aquapac.net/usstore/mini-whanganui-br-644-1894-0.html

I'd second the comments about stuff on your person. To me, most likely scenario involves just you, wet and exhausted puling yourself ashore. I'd want an instant shelter (heatsheet, plastic bag etc) and a reliable firestarter (plus tinder and maybe an esbit tab or similar) - sometimes, if you cant get warm really fast and easily, all the other stuff may become irrelevant :-(