CANOEDOGS +1

Very well said, shelter when wet is it within the first 15 minutes or else anything else you carry is worthless. Cold and wet kills fast,and what happens if you can't get a fire going in the first 15 minutes? Your on a very fast time clock to get dry and warm as fast as possible.

Whats Wrong In This Photo??



after running the shoreline and finding a small bay to pull into for a breather i took this shot as sort of a "pat on the back"...but check out the flasher on the right of the photo--left side of PFD--it's so small that its a joke.later in the day when the storm driving that wind swept down the lake and over me i had a look around and came to the conclusion that the TINY firefly of a light would be invisible to anyone who might be close enought to pull me out of the water and the switch takes both hands to turn on.one to hold the body and one to move a wire clip and turn the small switch..i have one of those large flashers with the clear dome top and safety pin clip but i thought i was heavy and was getting bashed around too much so i went for a smaller one..so next is a better flasher that is at least cheaper than a SPOT PLB..
any ideas??



do you think you could spot a man in the water if he had that flasher running???

I would scrap the wax/cotton tinder in faviour of a esbit cubes or wetfire and add a few lifeboat matches. No less than five and no more than 10. Plus a scout sized fire steel that I have varnished to protect from salt water.

Reason:
I know from personal experience that cotton/wax tinder is not as easy to light as Tinder-Quik. However it does deliver more BTU's. But, and its a big but, neither of them burns long enough to dry out and ignite damp kindling. As for trying to light a fire in any sort of breeze with a match or a lighter when your wet/shivering, well, good luck....

On the other hand,a crushed esbit block that has a lifeboat match dropped onto it, or a spark struck into it will ignite instantly.

One other point: If you can obtain one a Krill Stick would be preferable. rather than a lightstick.

Rather than a Krill, I'd get the waterproof (option) CR123 based (one or 2 models) "Glo-tube". I've tried to standardize on AA/CR123s (actually moving towards CR123). They do have a blink pattern (in fact, more than one), so...

RE Hypothermia

It can sneak up on you real fast.

Back, oh 20+ years ago, I was going for a hike up Slide Mountain in the Catskills. Weather was nice when we left NYC the weekend before Memorial Day

The weather was damp, and kinda chilly at the base of the mountain, and even though I only had a long sleved shirt, and no jacket, the 4 of us decided to head up the mountain. At around the 3400 ft mark, it started to SNOW, but then stopped. I was damp, it was COLD, and surprise, I was seriously hypothermic. Luckly, my hiking buddy Joe took one look at me, and realized what was going on. Spare jacket over my shoulders (I was a larger size so could not wear it, small stove out, cup of hot chocolate, and some food later, and I was fine - didn't hurt that the sun decided to come out, and the temps went up 10-15 degs either - to the point we decided NOT to abandon the hike (we were only 1/3 mile from the summit or so). Hiked up, made lunch (again, hot), and hiked back on down

Interesting experience. The rest of the gang got to see what hypothermia looks like, and I got to feel what it's like, and how FAST it can come on

CANOEDOGS, I went with the ACR Firefly2 Waterbug http://www.afmo.com/ACR_Firefly2_Waterbug_p/218-00032.htm , you can get them cheaper if you Google it but it has its advantages.
1. waterproof to 200 feet
2. 2 modes of operation,
1st mode is water activated, if you fall over it will automatically strobe for 8 hours on 2 AA batteries.
The second mode is if you turn it on on land you can lick your fingers and activate it by touching the two contacts on land and once it turns on it won't stop until you turn it off.
3. AA batteries and durable

Another thing I carry is a diver Signal Marker Buoy, which I attach the strobe to the top of it while in the water which allows the strobe to be seen above wave height. If your happy with your strobe then just add the SMB to your kit and attach the strobe to the top of it when in the water. I like the water bug because if I fall in the water unconscious then it fires off automatically. If you do get one, get one that's 5 feet or greater, the taller it is the more the visibility.

SMB Link

Another source of SMB's


Here's an example of what I'm talking about, the strobe is attached to the top of the SMB (Surface Marker Buoy) and allows your strobe to be seen over small wave heights up to 5 to 6 feet. The SMB with strobe and a dive alert for noise allowed me to be seen when my dive boat decided to go back in shore without accounting for people. It was the day I should have played the lottery because a boat was fishing in that area and saw me. That day I cashed out one of my 9 lives, so I know it does work in choppy waters.

This project has several interesting assumptions:

- that you only have the pockets of the life jacket for equipment
- that hypothermia is your first concern (rather then say, getting out of the water.)

teacher

I would not substitute the SS Mora fot the carbon steel one, I have a carbon steel clipper that I take tubing with me every year and I also put it in my tackle box when I go fishing. I have not had any problems in three years with rust. Good kit though I am in the process of building a lifejacket kit and a waterproof pocket kit for watercraft.

Thanks for a good starting point

goat

Holy crap, man! Glad you made it back in one piece. I think I will skip any SCUBA expeditions that don’t allow me to take the boat keys down with me.

Thanks JCWohlschlag, I won't go out in a boat without a PLB anymore. It was a lesson learned thing. If you go down diving off of West Palm Beach, be careful of a lot of the dive boats,they are like cattle cars. They get you out there but you may not come back. Several years later I was in my friends boat while we were in between dives and heard a help in the middle of the ocean. We picked up a floating diver that had been floating for 5 hours when we saw him and picked him up. (Reminded me of my fun experience thinking that this was my time to go.) Anyway we got him in the boat all dehydrated and the first thing he wanted was a cigarette, none of us smoked but it was interesting that he preferred a smoke to water for that brief moment. Any way we took him back to shore and diverted another rescue attempt for the coast guard. He cashed 1 of his 9 lives in that day as well. It sucks floating out there with sharks and what have you wondering if this is it. Now I keep a ACR PLB and a small bag of water is added to my signal kit. My signal kit is overkill but worth it.