PC2K,

Most sea-ancors are already deployed when the life-raft inflates.

And I've recently seen a 'next-generation' liferaft. It's called a Maritark (or something like that).
It looks like a stacked-up pile of tubes and is completely reversible. People get in it tru a large nylon tube that get's deployed
from the ship to the raft, keeping you dry and avoiding contact with the water.

Mad Eric's list is infamous, but I can't see how the guy moves. And if he really does EDC that, he's even more obsessive-compulsive than we are as a group.

Well said Chris.

Troy

Our last ETS liferaft test revealed as much variation and skill among VOLUNTEER participants, including many professionals as the various rafts themselves. Your equipment may very well be open whaleboats on manual davits, a MK 1 Kapok lifejacket and rations of canned water, compressed cornflake bars and candy in the infamous; green,red,yellow,orange along with a TRACON fishing kit, 3 icarus flares, a smoke bomb, grey anglehead flashlight and camillus utility folder. That was still issue on my old cutter in the late 1970s- and mighty glad we were to have that ( and add to it.) Then again, you could have state of the art gear and still find yourself in a FUBAR situation. On a historical note: much of the modern, post R.M.S. Titanic effort to upgrade liferafts was a rather reclusive member of the R.A.F named Aircraftman Shaw- AKA T.E. Lawrence. Fun fact to ponder while sending out the battleship in the bath tonight if Duckie gets to aggressive. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Easy!

Change the channel. I don't like that movie <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Since the only reason I'd go on another cruise ever again is if my life were threatened, I'd just stay right in my cabin along with whoever it is holding the gun to my head and tell them "see, I told you so!" How do you suppose that fire got started, anyways? Yup, I always keep firemaking stuff handy.

First, for some of you more active forum members, I apologize for ressurecting an old thread. However this was posted while I was actually out to sea, so maybe I'll get some slack.

First I just want to say that with the rustbuckets we have these days and some of the problems with our newest assets, you were right in saying that it might take a little while for the nearest Coast Guard ship to arrive, but I can assure you we'd do our damnedest.

So, I can't get enough salt, and I am taking a vaction from the sea on the sea and my cruise ship catches fire...
(I would like to make the caveat that much of my experience pertains to military vessels)
1. Heed the shipboard alarms. Folks on the Titanic went back into their staterooms after they assumed everything was ok.
2. Calmly and rationally gather the family, explain the situation. Assist them as they put on insulating clothing.
3. Gather PFDs and my personal ship survival kit (explained later)
4. Lead the family topside. In the Coast Guard the first day you report to a ship you do a drill where you must exit the berthing area blindfolded on your hands and knees. Don't know if they do that on cruises, but I would know at least two exits from my room.
5. While egressing we would observe the precautions, avoiding compartments that felt hot and staying below any smoke with bandanna's around our mouths. (Again, in the Guard we have Emergency Escape Breathing Devices - good for 10 min of air, I don't know of a cruise ship equivelent, but we would use those, checking of course prior to the beginning of the vacation that the indicator was in the green).
6. Once topside, I'd follow the directions of the crew (to avoid mass panic and conflicting orders), but I wouldn't certainly be at the total mercy of the crowds because as pointed out before, unlike many others I would have minded the previous safety briefings/drills and get my family to a lifeboat (first choice) or a liferaft (second choice).
7. Totally complete liferaft procedures too lengthy to be fully discussed here (the Coast Guard does an hour long session on sea survival for those fresh aboard), but the important things to remember are to stay as dry as possible, balance the raft, avoid puncturing the rubber, and as it is important throughout the emergency, to remain calm, collected, and positive.
8. Sea anchors - I just want to touch on that for a sec... it's important to deploy this promptly. The main purpose of the anchor is to keep the raft from capsizing. As the wind pushes the raft (and thus lifts the windward edge) the sea anchor opposes this force and keeps the wind from getting between the water and the raft on the windward side and turning the raft into a kite.
9. As I can fully assure you that a cruise ship disaster would alert all SAR personnell in the area, rescue in this modern day and age could be very quick. Someone is going to know that they are missing a cruise ship, so there WILL be people looking for you. And cruise ships posses the latest in Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) technology, which gives the search teams an accurate datum for the search pattern. Thus, IMHO, I think the two most important things to remember are the first two "Rules of Three" - 3 min w/o air and 3 hr w/o heat. Don't drown and stay warm. Keep that PFD on, and bundle up/huddle together. I seriously doubt that if you do indeed get off the ship into the liferafts that you will have to endure anything like Steven Callahan (Adrift). Again, people will be looking for you from the get go.

Someone asked what might be in a shipboard ditch kit. I constructed one for myself this past deployment, again keep in mind that I am on Coast Guard ships, I don't know the regs for cruise ships. I put together the kit because I wasn't too impressed with the quality of the gear that we used on our own lifevests and liferafts.

On my person 24/7:
RSK Mk1 (was awsome the whole deployment)
Leatherman Wave (very useful, showed some rust at the end)
Photon II Microlight (I had both red and white, red was for the chartroom/berthing area at night)
Space pen
Rite in the Rain notebook
Large red cotton bandanna
Sunglasses
Fox 40 micro whistle
Rescue Flash signal mirror

On the top shelf of my locker, ready to grab in a waterproof sack:
Firefly 2 strobe light
STORM whistle
Rescue Reflectors 3x5 signal mirror
1 oz sunscreen
roll up sunglasses
50 ft paracord
WSI fishing kit
SEE RESCUE 25 ft orange streamer
Land/Shark mylar and nylon thermal insulating bag
wool watch cap (when I wasnt wearing it)
1 qt Nalgene, filled
amk heatsheet
clear poncho
my self assembled small FAK and personal survival kit

*the only thing I wish I personally had was some sort of desalinator (and maybe a set of penflares), but that's for a later paygrade...

again - don't drown, stay warm, and protect yourself from exposure. Those are the biggest risks if there ever was a major nautical disaster in US Coastal waters - there WILL be SAR looking for you, and they will have a really good idea where to start looking for you due to advances in shipboard distress signalling/locating.

sorry that was so long, I just thought I might be able to help.

Matt

Thank you very much, Matt. That was very informative.

Sue ("There's HOW much water under this boat???!!)

We took a little cruise last year, Inland Passage, and in Ketchekan we had to anchor out and use the lifeboats to be ferried to shore. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the hard hulled, motorized, boats were fully enclosed, had lots of floatation (even tho in a real emergency we would all be wearing those really neato PFD's that they have in all the rooms). I also spotted lots of boxes labeled "Food," "Water," etc, and there was a two way radio built in. So I think that my main priority would be nice warm clothing...

The sad sinking of the General Belgrano in the Falklands War is a classic primer. Except for the initial casualties from the torpedo the crew made it into lifeboats. There is even a photograph of the Captain and a remaining officer leaping from the bow as she went down. Rescue located all but a few liferafts which succumbed to high seas. Further casualties were in lifeboats with only a few occupants. The inability to huddle and utilise body heat killed them with hypothermia.