Originally Posted By: TANSTAF1
I confess I have not thoroughly read each post in this thread so I do not know for sure if my idea had not been previously mentioned. I gather one main concern is the way to get over a waterway between the office and home. There have been several suggestions for structures that might withstand a quake and the problems in swimming. I believe you have room to store a backpack - why not store an inflatable raft - they are not that big or heavy. Even if you re-arrange with a marina to take you across, in event of a disaster they may not (or may not be able to) live up to what they agreed.


An inflatable raft may not be too heavy compared to a real boat, but the lightest I found was about 20 lbs. That would about double the weight I am carrying. For just getting across a canal, that seems like too much weight. Somebody else mentioned an inflatable kayak. However their idea was not to simply cross the water, but use it to paddle most of the way home. That has more potential merit, but would require a lot more research and a lot of training on my part.

One thing I did find while doing some research about your post. I found an inflatable raft that is intended more as a pool toy than anything really useful. It weighs only 2.2 lbs and is designed to inflate by mouth. That is a much more practical weight. However, that would probably be a very thin-skinned raft and would probably develop holes really easily if there is debris in the water. That might still be better than swimming though. Hmmm.