Ideal Ditch Bag or Abandon Ship Bag

[Cyrus Safdari]

Originally Posted by chala

2 tins heinz baked beans, 2 tins ham.

Hmmm...bit too salty and likely to provoke thirst, IMHO.
Id use some chocolate bars for immediate energy, and perhaps peanut butter (unsalted)

[Strygaldwir]

We are thinking of taking our ditch bag and dinghy and doing an overnighter someplace in the chesapeake. I have noticed there is nothing like having a dry run to kind of see what works and what you REALLY wish you had.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by chala

.... 4 tins baked beans, 2 tins ham. .....

Originally Posted by Cyrus Safdari

Hmmm...bit too salty and likely to provoke thirst, IMHO.
Id use some chocolate bars for immediate energy, and perhaps peanut butter (unsalted)

And too much protein. Protein requires water to digest into glucose. Water is normly scare once you have ditched .Better to stick with straight glucose which the body can use quickly to maintain cells and provide energy if there is enough left. Even sugar has to be first digested into glucose and fructose before being absorbed.
Interestingly, you will feel like you have eaten if you have glucose but not if you have fructose.

[bruce in oz]

Originally Posted by gs41escapade

What would be really interesting is comments from anyone who has actually had to ditch. What did you actually use, and what did you really wish you had?

my grab bag floated; it only contained 2flares, handheld vhf, phone, wallet, specs, muesli bar, 700ml water & medical supplies peculiar to my disability.

every situation would be different but an epirb in the grab bag strikes me as illogical. in my situation the epirb was activated before i abandoned the yacht, the things are too heavy for a grab bag, you would have to open the grab bag to activate it thereby risking the thing becoming filled with water... i 'made' the grab bag minutes before i jumped. the sun was about to rise so i didnt bother with a torch and although i new a 20l container of water would float off the deck i had a bottle of water in the bag in case. i think i reopened the bag immediately before i jumped to put a second pair of specs in it.

what did i forget? a clean piece of dry rag. truth be known i probably didnt have any dry rag at that point...

[gs41escapade]

Bruce, Sorry to hear of your (boat) loss.
Good info tho. What happened after you ditched?

[bruce in oz]

activated a smoke flare & called sea-rescue on the vhf. the weather was too rough for them to get me off the beach so they shot through and left me there. go an email from govt of western australia marine safety today they are threatening to fine me $1000 because i didnt notify them in writing of the incident within 7days. after losing my home and all it contained they want to screw me over missing paperwork....

[barnakiel]

A cruising catamaran is the perfect ditch bag. It keeps all your clothes, a liferaft, an EPIRB, plenty of water supply and jars of your favorite jam. Just make sure you can access the goodies should it ever capsize.

If I could not have the cat, I would go for anything that can hold:

+ an EPIRB,
+ an Iridium sat-phone,
+ plenty of drinking water,
+ a survival suit,
+ a handheld VHF with DSC,
+ red parachute flares and smoke signals,
+ the credit card,

b.

[MikeinLA]

Originally Posted by Cyrus Safdari

15- Water (pouches and drums)

I gotta see this raft.

Mike