This week brought some colder temperatures to Brunswick along with the start of November. Our boat does not have heat so we are definitely feeling some urgency to make our deadline of December 1st to start heading south to warmer climates! As part of this preparation for getting ready to begin our journey, I have been working on our float plan template and our ditch kit. I should rephrase and say that Bob assigned ditch kit assembly to me but I was all in on taking on this task. I think I will relish being the safety officer for Meraviglia and Bob may regret assigning me this role 😂 When Nick and Kat wrote their blog posts, they both were very supportive of our taking on this adventure but both admitted some well deserved anxiety around their parents being in the middle of the ocean! Kids, I hope this blog post helps to assure you that we are taking safety seriously and hope our preparation reduces your stress!!
So what the heck is a float plan and why do you need it? A float plan includes a description of your boat, who is on board, a description of the safety equipment you are carrying, where you expect to be, and when you expect to be there. You then share this float plan before setting sail with family members, a reliable friend, sailing mentors (Jamie and Behan 😉), a marina dock master or anyone else you trust to contact the US Coast Guard in case of an emergency (Nick and Kat, this will be coming your way!) The key is to identify people who will not panic and to educate them on their role as holders of the float plan. Weather happens, technology fails so the float plan and education provided gives the holders clear steps of what is acceptable delays and when to take action. When I was at Cruisers University in Annapolis, I took a phenomenal Safety at Sea class with our coach, Jamie Gifford and have used the template he provided to create a template for our Meraviglia float plan. It truly will be an important part of our safety plan at sea.
Another important safety project has been to build our ditch bag for Meraviglia. A ditch bag, also called an abandon ship bag, contains key items needed to summon help and to survive in a life raft while waiting for rescue to arrive. A ditch bag must be kept in an accessible location onboard, ready for immediate removal should the need arise. On Meraviglia, we have a Viking life raft mounted on our stern rail. In addition to the items packed inside the life raft, it is important to have a ditch bag prepared and easily accessible. If you search on the internet, there are MANY different lists and sites about what should go in a ditch kit. Some are massive and it would be very hard to even lift the ditch kit into the life raft! Some of this goes back to a time when technology was not as advanced and the potential for rescue took a lot longer. Now with EPIRBS, AIS, personal locator beacons, etc… the time to rescue is potentially shorter. An example took place in March 2023 that made national news. On March 13, Rick Rodriguez and three friends were 13 days into what was expected to be a three-week crossing from the Galápagos to French Polynesia on his 44-foot sailboat, Raindancer. Rodriguez was on watch, and he and the others were eating a pizza for lunch around 1:30 p.m. In an interview with The Washington Post later conducted via satellite phone, Rodriguez said the ship had good winds and was sailing at about 6 knots when he heard a terrific BANG! Within five seconds of impact, an alarm went off indicating the bottom of the boat was filling with water, and Rodriguez could see it rushing in from the stern. Water was already above the floor within minutes. Rodriguez made a mayday call on the VHF radio and set off the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB). The distress signal was picked up by officials in Peru, who alerted the U.S. Coast Guard District 11 in Alameda, Calif., which is in charge of U.S. vessels in the Pacific. The sinking itself took just 15 minutes, Rodriguez said. He and his friends managed to escape onto a life raft and a dinghy. The crew spent just 10 hours adrift, floating about nine miles before a civilian ship plucked them from the Pacific Ocean in a seamless predawn maneuver. A combination of experience, technology and luck contributed to a speedy rescue. (Washington Post, Karen Schwartz, March 20, 2023) I have tried to strike a happy medium with our ditch kit and looked through advice from @sailing totem and @theboat galley. I am sure it could be pared down further but for an initial build, I am feeling pretty good about it. The categories of items include: communication, first aid, navigation, tools, personal/food and water, signal devices, and documents. It is most important to make sure it is easily accessible and regularly reviewed to make sure all is in working order. I hope that we will never need to use it but feel reassured (hopefully Nick and Kat will be too) that we have it ready in case!!!