Great presentation! Thanks for sharing!
Ordered a couple of things (pocket knife and extra sun hat) for our ditch bags as a result of your suggestions. Rather than a single ditch bag, we have a few smaller dry bags stored filled with emergency supplies in the side storage areas of the cockpit. There are exterior lables on the outside of these storage areas reminding us of where everything is located.
One thing I might add as a procedural step for emergency preparedness is having the dinghy dropped with engine mounted immediately after anchoring. Get oars and seat(s) in place and ready to go as well.
Two reasons for doing this:
1. Reduces dinghy exposure to heat/flames from the boat in the event of fire
2. Greatly speeds up process of getting onboard dinghy and away from boat
We typically drop the dinghy within 10 minutes of anchoring and don’t retrieve it until right at departure - even if we don’t plan on using the dinghy otherwise while at anchor
We keep our communications gear (EPIRB, waterproof handheld VHF and cellphones with dry pouches) along with extra life vests in the cabin within easy reach so if there were a cockpit fire we could take them with us as we bailed out a side cabin window. If I was planning on being really remote, like Alaska I’d buy/rent a sat phone too.
