This group of tourists had a lot of luck. The weather was fair, there were other boats nearby to aid in rescue efforts, and the crew had enough discipline not to panic.
The person telling the tale, Griff Rhys Jones, was aware of emergency procedures, as the crew had familiarized the passengers with them sometime during the cruise. Jones also realized that he made a mistake in not taking ID with him when he went into the water. In fact, a small waterproof pouch or even a ziploc bag would be enough to keep ID and other important papers dry, and could be carried on the body with little effort.
More problematical would be the situation if the ship had foundered far from help. Did the crew have emergency beacons and other survival gear ready in the life rafts? It's even possible to purchase water desalinators these days, so that dying of thirst is less of a hazard than formerly. Did the passengers have bugout gear? Obviously they didn't, and didn't plan for that contingency. If you're on the water a lot, it would behoove you to have a bugout bag prepared. You don't want your boat to end up looking like this:
2 comments:
This guy sails. In the UK. He should know better.
Gosh Bob,
You coulda checked with me on this subject, very near and dear to me.
Sometime, I will do a blog entry describing complete "ditch & bailout" procedures, and why you should always carry copies of credit cards, passports spare cash, a VHF, EPIRB, and finally a GPS in the bailout bag.
But on a pleasure cruise on a commercial boat, it might be difficult to carry this sort of equipage, not to mention the the ugly helmet bag I keep it all in.
Well, the ship and crew should be responsible for survival gear. A passenger might carry things like ID, medications, etc. No use surviving a shipwreck only to die of a heart attack because you forgot to bring your nitroglycerine into the lifeboat with you.
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