Safety - Pacific Crossing Notes: A Sailor's Guide to the Coconut Milk Run - page 61

flares and the like. Third, there are the things that increase your chances of survival in a
distress situation: the ability to deal with injuries; to conduct emergency repairs on the
boat to keep water out and the vessel under control; and a life raft, grab bag and its con-
tents. The farther you move offshore and away from major shipping routes, the more im-
portant the third category becomes. You may be able to get a distress call out, but you will
likely be far away from help and cannot expect others to endanger themselves to come to
your aid.
Our nightmare scenario has always been hitting a submerged object such as a stray ship-
ping container, resulting in the boat sinking quickly. That has influenced our choice of life
raft and the way we have installed it on deck. The other less threatening but equally un-
controllable event would be a lightning strike that fries all electrical equipment on board
(including water pumps and handheld GPS). Hence we need to be confident that we can
make a safe landfall in a complete and lasting “power down” scenario.
Q: How do you plan for possible medical emergencies? Did you receive any medical
training before you began voyaging?
A: We carry a well-stocked first aid kit and many prescription medicines (in both chil-
dren's and adult doses), from antibiotics to eye medication and malaria treatment. I found
our doctors at home very helpful in writing prescriptions and dispensing advice. Similarly,
our local pharmacies proved very understanding in providing medicine with the longest
possible shelf life. Nadine's training as a Red Cross First Aid Instructor made us feel reas-
onably well-equipped to handle basic first aid issues. Luckily, we have suffered very few
accidents or illnesses. The only two hospital trips in four years of cruising were for a
broken collarbone sustained at the local playground in Cairns, Australia, in the very last
week of our cruise, and a hospital trip in Saint Lucia when little Nicky, then four, pushed a
piece of Lego up his nose! Both those incidents had nothing to do with the perceived
dangers of a life at sea. Generally, we feel much healthier and even safer at sea than we
did in our land lives, when we were often in enclosed spaces full of germs or driving at
what now seem to be breakneck speeds.
Q: What type of life raft do you have? How often do you have it serviced?
A: We now carry a Viking RescYou six-person life raft which must be serviced every
three years. We chose this model in part because we knew it could be serviced relatively
easily in places along our planned cruising route (for example, Tahiti, New Zealand, or
Australia). We had a perfectly good BFA life raft before, but decided to replace it with the
Viking because the BFA required annual service at considerable cost and inconvenience.