Re: [Paddlewise] Vested interests

>Hi everybody, this is Sandy Kramer in Miami.  How about people giving a 
>list
>of what they carry on their PFDs?
SNIP
>What are the recommended "essential" safety etc. items?

I have to confess I'm sometimes embarrassed by the amount of stuff 
festooning my PFD when it's configured for offshore/expedition mode - it 
looks a bit like I'm a Navy SEAL wannabe. However, everything I carry does 
have a purpose, and I bear in mind the point made in "Deep Trouble" about 
emergency and survival gear: if you don't have it on your person, you don't 
have it. So here's the guided tour of my PFD:

Left front shoulder: Geber paddling knife (fends off sharks, cuts entangling 
lines, spreads peanut butter, assuages feelings of inadequacy).
Right front shoulder: the existing pocket is modified with a custom Velcro 
loop to hold my VHF radio for one-handed removal/replacement (There's also a 
custom webbing loop above the pocket to keep the "rubber duckie" antenna 
from poking me in the eye.) The radio is in an Aqua-Pac drybag and lanyarded 
to the PFD.
Lower left PFD pocket: Part of my survival kit, housed in a watertight 
sealing stainless steel camp cook pot (sort of flat and oval, like those 
"mess kits", but much smaller and sturdier). The pot content's include: two 
food bars as used in liferafts, a couple of bullion cubes, two herbal tea 
bags, fishing line, lures, hooks, and sinkers, a few assorted bandages, a 
"Photon Micro" key fob flashlight, fire-starting materials, a wire "pocket 
chainsaw", about thirty feet of thin but strong braided nylon line (for 
rigging lean-tos, Space Blankets as tarps, snares, etc.) Even fully packed, 
the pot is slightly positively buoyant, and rides low enough on the PFD not 
to drag me down. Outside the pot, in this pocket, I carry a Space Blanket 
where I can get at it without opening the kit, for possible use on the Sea 
Seat (see below).
Lower right pocket: Three Skyblazer self-contained flares, a signal mirror 
on a lanyard, a "Cylume" chemical lightstick, and sunscreen.
On the zipper pull of the PFD: a basic "watch fob" compass
In a custom back pocket, behind my shoulder blades: A "Seat Seat" personal 
life raft, protected from UV by a layer of Space Blanket material. Note: 
this after-market pocket technically invalidates the PFD's government 
approval, but it is removable (Velcro straps) to pass inspection.
Not on my PFD, but part of the survival "system" that is: Under my 
sprayskirt, I wear a small "Sealbag" that dangles at my front like a sort of 
sea-going Scot's sporran. It contains my money, credit cards, my 
prescription glasses (I wear contacts at sea), a second Space Blanket, a 
folding cup, a folding water bottle, and iodine tablets (for suspect water).
These items were chosen for the Pacific Northwest, where finding drinking 
water ashore is not usually a problem, but hunger, cold, and exposure might 
be. I'd modify the selection as needed for different paddling environments.
So what do other folks do?

Philip Torrens


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