More Food for Thought:

Small Boat Safety Offshore - Part II

In our last issue, we covered some initial points about offshore safety in small boats. Part 2 covers more critical topics.

Remember, this article is NOT a general safety article. It discusses issues we found important or unique to small boats offshore, and how we made the decisions for Toy Boat 2. For additional background reading, check out some of the articles mentioned in our sidebar article.

If you have any additions or corrections, please feel free to email us, or post something on our discussion forums.

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Fish Safely

First Aid

Seen/Heard/Found

Abandon Ship!

Getting Ready & Conclusions

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Hopefully, everyone has a first aid kit on board, and a basic knowledge of first aid.

Keep in mind that if you're offshore, help could be hours, not minutes, away. That means you must be able to deal with certain situations for an extended period of time, compared to the same emergency on dry land.

Here are some additional things to consider:

• On Toy Boat 2 we have an off-the-shelf first aid kit from First Aid Only. Billed as an "Outdoors" kit, it contains a bunch of useful things - several types of bandages, gauze and compresses, analgesics, antiseptic wipes, topical antibacterial ointment, plus some miscellaneous tools like tweezers, and scissors, and a concise first aid guide, all packaged in a nice cordura nylon binder.
  
  But like most off-the-shelf first aid kits, it also contains a few things we'll probably never use, or are redundant: safety pins, plastic gloves, sunscreen, lip balm, heat packs, cold packs, a space blanket, etc.
  
  The unneeded stuff doesn't take up much room, so we've elected to leave them in the kit. In times past, we've chosen to ditch the unneeded items and replace them with more of the supplies that are more likely to be needed, such as additional gauze and compresses.
  
  This is an entirely personal thing - you need to evaluate your own situation and decide what's best for you. In this case, the First Aid Only kit probably has too many supplies for a day trip on a boat with 2-3 people, unless you're incredibly accident-prone (I mean, how many 3" bandaids do you really need??).
  
  
• By the way...when was the last time you opened up your first aid kit to make sure everything was OK? Many first aid kits are not packaged in waterproof containers, and moist ocean air can cause the contents to mold and mildew over time. Medications also may expire.
  
  Our last first aid kit was kept in a cool, sheltered spot for several years without being examined. When we finally opened it to get a band-aid, almost everything was mildewed or covered with mold, and literally crumbled in our hands. So take a peek before your next trip.
  
  
• If you haven't taken one yet, enroll in a CPR and a basic first aid course. You might need to keep someone going via CPR for some time until help can arrive. We've actually completed basic CPR courses three times - two as part of SCUBA diving classes, the last from a workplace safety program. That same workplace safety program also covered basic first aid, so we learned how to deal with eye injuries, major lacerations and broken bones.
  
  The one thing we haven't practiced is hook removal. We've seen one "painless" technique for removing hooks described in print, but have not tried it out (this is the trick where you push down on the eye of the hook while simultaneously jerking the hook out backwards with a loop of line around the bend). These kinds of things are never practiced until it's too late, so we're going to try it on our next steak or rib roast (when the wife's not looking, of course). This technique would also be impossible to perform on yourself, if you were hooked in the hand or arm.