Let’s say the worst happens. You hit a whale, or get clobbered by a terrible storm, or there’s a fire on board. You have to abandon ship. Now what? Knowing what to do beforehand, being prepared for the worst, can be a matter of life or death. Here’s some great advice from All At Sea that will help you make the right decisions all along the line.
First, do you really have to abandon ship? The rule of thumb is to stay with the boat if you possibly can, since it is a much larger target for any search and rescue teams. It also offers you much more shelter. And any temporary repairs you can make will give you additional time to prepare for abandoning ship, as well as for search teams to find you. However, if the boat is actually sinking, or there’s a fire that you can’t put out, then it’s time to abandon ship immediately.
Here are a list of things to do, if you have time, to get ready for abandoning ship, how to deploy the liferaft, and then what to do once you’re in the raft. Af first, putting on lifejackets, keeping calm and assigning tasks to different members of the crew are all crucial. So are transmitting the distress call and activating the EPIRB. Let’s hope you already have prepared a ditch bag. Get it and position the liferaft for launching. Let’s also hope you have the raft where it’s readily accessible, and not at the bottom of a locker somewhere.
To secure the raft, tie the painter to a strongpoint, such as a cleat, and launch it downwind. Pull the painter to deploy it. Then pull the raft close to the boat. The goal is to board the raft directly from the boat, not from the water. Load the ditch bag and any food, water, clothing and other supplies you can.
Once you’re on the raft, cut the painter to the boat, stream the sea anchor to slow the rate of drift and close the entrance flap to keep out the wind and spray. Attach the EPIRB’s security line to the raft so it can float in the water nearby. Take an inventory of the survival items on board, and apportion food and water for rationing. Maintain an active watch for other vessels or planes, and try to keep up your morale. For more:
https://www.allatsea.net/when-and-how-to-abandon-ship/
