​PFD Pocket Contents?

[Guest]

Yes, the emergency dry bag will be the first thing I'll reach for in a capsize. It's a rude bright orange colour and floats. I assured my wife it'll probably provide a little buoyancy to her/my swim. That's my plan anyway. But my BOB is way more basic than yours Mike.

That’s my grab-it plan as well. I do not do long or arduous portages, not travel light, so a well stocked bag suits me fine.

I have resisted calling that bright yellow dry bag a “ditch kit” or “bail out bag”. Most of the places I trip someone will be along in a day or two at most, and it isn’t intended to assuage any lost in the wilderness fantasies. To wit, that bag is labeled (of course the bag itself is labeled) in big block letters “Spares & Repairs”

But before I get carried away poking fun at your thoroughness I might add that I've lost count the number of times I'd been at work and responded to a minor job emergency with "I've got just the tool for this...at home."

That is exactly why the tripping truck is well supplied with tools and materials.

I have never, knock wood, needed to use that Spares & Repairs bag for ditch/survival purposes. I have used some couple of items in it (many) dozens of times for minor . . . . well . . . . spares or repairs needs. Occasionally for my own needs, more frequently for companions and most often for new and appreciative friends met along the way.

heck, I’ve used stuff in that kit when truck camping or while working at the Tortoise Reserve. I always toss it in the tripping truck when travelling, along with the similar 3-compartment “group” first aid kit.

Pulling some savoir repair part or piece from that kit for folks met along the way is the most fun I can have.

Producing a simple fix like a spare fastex buckle for someone’s busted dry bag strap, the screws/nuts/washers and tools to fix a broken seat or thwart (or, many times, a busted camp chair X leg connection fix), or a Therma-rest repair kit for some leaky cushioned uncomfortable sleeper is deeply satisfying in a hail and well met new friend encounter.

The thing that I have used most often from that kit is the giant 4 x 6 foot garbage bag. Sometimes as a cut-neck-and-arm holes poncho for someone in need, most often as an interior tent ground cloth for wet tent campers. Sliced down one side and across the bottom that is a good sized ground cloth or tiny tarp 6 x 8 foot piece of thick plastic.

I may have to become more judicious about cutting those up and giving them away; I only have a couple left before I resort to generic Lawn & Leaf bags.

I had not pulled up the Spares & Repairs list and checked what I had used in the last 2 – 3 years. That was a good exercise. I’m going to empty the Spares & Repairs bag and sort through the used/not used and keep/lose selections. Sight unseen I’m thinking:

KEEP
Sandpaper, aluminum foil and wax paper take up no room and little weight.
Same for hacksaw blade halves
Same for the little (handle-less) rat tail file. Takes up no room, little weight and if I need to enlarge a fix-it hole I’d miss having it.
Same for the coffee filters. I have used them as silt stoppers in the past when pump filtering water, but I use a gravity filter 95% of the time now. And drink Starbuck’s Via.

MAYBE LOSE (or at least refresh/replace)
The whetstone is probably superfluous. It is a tiny little thing, and I start trips with sharp tools.
The two-part epoxy syringes are several years old and may be goners. I may get a new set and use the old ones, if still viable, on some non-critical home need.
Not sure why I need radiator tape when I have quality duct tape.
The resin putty is ancient and probably no longer putty in anyone’s hands.
The Superglue is almost certainly a tube of crusty air. Even unopened that stuff doesn’t store well.
I have not had great luck with long packaged Mylar blankets, at least the thin, cheap ones the size of a bar of soap. By the time I try to unfold them they are often hideously stuck together.
The brown glass vial of supersaturated iodine crystals and eye dropper. Probably kept only for sentimental reasons.
Fishing line and hooks. Who am I kidding, if I was serious about eating fish in a survival situation I’d buy a gil net with illegal sized openings and make minnow stew.
The driver’s license photocopy can go; I have the official, laminated expired one in my PFD pocket.
Health insurance copy is surely long out of date.

Thanks Brad. I feel I have a license to kill the outdated or unneeded stuff in that Spare & Repairs bag. I will alert M and Miss Moneypenny.

And once I finish that I oughta have a similar used/never used inspection of the big group first aid bag. I replenish the consumables and expired OTC drugs in that bag occasionally, but I have never asterisked the full contents list for what I have never used, what I may never need and what I’m unwilling to part with.

 

[Guest]

For the Yukon River Quest, according to race rules:
The following items must be attached or in a pocket of each PFD: whistle, emergency space bivy sack, fire starter (waterproof matches/lighter and fire starter material).
For the Yukon 1000 mile, add $20CDN, with $20 US, and a credit card, plus a small knife and signal mirror.

That seems a very sensible attached or in pocket race list. Maybe less the credit card for non-marathon race situations.

Of all the stuff in PFD pockets, on lash tabs, or in the Spares & Repairs bag, the thing I have used most often is the $20 bill. And after that, the spare truck key.

 

[jm0278]

Does it matter for this topic what's in or on my PFD when I don't wear it?

In my sailboat days, I spoke with a guy who sailed on Lake Superior. He said he always wore his PFD -- because it would make his body easier to find.

 

[jm0278]

The one thing about canoe tripping versus backpacking that I envision as a possibility, especially given my lack of experience, is getting swamped out in the deep section of some lake and finding out that my pack didn't float (or quickly floated away) despite my precautions to the contrary. If that happens, I'm not worried about starving to death or dehydration.

I'm thinking hypothermia is my biggest threat and after I get to shore I need a way to 1) start a fire (ferro rod and vaseline soaked cotton ball), 2) slow evaporation (mylar blanket?) and, 3) signal for help (whistle). I may well add my Swiss Army Knife, but I'm concerned that lack of use will see its condition deteriorate to virtual uselessness rather quickly.

I may just try putting these things in an Altoids can and vacuum seal it along with some little desiccant packs I've saved. My new PFD only has one mesh pocket and it may fit. One more task to add to the newby prep list.

 

[Guest]

Spares & Repairs (and 1st Aid) Kits

One of the things I appreciate about Canoe Tripping discussions is that they often give me the kick in the pants to actually tackle something instead of just thinking “Jeeze, I really ought to . . . . .” and then procrastinating yet again.

I’m going to empty the Spares & Repairs bag and sort through the used/not used and keep/lose selections.

Even before I opened the excessive Spares & Repairs and Group 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kits I needed to refresh some dry bag labeling. The 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit is always hung in some prominent spot in camp, so everyone can see it, identify it and find it if needed.

Black enamel paint pen refreshed on two sides. Those bags now have refreshed contact info as well, both inside and out.

P8313882 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Time to purge some never used items, and replenishment of old/suspect/dried up stuff. I’ll tackle the easier Spares and Repairs Kit first.

P9013886 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Gone from the “Tools, Parts and Materials” compartment: Teeny tiny never-used-in-camp whetstone, ¾ of the nails (I kept a few), and a flimsy beverage coozie; I don’t even remember being at the Barking Spider Tavern in Cleveland. Must be a fun place.

Four flimsy zip ties replaced with 100lb zip ties cut down to Medic’s bag length; I see no need to carry 20 inch long zip ties.

P9013888 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Gone or refurbished from the “Tape, Epoxy, Glass & Kevlar” compartment, less than I thought. Apparently I replenished that section not many trips ago; the ancient 2-part epoxy syringe and equally dried solid epoxy putty had already been replaced (Gorilla Glue Epoxy Syringe and Water Weld epoxy putty.

https://www.jbtoolsales.com/gorilla...MIkMq2iMaE1gIVDIxpCh20zATvEAYYAiABEgKPsPD_BwE

https://www.walmart.com/ip/JB-Weld-...75035&wl11=online&wl12=16627432&wl13=&veh=sem

I have used neither as yet, but I now recall that the old stuff had gone rock hard.

New Therma-rest repair kit too. I took out the (what was I thinking?) radiator repair tape and put it in the truck tool box. The tube of superglue was, as expected, a dry crusty vessel. I think there is one (probably equally dried up) in the first aid kit, and since I use that most often for busted finger or toe nails I’ll just replace that one.

The Spares & Emergency compartment was a stuff missing mess. “Candle”, nope not there; I think I used it in the Fire in a can when I ran out of feeder bricks. Cyalumes (2) got used for night horseshoes. Fire starter got used for, um, firestarter. Small magnifying glass went god knows where, maybe into the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit. Health insurance card photocopy is 4 years out of date (maybe that should be in with 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid as well).

I had at some point-past replaced the crusty and stuck together space blanket with a “Pocket sized Mylar sleeping bag, 36x 84 inches” that is still virgin and not yet old enough to be self-adhered.

The mini hand fishing line of hooks, sinkers, microbobbers and lures went back in. Clever rig, never used.

P9013889 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

For truly hungry purposes I’d much prefer an (illegally) sized survival gill net:

https://netsandmore.com/products/fishing-nets/Survival

(Who am I kidding in that unlikely survival scenario?)

I got rid of the carabineer at least. I have others, including one in a PFD pocket.

Next up, the group first aid kit. I’ll need a magnifying glass to read the 0.5 font expiration date on the OTC drugs.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I keep having trouble responding to this thread because, as lawyers are wont to say, it assumes facts not in evidence. To wit, that I have have pockets on my PFD's and, even if I do have pockets, that I wear the PFD.

I do wear a PFD most of the time, so let's put that aside and focus on pockets and other PFD attachments.

Do I even have pockets? Well I have lots of PFD's but have no way of locating them in that cathedral of entropy known as my house. However, as I recall, none of my first PFD's -- horse collars -- had pockets. My first jacket-type PFD had an Old Town label and had no pockets. I then had a series of whitewater PFD's, of which I mostly used a Charlie Waldbridge/Extrasport Hi-Float PFD by far the most, and I don't think any of them had pockets.

My Stohlquist rescue PFD did have a detachable tow tape with carabiner on the belt plus 50 feet of throw bag rope carried in a Velcro pocket on the back of the jacket.

Then I got a Lotus pull-over PFD that did have pockets. I then went gadget crazy and combined the doodads from my Stohlquist rescue PFD with the new Lotus and added some stuff of my own to become . . . Terrorist Man.

I'll explain.

I was on Lido Key or some gorgeous place near Sarasota, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous people, 10 million dollar homes, and 25 million dollar yachts. Everyone around me looked like a movie star in their bikinis and Speedos. They were yachting, motor boating, SUP-ing, rec-kayaking, inflatable-ing, sit-on-topping, and not one of them had on a PFD of any kind. Just bikinis and Speedos and cocoa butter.

And there I stood with my Hawaiian outrigger canoe -- bedecked in my PFD hall-of-fame paraphernalia: PFD; towing tape with carabiner around the waist with quick release buckle mechanism; folding knife/saw dangling from the belt; throw bag with 50' of line in a pocket on my back; cell phone in waterproof case in pocket, waterproof camera in pocket, VHF radio in pocket -- all of these attached by a tangle of strings and mini-carabiners so they wouldn't sink; medications and $20 in waterproof packets in pocket; car key, compass, whistle and thermometer on detachable rings on my PFD zipper. I felt invincible. I must've looked like a . . .

. . . Well, a very nice lady in a polka dot bathing suit came up to me and, very seriously but politely, asked, "Are you a suicide bomber or just practicing to be one for a funny snapshot."

I began to explain the crucial safety necessity of PFD's, but she cut me short by saying, "You know, except for the excavated cuts for the powerboats, where you're not allowed to paddle, nothing in that bay is more than three feet deep." She was right, and even exaggerating, as much of it was only about 18" deep especially around the mangroves.

I've dialed Terrorist Man way back since then, even though I later acquired a PLB. On my newest PFD, a semi-inflatable, what I carry fairly regularly is the PLB, a car key and whistle on the PFD zipper, and maybe a folding knife on the knife tab.

All the other safety, medical, communications, change of clothes, and rescue stuff go in my waterproof day bag, which I carry from vehicle to whatever boat I'm using.