Contingencies and doomsday scenarios
Like anything in life, things can go wrong. Since we have more time to think (and less time to do projects) being approximately 3,278 nautical miles away from the boat right now, one of the projects on our plate is to do thought exercises on 1) what could go wrong on a boat, and 2) what our options might be in the event of something going wrong. We’re not paranoid or intent on focusing on all of the negative possibilities in life, but just think this type of exercise is useful for getting back up to speed on issues, along with what we can do should we have an issue (and we will, of course).
Putting options down on paper and having a notebook of “what if’s” should help if there was ever a real emergency (assuming we had time to carefully consider what we should do!). Regardless, even thinking through situations that might require a split-second decision ahead of time is valuable.
We’ll start putting up some of our outlines and considered outcomes, but right now, we have identified the following situations that are worthy of a “what if” discussion and summary:
- Fire/Explosion – Cooking, Engine & Electrical
- Man Overboard – MOB and Rescuer
- Dismasting
- Rudder Failure
- Sinking
- Hole – Hull or Deck
- Crew Injury
- Steering Failure
- Rigging Failure
- Loss of Freshwater
- Electrical Failure
- Engine Failure
- Storm – Underway, Anchor & Dock
- Fouled Propeller
- Fouled Rigging or Sails
- Sail Damage
- Loss/Contamination of Fuel
The list seems to be steadily growing, but this is the current snapshot of what we’re talking about and outlining for the moment. As much as we are discussing what we would do, we’re also discussing prevention, of course. More soon…
Our Lifesling intended to help get a man overboard back on board.
Hi Chris. I have no suggestions for a hole in the bucket but wanted you to know we’ll be pulling up the site in Talk Time tomorrow. Very exciting. There’s lots of fodder here for talk. Have the time of your lives!
Linda
Linda – thanks for the note! I hope we’ll be able to give you all some good things to talk about. We’re mulling through weather models at the moment and will be doing so until the race starts in the morning tomorrow. It’s looking like we’ll have wind at the start, but there is definitely concern about the wind easing up in the following days…so fingers crossed for the wind gods to see us through! Take care and thank you, again!
Chris