Safety Part 2: Onboard De Novo

In the second part of our reassuring-our-parents-we-won't-die series, we look at safety onboard De Novo.

Quick disclaimer. We do what we think is best for our little boat and our situation, but we're not experts. We still have so much to learn. Please feel free to give suggestions. On the other hand, if anything here can help you, great, take it! 

Our Safety at Sea training suggested labeling safety gear and making boat-wide safety diagrams. So we did, and we added them below. These drawings help by reminding us of important locations and procedures and familiarizing crew and guests with our boat. By going through the process of making these diagrams, we took the time to make sure all safety items were placed in practical, accessible areas, something we only tangentially thought about beforehand. We don't cover heavy weather sailing in this area (when we reduce sail, heave-to, etc.) because it's pretty individual to the boat and personal comfort. If you'd like to chat about it though, please send us a message! 

We compiled a safety binder with this information and secured it in the binocular holder near the companionway. We added tabs to get to each section quickly. Don't worry, we don't plan to sit down and sift through the binder during a time-sensitive emergency; if a fire is raging, we're not going to stop to review the fire safety section before putting it out. :) We basically put the binder together for learning, practice, and prevention. 

De Novo Diagrams:

If we were to spring a leak, it would most likely be from thru-hulls. We make a habit of checking them/ exercising valves regularly.  
  

Our biggest defense against water ingress is our bilge pumps (2 automatic and 1 manual). We have plugs tied to our thru-hulls, but when we replaced some hoses at the seacocks, we found at least one of our plugs was the wrong diameter, hence the need for extra plugs.

Based on a suggestion by diesel guru Meredith Anderson, we upgraded the companionway ABC extinguisher to a Co2 extinguisher so we don't spray dry chemical all over electrical connections. Co2 extinguishers are good for stopping a runaway engine when placing the nozzle in the fire port.

Abandoning ship is a last resort. We would only deploy the life raft if flooding or a fire couldn't be contained.

To be ready though, most items are kept together. We reregister our Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon [EPIRB] every two years. If we activate it or it gets submerged in water, it notifies search and rescue services of our exact position.

Our IridiumGo is our satellite communication device, used primarily to get weather information.

The waterproof ditch bag (aka abandon ship bag) has two possible locations (decided based on whether we're carrying additional crew). A list of our ditch bag contents is here. 

To avoid any crew overboard situations, we wear our tethers (dual, with the shorter as our main line) conservatively. We use leg straps and keep a whistle, pocket knife, and water-activated strobe in or attached to our PFDs.   

The cascading lift helps smaller crew (like me) lift larger crew (like Dave) out of the water, especially when attached to a halyard and cranked with a winch. Polyester webbing ladders are attached to the toe rails at the at the port and starboard beams; the person on board can quickly release the ends from their canvas sleeves and throw them overboard. 

Based on a suggestion by Margaret Pommert, crew overboard retrieval extraordinaire, we added a water-activated strobe the horse collar on our Lifesling so it can be seen at night. 

We also placed our diagrams for crew overboard maneuvers in this section to review.
 

This section includes a write up of prescription drugs onboard (mostly just antibiotics), a list of all first aid items and locations, and specific first aid charts (for identifying and treating stages of hypothermia in crew overboard rescues, CPR reminders, burn treatments, etc.). As for our marine first aid manual, we've had this one for years and recommend it.

Because our steering cables are original, we keep spares onboard for that inevitable day we'll need to replace them. Spares include 9 ft. of stainless steel 3/16" wire, 2 ft. of 5/8" roller chain, wire rope clamps, take-up eyes, and thimbles. 

As for heavy weather sailing, while the emergency tiller and sea anchor are ready for action, the drogue set up and emergency rudder jerry rig will be write-ins. This section also includes reminders on how to deploy drag devices and our mark up for an emergency rudder.

Bolt cutters are for rigging and anchor chain emergencies. Thanks to SV Griffin for directing us to small hydraulic cable cutters that fit both our budget and limited storage.

 

Our safety binder also includes blank boat diagrams to make changes, copies of our identification and EPIRB registration, and a current float plan. The inside cover is a Mayday script specific to our boat.

These diagrams don't cover specifics so if you'd like to chat further about things like materials/ lengths/ sizes/ brands we use for safety equipment, please don't hesitate to send us a message. We love talking about this stuff and would appreciate suggestions.

A note to our loved ones: emergencies at sea are rare, so we're simply preparing for the just-in-case scenarios. :)