Safety 'grab box' for open water

Author: josh

Category: Safety & navigation

Created on Friday, 16 December 2011 07:49

Written by Josh

For fairly obvious reasons I've been putting a whole lot of thought into the issue of kayak fishing safety recently, specifically in open water. The more I thought about it the more I came back to one major train of thought, which is that the single most dangerous scenario for a kayaker in the ocean is to get seperated from their kayak. Naturally, this led me to thinking more about what I would do in this situation and ultimately concluded that I had to make a couple of small changes to the way I do things. Perhaps the most important switch was to take my AquaLink PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) out of its previous storage spot (in my 'grab box' safety kit) and into the pocket of my PFD (Personal Floatation Device). In the worst case scenario, pressing it's magic button would activate emergency rescue crews that would know exactly where to find me.

Making this change has reduced the size of the rest of my safety kit, allowing me to fit it all into a medium sized waterproof box. It too stores certain valuable safety items, including a 1st aid kit and other parts and accessories (that cannot be safely or easily secured to a vest) that I might need in an emergency. I call this my grab box and the idea is to grab it if brown stuff hits the fan. It lives in the rear storage well and is held in place by a single bungee cord where it is easy and quick enough to access. In the event of emergency I'd make every effort of getting a hold of it before being seperated from the yak. Recently I've been putting more thought into how useful that box would be in such an emergency; what would really happen if you were floating around at sea clutching onto that box. Then it came to me - I could use that box for more than just storage of safety gear and as an extra bouyancy aid. I could use it for enhanced visibility as well and as such make it more useful at all times.

Thats when I got the idea to take the Visicarbon pro safety flag that I have rarely been using (it seems insignificant next to an AI sail) and attach it to my grab box instead of the kayak hull itself. This way the flag/light combo could serve me equally well as a visibility aid while fishing on the yak, as well as while floating around in the ocean awaiting rescue if need be. It couldn't hurt to have an extra light and safety orange flag on hand if it all of the sudden became imperative that someone be able to spot me from a distance.

To achieve this I removed the Scotty deck mount from the hull of my kayak and attached it to the side of my waterproof grab box. With the Visicarbon pro flag inserted into the deck mount I then had to look closely at the height of the flag pole, which was most certain to be fouled up with the sail furling line, and then cut it down to suit. Both carbon fibre pole sections were cut down to a single 5" section, which joins the light and flag module to the base, placing the module almost 2' higher than the top of the box.

On the top of the box I have a quick release bungee cord that holds down a couple of flares to the outer lid of the box. Of everything in said box, the flares are perhaps the most crucia, so I wanted to be able to get to them without having to open the box. These are stored in a waterproof satchel that I have reinforced with reflective tape. On the inside of the box I have the 2nd most crucial item (1st aid kit) strapped to the inner lid of the box, where it is safe from inadvertantly making contact with water (in the event that some got inside). Even if it were to make contact with water it should be fairly safe though, as the kit itself is in a small drybag and most of the individual items are sealed in waterproof satchels. In the base of the box I carry a LED Lensor torch, a Leatherman multitool, a lifestraw, mobile phone, spare batteries, memory cards and a spare parts kit for the kayak.

If and when I make another one, I'll go for an orange or yellow box (for obvious reasons) but to help get around the low visibility of the black coloured box I dressed it up with a bit of marine grade reflective tape.