Proactive vs. staying put: Isn it safer to stay put and wait for rescue?
It’s a widespread notion that it’s safest to float passively in an inflatable liferaft, having signaled with your EPIRB, and wait for rescue. While this is sometimes the best thing to do, many experts in sea rescue agree that this is often NOT the best idea. For one thing, your EPIRB is not a guarantee of rescue. The EPIRB is a great invention, no question, and every blue water sailor should have one. However, theyre easy to lose, and if you have one, it must work, and the battery must be charged. Its also very important to recognize that in many parts of the world, search and rescue is simply not available. In the proactive Portland Pudgy, you can sail to safety. Many experts on survival at sea emphasize that this is critically important. As Steve Callahan, who spent 76 days adrift on a liferaft, points out, Most of a long survival voyage is spent drifting slowly in moderate weather. He goes on to say that if he had had a dynamic (proactive) life raft/boat, he would have sailed to saf
