"CCred68046" wrote:

If you could have only 5 things in a first aid kit...

1. Latex gloves - (avoid contact with blood)

Personally I don't understand this. Sure I understand that contact
with the blood of others exposes one to any disease (etc.) they
may have. But I know most of the people on my boat. And
most of them I'm 99% sure don't have anything I can catch.
Sure I'd have latex gloves and a CPR "breathing barrier"
if possible. But if I could only have 5 items, this would not be
one of them.

My theory here waffles between covering the
minor items that are very common and covering the serious
items that are hopefully uncommon. On the one hand I
*know* someone will need sun-block or get a headache
out there and be happy I have something for that. On the
other people aren't going to die of that. So maybe it's better
to have gauze & bandages to stop bleeding.

The other main thing about packing a boat first-aid kit
(or toolbox) is to select items that can have multiple
uses. Sure, band-aids are nice, but if you have limited
room gauze & tape will do the same job are are useable
for other purposes. Etc.

Also, is water and sun-block something that you just "have"
on the boat and is not part of your kit? Well, I'm going to
answer this as if you ONLY have what's in the kit.

1. Water (Lots) - For dehydration & cleaning wounds.
2. Sunblock - Solution to prevent a common problem.
3. Gauze - To stop bleeding & cover serious or minor wounds.
4. Very sharp knife - To cut any entanglement + many other uses.
5. Thermal Blanket - Hypothermia, sun block, many other uses.

If you could have 10, what would you add?

6. Tylenol / Advil, etc. - General solution to discomfort problems.
7. Anti-bacterial something - for cleaning wounds
8. Some kind of wide web strapping that could be used
to wrap & hold gauze on but that could also be used for
other things. Similar use as medical-tape but useful for
other things like tieing thing together.
9. Sugary food/energy bar. For some sustanance / diabetic.
10. Um....hard to select just one last item.