D Parker wrote:
....

On a side note. Always make sure your grab back is bouyant. For instance
water bottles should not be full and should have lanyards. Then they will
float and not sink if lost overboard.


My Father-in-Law spent 18 days in a lifeboat when his tanker got
torpedoed off of The Cape Verde Islands at the end of WWII. The
emergency radio sank when it was dropped getting into the boat! Even
if the transmitter was not strong enough to reach anyone, the receiver
would have provided time signals for determining Longitude. As it
turned out, my FiL was the radio officer, and had calibrated his
watch, which survived.

After 13 days they reached Tobago but were afraid to make a night
approach, and ended up drifting by. They were picked up near Curacao
5 days later.