What Goes in a Grab Bag?
What Goes in a Grab Bag? — An Offshore Worker’s Honest List
I call mine the zombie apocalypse bag, all the things that Shaun forgot in Shaun of the dead. That is genuinely how I think about it. It is the bag you grab when everything has gone wrong, you have seconds to act, and whatever is in that bag is all you have got. Pack it like your life depends on it — because it does.
A grab bag is not a holdall. It is not somewhere to store anything useful you might want offshore. It is a quick-grab, over-the-shoulder, run-for-the-liferaft bag. Everything in it needs to be there for a reason and nothing in it should be there by accident.
Here is what I would put in mine, in priority order.
Priority One — Get Found
The moment you are in the water or in a liferaft, your single most important job is making sure someone knows where you are.
Lifejacket — On your person before you even think about the bag. Non-negotiable.
PLB or EPIRB — The absolute first thing into the bag, if you have one. If you only have one piece of kit beyond your lifejacket, make it a PLB. Activate it and let the satellite network do the rest.
Handheld VHF radio — Call the coastguard, call nearby vessels, give your position. In the early stages of an emergency before a PLB signal is confirmed, a VHF call to any vessel in range could get someone to you in minutes rather than hours.
Flares — Red hand flares and a parachute rocket. Once rescuers are close, these are what guide them to you.
Priority Two — Stay Alive Until Rescued
Water — Dehydration sets in faster than most people expect, especially in a liferaft where seasickness is a real risk. A liferaft is not designed for comfort. Seasickness will dehydrate you faster than you think. Get water in the bag.
Food — High energy bars or similar. You are not cooking. You are surviving.
First aid kit — waterproof, compact, essentials only.
Thermal protection — A foil survival blanket at minimum. Hypothermia is a real risk in any waters even in summer – if you do go in, remember the first steps for cold water shock.
Lighter or waterproof matches — Fire is warmth, signal, and morale. Never underestimate it. DON’T LIGHT A FIRE IN THE LIFERAFT 🙂
Torch — Waterproof, ideally with a strobe function for signalling.
Priority Three — Useful But Not Critical
Knife — a folding safety knife. Useful in a liferaft situation, cutting a painter for example.
Whistle — small, light, can be heard further than you think.
Copies of important documents — passport, insurance, emergency contacts in a waterproof sleeve.
Cash — unlikely to be useful but not entirely useless either.
Seasickness tablets — take them before you need them.
Sunscreen and sunglasses — you may be in that liferaft longer than you expect.
What Most People Forget
Water. Every time. People think about the exciting kit — the flares, the PLB, the VHF — and forget that a liferaft is an uncomfortable, miserable, disorienting place and the thing that will genuinely get you through the hours or days before rescue is having something to drink.
Seasickness medication is the second most forgotten item. A liferaft in any kind of sea state will make most people seasick. Seasickness dehydrates you. Dehydration makes everything worse. Pack the tablets and take them before you board the liferaft, not after.
The other one: any means of signalling beyond the PLB. A PLB gets the coastguard looking. Flares and a VHF get them looking in exactly the right place.
The Bag Itself
It needs to be waterproof, brightly coloured, light enough to grab and run with, and have a shoulder strap you can get over your head in seconds. Not too big — you are not packing for a weekend away. Roll-top dry bag construction is the most reliable waterproofing. Yellow or orange so it is visible in the water. Check out some of our grab bags here.
Keep It Ready — Not Buried
The grab bag does you no good in a locker under the berth. It needs to be accessible from the cockpit, clipped where you can reach it without going below. Every person on board needs to know where it is before you leave the dock. Every time.
FAQs
What is the most important thing in a grab bag?
A PLB or EPIRB, if you have them. Everything else helps you survive while you wait to be found. The PLB is what gets someone looking for you in the first place.
How big should a grab bag be?
Small enough to grab with one hand and run with. If you cannot get it over your shoulder and move quickly, it is too big.
How often should I check my grab bag?
Before every offshore passage. Check expiry dates on flares, battery life on the VHF, and condition of the food and water.
Should everyone on board have their own grab bag?
Not really, if you have one for the boat then you are ina. good position. Ideally, everybody will have a little one, everybody forgets somthing. At minimum one bag per vessel accessible to everyone. For crewed boats, each crew member wearing a PLB on their lifejacket significantly increases the margin of safety.
The information in this article is for general guidance only and does not constitute professional safety advice. Always consult current MCA, SOLAS, and HSE official documentation and a qualified marine safety professional before making any safety-critical decisions. Product specifications and regulatory requirements change — always verify against current official sources before purchase. Where affiliate links appear on this site, they are clearly disclosed and never influence our recommendations. marinesafetyguide.com participates in affiliate programmes including Amazon Associates and the Awin network and may earn a small commission on purchases made through links on this site, at no extra cost to you.
