$3,500 we hope is a TOTAL waste of money..

Here is a photo of our bootie from the Seattle Boat Show. Namely: two survival suits, and an offshore life raft. Combined with the EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) we got during last Thanksgiving Specials we are up to about $3,500 for equipment we hope NEVER to have to use. However, given that we will be heading to isolated areas with rather cold waters we felt it was just prudent to get some good survival gear.

For those who might not know, the Lift Raft is well a Life Raft. The Survival Suits are like rubber 'Gumby' suits that will give us several hours of life in the cold water, as opposed to perhaps 30 minutes without them. And the EPIRB will send a signal to a global network of satellites which will then inform a global network of emergency responders (ala the Coast Guard) to come and get us. This EPIRB has a built in GPS to guide help directly to it, and to us, assuming we keep 'it' near 'us'.

And we did get killer deals on all of it. In fact, the Life Raft was about ½ of the going rate due to a blow-out special the manufacturer was having at the Seattle boat show. (Going further to show how really lame the Portland boat show is..) And this life raft even comes with a 15 year warranty. Plus if we use the life raft within those 15 years they will give us a new one for free! Providing we let them publish our story, and ummm I have to assume we actually manage to SURVIVE . . .

Here is to money down the drain!