Maybe it's just me being nervous...

L,G,& M pointing something out, some seriously scary numbers, and a little playing with the facts...

Not all that long ago a friend noticed that there was smoke coming out of the front seat locker in his Caribe dinghy. He told me that this was both irksome as well as confusing because, as far as he was concerned, there was nothing that should spontaneously combust in the locker. He also admitted he was a little off put because he had a fire extinguisher on the boat but, as luck would have it, it happened to be in the aforementioned seat locker that was now seriously smoking and it appeared that the top of lid was sorta/kinda melting...

Amazing what sort of mayhem three flares going off on their own can cause on a small dinghy while you're going home from work. For those who need details: the flares were in date, packaged/stowed appropriately, and the Caribe was a total loss.

Maybe it's just me but flares scare me... It's not about having to use flares but the fact that things designed to burn stored away on a boat just make me nervous.

As it happens, I need to buy some more flares because the ones I have are about to hit their expiry dates and this actually pisses me off for a variety of reasons...

For one, they're going out of date because when I bought them the only ones available to me in the USVI were older stock. Not only was I paying a highly inflated price for flares but I was paying that highly inflated price for flares that I'd have to replace sooner rather than later.

Another reason I'm not too happy about having to replace flares is that it is nearly impossible to dispose of them in a safe, sane, and ecologically sensible manner. Last time I tried, I dropped by the USCG station only to be told that I'd have to take them to the police. Of course, the police told me that I'd have to take them to the Fire station but the guy at the fire station told me that I'd have to take them to another fire station who then told me they don't do that anymore and suggested I try the USCG...

So, I actually have a lot of flares sitting around on my boat some with dates that I suspect actually came with the boat when it was new. Any of which could spontaneously combust at any moment...

Color me nervous.

The thing is, in the year 2014 with EPIRB's, PLB's, and modern communication technology you'd think we'd have a better safer flare system.You know something like this...



Listening to Leon Russell

So it goes...