I don't think I mentioned early deployment in my post, in fact, just the opposite. My thoughts are that the boat will be in considerable distress and the ocean in a real fit when I need to put in the raft, therefor, the less time the raft is exposed to these elements the better chance of it being useable to the crew. I will readily admit to having zero experience in this situation (except for the sinking and total loss of a really fast ski boat and sinking a bass boat in a lake during a fishing tourney on a very windy afternoon) but I like to think that if I try to imagine the worst possible circumstances maybe I can come up with a good plan, at least I won't be deluding myself with thoughts of "stepping" into anything. Dave paints a pretty bleak picture, and that's what we need to know. Can anyone else here say "been there, done that" if so I would like to hear your thoughts. When I was a lineman we had safety meetings every month, half a day each. We saw lots of film about guys getting burned by high voltage, ugly stuff, but I can tell you from first hand experience that the pictures and words pale in comparison to the smell of burnt flesh. I don't think I need both arms and both feet burned off and I don't need to sink my boat to learn from the guys with REAL experience. It seems to be one of those things that you can't really know until you've experienced it.