How do you survive a month adrift at sea?

reply to post by DarthMuerte


I agree in general, but in my home the light serves two purposes. Blind and disorient an intruder, and makes sure my target is clearly identified. Don't wanna shoot the wife or kids sneaking around at night. It is bright enough to be a weapon all by itself, and combine the light with the distinctive sound of a pump shotgun, and you have quite an intimidating deterrent. LOL.

Kind of veering off the survival at see topic here. I don't think either gun would be much use drifting in the ocean. I love the idea of purifying water by letting it wick up a pantleg and drinking above the salt line, that is genius! It also raises some quick points for the EDC bag. Perhaps a little fishing line and hook and clear plastic needs to be added to my bag? I could probably fish and construct a distillation device with those things.

reply to post by boymonkey74

How do you survive a month adrift at sea?

With one of these...
.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by DarthMuerte

 

I agree in general, but in my home the light serves two purposes. Blind and disorient an intruder, and makes sure my target is clearly identified. Don't wanna shoot the wife or kids sneaking around at night. It is bright enough to be a weapon all by itself, and combine the light with the distinctive sound of a pump shotgun, and you have quite an intimidating deterrent. LOL.

I live alone and my kids are too young to get in without me knowing they are coming over.

Originally posted by getreadyalreadyKind of veering off the survival at see topic here. I don't think either gun would be much use drifting in the ocean. I love the idea of purifying water by letting it wick up a pantleg and drinking above the salt line, that is genius! It also raises some quick points for the EDC bag. Perhaps a little fishing line and hook and clear plastic needs to be added to my bag? I could probably fish and construct a distillation device with those things.

I have one of those clear elcheapo ponchos in my edc pack. I could easily rig that up to distill some salt water. I have hooks and 50' of fishing line for fishing. Tie the line to my belt buckle, wrap the belt around my fist and hope I don't hook anything too big lol. My kit is really meant for things that would happen on land, so i would probably only last a couple weeks or so in the rubber raft scenario.

Another 'extreme survival' tactic, should you find yourself in tropical waters in an open air raft and no means of water distillation/collection, is to not remain in the sun, but to hang over the side in the water so you slow or prevent the loss of water from sweating and surface evaporation. You won't sweat under water.

If you're really screwed and don't even have a raft, you can use your pants as a floatation device. They teach this in Navy boot camp as well, in case your ever blown off a ship at sea. Remove your pants and tie a know at the end of each leg. Then hold them by the waist over your head, with the legs behind you. Bob up out of the water and swoop the pants towards the water in front of you, filling them with air. Holding the waist bunched together under the water will keep the pant legs filled with air, keep them wet and they'll hold air longer. You can get 5 minutes of floatation out of this before the air leaks out, then repeat the process. I was surprised at how well this works, although having to do this very few minutes in order to stay afloat wouldn't be very fun.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer

Thanks for the tip dude
But I hope I don't have to do this cos I wear short's a lot so 5mins floating would turn into 2

Question for you who know...is it true you wouldn't be able to catch fish if you were adrift at sea even if you had a line etc? I think I saw this on the TV show lost.
Cheers in advance.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer

You won't sweat under water.

Actually, if you are exerting yourself, you sweat way worse under water. You don't get the cooling effect of evaporation. Swimmers know this. They can lose multiple pounds of water weight in a single training session.

Now, in Salt Water, if you are not exerting yourself, you will actually take on water from osmosis. If you've ever swam too long, or spent too much time in the bathtub and gotten "granny fingers" it is from osmosis of water leaving your body, but in salt water the opposite occurs and you will plump up a bit. I'm not sure if that is a healthy way to avoid dehydration or not though? I'll have to check and see if it is a healthy addition of water or an unhealthy one.

Hey!!

Salt Water Enemas!!!

This site lists a few real-life stories and the science behind surviving adrift and getting your hydration through the skin and/or rectum. Doesn't sound like much fun, but if keeps you alive, then great!

This brought to mind a book I once read, Survive the Savage Sea, an excellent true story about the travail of some people yacht-sunk by a whale and then living on a dingy and a raft. The woman was a nurse and gave sea-water enemas to all in order to get water into their systems in spite of the salt content (the large intestine extracts water before 'dumping').

This in turn brought to mind another story in Reader's Digest about some Cuban boat people trying to get to Miami and wrecked on a small rocky isle. They had no water and a few kids died. Others tried to swim for help and were never seen again. This could have been prevented by enema or skin-drinking water. Thus, if you ever find yourself at sea saying, "Water, water everywhere but nary a drop to drink" ... you just need to immerse yourself in the ocean water and your skin will in time take the proper measure (though you will probably not have to urinate as is the case with fresh water).

reply to post by getreadyalready


Wow never knew that and thanks for the link but how did she get water up someone's bum?
Not a joke question honest I just can't figure it out

for good info/insight on survival at sea read up on captain bligh and the 1600 miles he and a few crew members travelled in an open boat after his crew mutineed and set him adrift in the pacific in the 18th century.
A feat that very few can manage even today..

reply to post by getreadyalready


Thanks for the headsup, especially on the salt water enema, that would never have occurred to me should I ever find myself adrift at sea...! I guess it comes down to what sort of tools you have available to yourself, a plastic tube has so many uses and this makes one more, LOL.

This Web page has a bunch more "survive at sea" tips, including the salt water enema;
Survival at Sea

Take 6 cases of water with you and fishing tackle

(and a personal locator beacon and you will only be out there for a few hours)