Nuclear War-Semi serious posting

crown22 said:
Any forumites thoughts on the use they would make of their boats if they decided an attack was imminent?
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Now here is a perfect example of what happens when you use Toluene to get Sikaflex off your hands:)

"TOLUENE Exposure to high levels of toluene may affect your kidneys, nervous system, liver, brain, and heart. You can be exposed to toluene at work by breathing contaminated air or having skin contact with it".

Sad isn't it?
 
crown22 said:
Any forumites thoughts on the use they would make of their boats if they decided an attack was imminent?
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Not a lot I would imagine. GRP is too inflammable to make a good blast shelter.

In a post-attack scenario, yes you can be independent for a short while. But local communities struggling to conserve resources would stop you from coming back ashore to stock up. Read Neville Shute 'Whatever happened to the Corbetts' for a picture of what would happen even if civil authorities remained on the ball.

In the more probable anarchy that would follow, you would be shot long before you got back ashore, by people defending whatever resources they have.

Shoot now ask later would be the rule.


I always thought the people incinerated in the explosions would be the lucky ones in the event of all out nuclear war. Watch 'When the wind Blows' for the reality of surviving post nuclear attack (if you can find it).



At least no one would be worrying what happened to the seahorses any more!
 
Shute is a good call.

His other oevre, ' On The Beach' is worth a read but not possibly at 3 in the morning.. Characters in Oz carrying on planning a car race even as radiation sweeps inevitably toward them on the wind patterns, it is pretty poignant too. ( And not quite as distressingly unreadable as it might seem, more thoughtful)
 
I reckon a serious blue-water adventure cruiser, well stocked with provisions (look at what some of the crazier paranoid Americans buy, years' worth of dehydrated food with 30-year shelf life, you could fit quite a few of those drums in the bilges of a beamy long-keeled 45-footer) is probably the most viable survival option. Not least because after spending months or years at sea a la Moitessier, you can choose anywhere in the world to make your landfall. Europe and the US are unlikely to be smart choices.

But your average coastal Channel cruiser with a few Fray Bentos pies in the locker? Nope. Better to all go together when we go.

Pete
 
The first thread in the link has links to very good films: 'The Day After' and 'Threads'. The ordinary scenes of everyday life and the last minute doubts that they will do it, the routine activities ongoing as the horror of horrors is realized, the nowhere to hide aftermath is pretty depressing. Both films state that the reality compared to the desperate situation they portray will likely be much worse. It's enough to make one want to vote for independence :eek: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?390544-Threads-of-The-Day-After

I think the yacht would be a rubbish place to survive as it limits mobility and rapid movement to take advantage of whatever, it really would be a case of right place right time or wrong place wrong time, as the case may be, no in between.

However, if you had lead sandwiched sound insulation in your engine box, you could hide in there for a few weeks until the dust settled.
 
Mavanier said:
OTOH, a boat is ideal in the event of a zombie apocalypse, as we all know zombies cannot swim.
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They can walk underwater which is more scary and climb the anchor rode. I think you would need a CQR anchor so they could not get a grip.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
I think the yacht would be a rubbish place to survive as it limits mobility and rapid movement to take advantage of whatever
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One bit of sea is much like another, so it doesn't really matter where you are.

The only real downside is that you need to make a decision early enough to get well out to the Western Approaches (or further) before the balloon goes up. Then just keep heading west, and then probably south. Sit it out hove to or sailing slowly, somewhere warm, hundreds of miles from land, and thousands of miles from any likely target. Scan the ham bands just in case, though don't expect to hear much. Months or years later, make your eventual landfall very carefully, somewhere very remote.

I basically see it as an alternative to the classic underground shelter, except without the jealous neighbours digging you up and taking your stuff.

Pete
 
prv said:
One bit of sea is much like another, so it doesn't really matter where you are.

The only real downside is that ……
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Our atmosphere will be completely trashed and a nuclear winter will set in. It has now been studied quite accurately that a nuclear exchange which involved 1/3 of the nuclear weapons would distribute dust, radiation and soot over the various layers of the atmosphere. The sea, being a relatively stable temperature contributor to the atmosphere would draw huge quantities of cold air from the continents (which is where the temperature drops will be the biggest) resulting in significant easterly winds (relative to the UK) and radiation being flung far out to sea. The soot which is in the lower atmosphere blankets the upper atmosphere from convection currents as it shields the lower atmosphere from the sun. This stops rain which would have washed the soot out and thus prolongs this offshore wind. Studies now show that the levels of radiation that are transmitted around the world will quite simply kill plant life off. There is no where to go.

Pre 1980s it was thought that the atmosphere and biosphere would not be damaged by nuclear war significantly, that it would survive. It's now established thinking that in fact we are all toast wherever we are. The measurements of growth in trees that have survived for thousands of years, and younger trees that have seen the few large volcanic explosions in that period show no growth for a couple of years in a lightly dimmed atmosphere contaminated with the volcano's plume. A nuclear exchange simply puts a colossal volume of dust into the atmosphere which is so catastrophic to growth that when coupled with the radiation simply means its curtain's, even for those who have survived in deep bunkers.

If you are interested google 'On The 8th Day'; a documentary where the above all comes from. Yes, one bit of sea is like another, except it wont be like what it is today. I guess you would die a horrible radiation induced death at sea after WWIII.
 
crown22 said:
Any forumites thoughts on the use they would make of their boats if they decided an attack was imminent?
Click to expand...

Reminds me of a television interview during the Cold War period, 1960 something. The interviewer asked a flat capped eighty year old "what would you do if the three minute warning was announced?" He curled his lip and replied "go and see the redhead next door" :)
 
Hadenough said:
Reminds me of a television interview during the Cold War period, 1960 something. The interviewer asked a flat capped eighty year old "what would you do if the three minute warning was announced?" He curled his lip and replied "go and see the redhead next door" :)
Click to expand...

Blurry gummerment cuts. It used to be a FOUR minute warning..


By the by, anyone fancy a trimaran like in Waterworld?
 
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