What's tops for survival at sea?

[Danny Jo]

What\'s tops for survival at sea?

You are alone in your sinking yacht. (Let's say it has been hit by one of the trillions of containers kept afloat by copious amounts of bubble wrap.) You are about to board the life raft, but try as you may, you cannot manage both the 25 litre water bottle and the bag of fishing gear. You realize you must choose just one. You may have to spend the next two months in your life raft. You don't have time to check the internet for this account of Dr Bombard's experiment

 

[duncan]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

no brainer - what the hell are you going to do in a liferaft for 2 weeks without the fishing gear. I'd go mad after 2 days and just jump overboard!

i realise this means I will have to drink the malt neat but sacrifices have to be made

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

I gather fish blood is a bit of a delicacy... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[graham]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

I read a book recently called 66 days adrift where a couple took to a liferaft way out in the Pacific.They had a hand operated watermaker.40 minutes of pumping produced one liter of fresh water.They survived from fishing but had to take care disposing of blood and guts etc as it encouraged sharks to start bumping the raft.

3 ships almost ran them down but didnt see them. One ship did see them but carried on /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[AIDY]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

also fish eyes. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[webcraft]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

Seeing as we have fished most days at sea over the last 3000 or so miles and caught nothing since a codling in Donaghadee Sound last August I would def. take the water.

- Nick

 

[Bajansailor]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

The current tally is 10 for water, 8 for fishing gear.

What are the fishermen going to drink?

Folk can survive for a long time without food (especially if they have some reserve padding to start off with!), but probably only a few days without water.

I would definitely take the water - 25 litres should last me a month easily with careful rationing.

 

[Stingo]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

Take both. Put the water in the raft and tie the fishing rod to the raft, but on the outside, hanging in the water.

 

[Danny Jo]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

This thread has its origins in a question that has niggled at me for some time. (I was reminded of it again by a recent dunking in the Menai Strait during which I swallowed some sea water and after which I felt quite thirsty.) Popular wisdom is that one should not drink sea water in survival situations because you'll be worse off than if you don't.

My thought process went like this. The World Health Organization's recommended treatment for diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera, is oral rehydration solution. A homemade version consists of one level teaspoonful of salt and eight level teaspoonfuls of sugar in 5 cupfuls (1 litre) of water. The salt concentration recommended is about one fifth of that in sea water. Assuming, wrongly as I now believe, that sea water was bad because you could not absorb it, why not add sugar, as in oral rehydration fluid, to ginger up the sodium pump? I gather now that the problem is not the inability to absorb water, but the larger volume of water required to excrete, via the kidneys, the excess salt.

If you have a very limited ration of fresh water, one option to consider is supplementing it with small quantities of sea water (a pint or a pint and a half per day). Also, the first urine that you produce in the liferaft may well be quite dilute, and at any rate worth saving if you have a container. Chuck out the whisky and coffee, mind, because they both have a diuretic effect.

 

[Bajansailor]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

Nick, when on passage to the Azores, try using a pink squid or similar on a very short line - you want to have the lure one boat length behind the transom, and if you are travelling fast, and the lure is airborne or skipping out of the water most of the time, even better.
Guaranteed to work for dorado.

 

[Danny Jo]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

[ QUOTE ]
What are the fishermen going to drink?

[/ QUOTE ] Seawater and rainwater (and fish eyes!). Take a look at the Alain Bombard link.

 

[Bajansailor]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

And suppose there is no rain?

You have already said that the crew have not beaned up on the Bombard story.

Water is more important any day.

 

[duncan]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

if the question hadn't so definitely stated that you are in the liferaft for 2 months I would wholeheartedly agree. 25l gets you a lot of time - esp if you have shade and even more so if you happen to be a little overweight.........

however at 6 weeks you are in serious trouble without any food at all - on the other hand you could extract sufficent water from raw fish, it might rain, you may have enough plastic and sunshine to produce water to complement the fish - you may catch so much fish you may even be able to barter some water of a guy drifting the other way who grabbed the water bottle.......... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Bajansailor]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

Foodwise, carbohydrates are much more important in a survival situation that protein.
Hence it would be very wise to stock the grab bag (tied to the water bottle, along with the fishing kit, cos we are efficient types?) with high energy foods with lots of calories.
Also, I think the body needs to use more water to process proteins rather than carbohydrates (or is it the other way around?).

 

[webcraft]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

It just so happens we have a largish pink squid . . .

Thanks for this, will send you a pic of anything we catch.

- Nick

 

[JasB]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

[ QUOTE ]

Guaranteed to work for dorado.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a bold statement! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Danny Jo]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

[ QUOTE ]
25l gets you a lot of time

[/ QUOTE ] Actually, my own emergency supply is a 5l container, but I thought this might make taking the fishing gear a no-brainer.

I suppose what I'm trying to do is to challenge the dogma that one shouldn't drink sea water under any circumstances. The Bombard "experiment" is however rather dodgy science, and I agree that water is more important than food.

Then again, the Bombard experiment suggests that, if you are going to drink a litre of seawater a day, you are better off doing it before you become dehydrated. But dehydration could set in very quickly during the period of "acclimatisation" to the motion of the liferaft (i.e. you loose fluid by vomiting), and I'm not recommending seawater for someone who has just vomited.

 

[clouty]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

If your water container has some air in it too, it will float, and can be tethered to the raft - or so I'm told...

 

[Bajansailor]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

[ QUOTE ]

Guaranteed to work for dorado.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a bold statement! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

'Tis true though!

Last time I sailed across the Atlantic, I was rather sceptical at first when the skipper just let the lure out to 1 boat length behind - and we had a dorado on the line about 5 minutes later.

For the rest of the voyage, it was a case of if we wanted fish for supper, we just chucked the line out and caught one. Threw a 20 lb tuna back, cos we didnt really fancy living on tuna for a week.....

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: What\'s tops for survival at sea?

Me, I'd take the EPIRB and the satphone.