Bug Out Boat Survival: The Post Apocalyptic Survival Trailer Pod (Aftermath Survival Book 3)

by Ron Foster

  Lots of folks never considered the pulse would concentrate and flow down anything antennae like and with force. Yea lots of boats would be toast depending on the intensity of the geomagnetic storm. Lightening wasn’t the only thing boaters needed to fear. The marina they left from in the morning might not even exist to return to at night…

  In this case however it was a geographical eruption and not of a magnitude to fry most small computers like the ones found in cars but it played hell with the millions of miles of cable electrical wires which acted like antennas and conductors and set off the worlds loudest and dangerous imitation of a pop corn popper you ever heard as transformers blew thunderously in a ozone blue smoke laden haze creating firestorms. The fires and the panic of that awful crescendo will put people on the move and insure the roads are in disarray. Shore power delivery systems for the boats berthed in the marina although built to much higher codes than standard electrical installations is still a focus of this monumental crashing and burning as well as the highly flammable infrastructure needed to support it.

  If all those big boaters have no boats anymore because they burned when the solar flare went off then why should people hang around or visit the docks? Could be if they were lucky enough to get off their boats before or while they were catching fire they have nowhere else to go.

  Oh yea can’t forget about Joe six pack sitting at home 20 miles inland with his bass boat who may or may not decide to come gulf fishing because the roads are impassable. Anyway all these little boaters will find out that the channel in front of the marina is too clogged with burnt boat hulls or something to use the ramp to put in at and have to seek entry into the water elsewhere.

  No solar for charging trolling motors, no gas for outboards, only boats that can be paddled rowed or sailed would be moving. This limited their range in fishing as well as their habitats they could navigate. No desalinators for fresh water production. How many would choose to move to the beach and takeover an empty condo so they could surf fish or take their boat out on short excursions flats fishing?

  Not very damn many, remember the fresh water thing? They have to be able to stay near fresh water mostly. It is an undeniable fact that the body needs clean water more than food and therein lays the crux. There is some fresh water scattered around in ponds and such inland but within walking distance to the beach though. People will remain here and congregate in these places for a little while. These places are like the big watering holes in Africa for all the animals now most likely. Those with houses around fresh water features want to protect it from others and you might as well say that for now any outsider who wants to come fish, bathe and drink from it in their backyards is likely unwelcome. Also any stray pets that happen by that were left behind by their deceased masters will likely be coming by and these were cause for more concern than just being a tasty tidbit on the barbeque grill. Starving animals particularly dogs can offer danger in themselves. The gated community Neighborhood watch will probably get setup quickly to repel trespassers by the community housing board or whatever association they got ruling these little lake or pond size water front houses and that’s going to get sort of nasty for awhile.

  Trespass is kind of hard to define when you’re talking survival and the desire of someone wanting a drink of water from a resource most local folks already thought about being there and were headed in that direction. What do you do? Allow people to come through the private access to it and freely dip their buckets in it or do you defend it as well as the public beach access you also need to go through for fishing a particularly profitable fishing hole? Half the community won’t be present there in the houses that belong to out of state renters as well as retirees and tended to be stay to themselves types before the solar storm hit. Who knows if they will be a bunch of vacant houses or not, it depends on the time of year once again, Could be a bunch of unarmed leftover spring breaker teenagers are running it or if not some unarmed Canadian snowbirds might have gotten stuck there more used to hunting a moose with a rifle than throwing a rock at a duck for dinner.

  Not having to stop at every oasis-like water hole in the desert of this ocean and beach environment they had chosen was a huge plus for Sam and Lori to avoid people and situations they didn’t care to encounter.

  Having the right tools to cook with and purify water while recharging their batteries went hand and hand with that avoidance and subdued presence they were creating for themselves by depending on stealth and calculated self-reliance.

  Traveling the road less traveled included light discipline as well as noise suppression and avoiding physical sightings of traditional campfires during meal times etc. sometimes worried Sam. His solution to not being seen wandering around scavenging for large quantities of burnable wood depended on his two biomass stoves to solve all his cooking and security problems and help with his light discipline concerns.

  An open campfire is nice and it is exceptionally good for the soul to watch but it’s highly inefficient, particularly when its primary function this time of year was to merely cook food.

  A rocket stove can cook a meal with very little smoke and can just use any kind of biomass like twigs and sticks you can pick up from the ground so you don’t have to worry about finding bigger storm fallen logs or carrying the heavy tools necessary needed for the task along with exerting the extra labor needed for cutting large tree limbs. Wood is said to warm you twice, once cutting it and once burning it. Somebody should have added in to that wisdom equation for how many times it warms you up some statements about looking for it in an area that lacks suitable dry wood as well as backpacking an axe or saw etc and then hauling it back home along with the wood you have cut.

  They had amongst their bag of survival tricks the inclusion of a small back packable lightweight stainless steel Scout stove from Silver Fire for doing the mundane chores of heating up their morning coffee and such things as heating up some soup for lunch and frying up some spam for dinner.

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  The Silver Fire® Scout is a lightweight wood fired gasifier stove, that operates on just on twigs or flammable biomass. It is an ultra compact gasifier design intended for minimalist backpacking or bug out application. The design leads itself to using small cookware designed to heat a quart or liter of water.

  For larger chores like running the Survival still, bigger pots and pans etc or when they needed a longer burn time they had a Silver Fire chimney hunter model

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  Can be purchased with added accessories (bag, pot, pot and steam basket, wok, stone grill, stainless steel grill, salt stone...

  The SilverFire® Hunter is a lightweight, portable natural draft chimney stove designed for both indoor & outdoor use! The Hunter is a top lit updraft gasifier (TLUD); powered by twigs, yard scrub, or any flammable biomass Hunter maybe the most important emergency or disaster stove to own, since you cannot plan when a disaster may strike. Outdoor Rocket & TLUD stoves without chimneys are fun and convenient to use in warm weather, to adaptable different scenarios in a real disaster, or in poor weather. The option to cook inside is very important to eliminate all household emissions to protect your family's health is critical. It may not be safe to go outdoors and the ability to cook indoors is important.

  The ability to cook indoors under shelter is a key advantage over stoves without chimneys.

  The Hunter is easy to light, easily adjusted, lightweight, and cooks very rapidly. Thin tight packed fuel produces a very rapid boil. It has the ability to boil 2 gallons of water faster than the largest burner on your gas or electric cook top. In the event you want to slow the cooking process down (e.g. slow cooking with cast iron) add thicker, dense fuel into the combustion chamber. Dense material takes longer to burn, ideal for slow cooking. Combustion in the Hunter produces very little smoke or soot, if using dry fuel. The beauty of the Hunter is that the first 20
minutes to half hour of cooking is high fire power (boiling operations, browning meat, etc...), then for the next two hours a wonderful diminishing, simmering heat is present (low fire power cooking).

  Most modern houses don’t have fireplaces. This was the lightest most advanced unit Sam could find to bring along to assure themselves that when they did find a permanent place to live they would have a means to cook and have some heat. In order to heat an area Sam liked to put his big cast iron griddle on the stove to help radiate more heat. This type of stove is very well insulated and the sides and the bottom are not hot to the touch when operating.

  A prime safety feature but not designed to be a heater in this way. Just the fire coming out its center will greatly raise the temperature of the room but for colder temperatures some adjustments can be made. The item is not recommended for use on boats but in a pinch Sam said he had no problems applying it to the task although fire on a boat was never a good idea.

  These types of stoves were well used and handpicked by Sam from the big selection of stove offerings that Silver Fire manufacturers.

  .

  10

  CAMPAIGN COOKERY

  They were casual about mealtimes when camping normally and breakfast was not a habit they observed or partook of usually. They liked to either eat one big meal for lunch and have something light for dinner or if the mood struck them they would just nibble a bit around the nights campfire doing their quiet party thing and enjoying being out under the stars and listening to the crackle of the fire.

  This was different now, food was an obsession because as you planned on what you were going to have today then you thought and agonized about what would not be there tomorrow. You thought about not ever being able to eat some particular delicacy you had stored that was your comfort food and the chances you would ever be able to eat the same thing or taste again caused you anxiety. Take potato chips for instance, their absence wasn’t any big deal but built into your psyche was if you had a sandwich or something it was usually served with them. They were also a good in between meal snack etc. Sam and Lori didn’t get any between meals snacks unless you considered what they might munch while tending or grazing in the garden or when they were lucky enough to find a nut or berry in season.

  They had a garden but Russet or Idaho type potatoes didn’t grow well this far south and they occasionally grew sweet potatoes instead. They were so cheap and took up so much space they were often left out of the planting schedule. This year was no different so they had no sweet potatoes to make chips out of, no nursery or big box store to buy plants or sets, no neighbors growing them so as far as they were concerned that particular food stuff was extinct except the few tin cans of pantry basics they had on hand when the crap hit the fan.

  All the houses Sam and Lori had seen had been experiencing this same sense of desperation and loss for sometime of food groups as well as favorite treats. Sam had often heard before these troubled times came they would jokingly say they would kill for a candy bar or something.

  Now everyone if they could saved special things instead of eating what they liked best first in the pantry. Odd combinations of things became a meal. Jealousy of sharing things caused arguments and problems to some.

  Sam and Lori had 72 hours each worth of MRE's in their bug out bags that had been left alone and safe for this occasion. This had been consumed 3 days ago. Sam and Lori both knew that changes in diet, particularly extreme ones like occur when disaster diets are implemented can play hell with your stomach at times. They had spread the MRE meals out over the whole time period practically augmenting their bland diet of rice and beans for dinner with oatmeal for breakfast.

  The choice to fish, to hunt etc. along the trip was weighed and a conclusion was drawn that they fiercely wanted to get to the gulf and explore the beaches as quick as they could. Mornings found them up and about pretty much as soon as the sun began to rise. The birds in the trees began talking about the new day before it was even light and woke them to anticipate the same moment to start watching the gray dawn and getting motivated to move.

  The banks of the Choctawhatchee River at Morrison Springs

  Time was not relevant except as an indicator of what to do. Get started early.

  The lowly thermos. Do you have one? I’m not talking about the kind of thermos we had in our lunch box as a kid – there are no breakable glass linings to be found. These new ones are heavier and stainless steel lined. Your thermos can be a real work horse around the home and an even more important ally in an emergency.

  Would you believe most slow cooker recipes are doable in a thermos? Types of food you can easily cook in a thermos include rice and beans, soups, chili, stews, oatmeal, freeze-dried food, noodles and other pasta, and even meats such as chicken.

  Cooking time varies depending on what food you’re working with. For example, rice is going to take longer than noodles. Boil the food before sticking it in the thermos in order to cook it properly. You may have to experiment to get the right cooking time for each option, but that just means you’re honing your nifty survival skills!

  Thermos cooking is not cooking on the stove and then using it to keep your food warm (or cold), although it can be that too. A good quality thermos is useful for more than just keeping beverages. While there is certainly something more high tech that you can use to cook your food, a thermos is a handy tool to have around for emergency cooking during power outages and for frugal lunches any day.

  With proper planning, Sam and Lori could get their survival still out an purify their day’s drinking water as well as prepare their breakfast or noonday meal that would ride with them in the boat all on one small fire on their SilverFire stove. It didn’t take long, just grab up a bunch of sticks and twigs laying on the ground for the gathering and they were good to go with no cooking smells or lights to worry about. They could heat up their coffee in the morning and pour the remaining water in their Thermos to have lunch around noon without having to stop to make a fire. The same held true with their breakfast they could make the night before and wake up to a hot bowl of oatmeal. Very little time or effort was expended gathering wood and particularly no fires flickering on the riverbank to announce their presence at night. Heating up MRE’s in a pan of boiling water does not taint the water and is also an effective way of purification after you let it cool for drinking water or rinsing out the Thermos.

  Your thermos also works well on hot days when you don’t want to get the kitchen heated up. Just heat up the inside of the thermos and get cookin’. Your thermos works well on cold days when you want to carry a hardy meal.

  Tip: Choose one with a wide mouth so it’s easier to get food in and out again.

  It can boil water on the wood stove or the Silver Fire; place the water and a cup of grains in the thermos to cook and voila!

  Choose a quality metal thermos that will retain enough heat to cook food Preheat the thermos. Heat water to boiling and fill your thermos for about 5 minutes. This step is really important and you should not skip it. It is the key to your thermos cooking success.

  While the thermos is preheating, measure your ingredients for cooking. After 5 minutes pour out the water or use it for something else.

  Measure and boil more water, then add your ingredients and pour the water in as quickly as you can. I use a canning funnel to help pour the ingredients into the thermos.

  Once you’ve poured all your ingredients into the thermos, close it up, but don’t screw it down so tight it’s hard to open later. Trust me on this!

  Give it a good shake and place your thermos on its side for the suggested cooking time. Why on its side? More surface area helps it to cook evenly.

  Give it a shake every so often – for extended cooking times of 45 minutes – shake it every 10-15 minutes until the water is absorbed. You will hear and feel a difference when it is done.

  Open and enjoy!

  Recipes and how to videos can be found at www.thermoscooking.com

  Sam and Lor
i worried about when was the best time for them to travel the river because they had concerns about all the people they knew were doing without and had less survival skills or food than they did. Hopefully everyone had figured out something to do other than rob their neighbor or loot by now in order to eat and the danger of anyone thinking to rob them was a bit more minimized. The danger Sam felt was that the trailer barge thing they were towing drew attention to the fact they must have something valuable enough to be going through the process of dragging it along behind them and expending precious gas in this post apocalyptic world if they got caught using an outboard. That made them a target of sorts. What sort of target would be left to the imaginations of what the onlookers thought they had?

  “Now if I saw a solar Jon boat pulling along another boat, I would think it was just disabled and getting a tow. That boat trailer thing floating on barrels with gear piled up on it is another thing.” Sam thought to himself and asked Lori her thoughts.

  “Well If I recognized it as a trailer I would think maybe we were floating it down to the next boat ramp or drag out point.” She had speculated.

  “I am not so much worried about people shooting at us from shore; I mean why would they want to other than pure meanness. If they shot us or disabled the boat they can’t get what we got anyway without their own boat. We will just try to stay in the middle of the channel maybe and be extra careful around bridges and narrow places. I am going to try to come up with a raft or kayak or something later on but for now it’s what we got.” Sam had explained.