Collect drinkable water
Storms are a frequent event in the oceans and seas and may be the reason you are in the situation you are in. There is, however, something good to come from them: rain. Take every opportunity to gather as much as you can, and try to keep it from becoming contaminated with salt water. Another way to produce fresh water is through use of a desalination pump or tablets. This is simply a tool that removes the salt from water, making it drinkable. However, you are unlikely to have access to these items in a dire survival scenario.
Solar still
A final solution for producing or gathering drinking water is the use of a solar still. This is done by causing salt water to evaporate, leaving the salt behind, and then collecting the condensation, which will be fresh water.
1. Get a bucket and pour several inches of salt water into it. You can also use salt-water-soaked towels or clothes.
2. Place a smaller container in the middle of the bottom of the bucket (it must be tall enough to clear the salt water).
3. Cover the top of the bucket with plastic, and make an airtight seal around the outside of the bucket.
4. Place some type of weight in the middle of the plastic wrap.
As the seawater in the bucket evaporates, leaving the salt content in the bottom of the bucket, the fresh water will condense on the plastic wrap. This freshwater condensation will drain to the lowest point of the plastic wrap (the area depressed by the weight) and drip into the container below. This is your drinkable water. It won’t produce much, but it may be just enough to fight the effects of dehydration and keep you alive.
5. FIND FOOD
As we continue down the list of life-saving priorities, food becomes essential. The ocean offers a vast variety of edible solutions, from kelp to sea turtles to birds. The best and most obvious choice, however, is fish and, to a lesser extent, plankton. Some folks fish for fun, but you will be doing it to survive. You can catch fish in a number of ways.
Spear
This is the best method for catching larger fish, which will provide food for many days. However, proper use of a spear requires the most skill and consumes the most energy. Make sure you feel your chances of successfully spearing a fish are high. Spears can be made from boat hooks, gaffs, PVC pipe, or scraps from metal railings. In addition to a sharp, penetrating point, it will be helpful if your spear has a line attached to it that is fastened to your arm. Retrieving a spear can be an exhausting endeavor.
Net
Provided you have the material, this can be a very efficient way to collect not only fish but other, smaller edible forms of marine life such as plankton. Smaller fish are generally attracted to rafts. They hide under or around rafts or floating objects to naturally protect themselves from larger fish. Nets can be improvised from trash bags, clothing, even a bucket with small holes in the bottom.
Hook and line
If you have fishing line, great. If not, thin twine or even dental floss can be made to serve as fishing line. You can set out lines to wait for the fish to come to you. This is an effective way to get the food you need and expends very little of your energy. Hooks can be made from safety pins, wood, or paper clips, or anything that has a sharpened, pointed end. A small piece of food or blood-soaked cloth will provide great bait. Fishing is all about percentages, so the more hooks you have in the water, the better your chances of catching a fish.
6. SIGNAL FOR HELP
This may be your best and last chance to be rescued, so be prepared to signal at a moment’s notice. Understand that based on your height and the curvature of the earth, your visual distance is only ten to fifteen miles. You may see that Coast Guard cutter or helicopter in the distance, but they won’t necessarily see you.
Mirror and reflection
Mirrors, or anything that catches and reflects sunlight, can be highly effective during the day and can be seen for miles. Extend your arm toward the object that you to want to signal and make a V with your fingers. The V will act like a gun sight to make certain your reflection hits the target you want. Aim the mirror between your gun-sight fingers and point it directly at the passing ship, for example, or airplane, to ensure that your signal is noticed.
Flare or smoke
A flare at night is one of the very best forms of signaling. Smoke is used for signaling only during the day. If you use a flare, ensure that you are holding it as high as possible and away from your raft. The threat of fire is high with these items. Additionally, a fire extinguisher can be used as an improvised smoke signal.
Dye markers
Dye markers are yet another way to signal. Many of them are water activated and will produce a bright green or orange cloud in the water that can last several hours.
Raft Survival
If you are lucky enough to have a raft, you have greatly increased your chances of survival, but you are by no means out of the woods—or should we say out of the water—yet.
1. If you have just boarded the raft, immediately tie a line to you and to a part of the raft, or to someone else on the raft. If the raft flips over due to wind or waves, you will still be able to climb back into it.
2. Take the next several minutes to locate, and take a quick inventory of, the supplies you now have in the raft and anything in the area that may useful. Pay particularly close attention to brightly colored items that could be used for signaling, and to plastics or other objects that could be used for rainwater collection. This may be your last opportunity to gather these items.
3. Stay in the vicinity of your vessel’s last known location. The closer you can stay to that location, the better your chance of being found, since that’s where rescue efforts will begin. Therefore, you should deploy a sea anchor. This will minimize the amount your raft travels due to wind and current, and keep you closer to the original abandoned-ship site. If your raft doesn’t have a sea anchor, you can make one by using line and a bucket. This will also help to steady the raft in rough seas.
NOT ROOM FOR EVERYONE?
There is a chance that your raft will not be large enough or has been damaged and can’t adequately hold the entire group at once. If this is the case, you will have to place some people in the water. This must be done on a rotation. By doing this you are extending the total time for the group’s survival and building group cohesion through shared sacrifice. Rotation time will be based on water temperature and the strength of the group. Never leave someone in the water long enough that their core temperature is significantly impacted.
Sea-Induced Delusions: “My Mind Is Playing Tricks on Me”
When you are lost at sea, your body and mind will be dealing with an exhausting environment. You will be hot, cold, thirsty, hungry, tired, and stressed. Your mental toughness is going to be pushed to the limit. You will become very aware of the usefulness of your comfort-zone exercises.
Night number four of Hell Week included the epic and unforgettable journey known as “Around the World.” Basically, this is an eight-hour night paddle around Coronado Island. As you can imagine, everyone is pretty wrung out at this point, and the lull of San Diego Bay brought out the crazy in everyone. The great thing about it was that the craziness affected one man at a time, so the rest of us got to fully enjoy the show. On our boat, one of my guys thought he was Elvis but sounded more like some kind of goat with laryngitis when he sang. Another of my guys fell asleep and fell into the water. That woke him up screaming bloody murder. (Falling in the water was the last thing you wanted to do, because you would be wet for the next several hours.) As for me, I was convinced I saw three 747s floating in the bay ahead of us and began shouting, “We have to get over there and see if there are any survivors!” The hallucination lasted only about thirty seconds, and I can remember it to this day. But that night, for those thirty seconds, I was absolutely convinced the hallucination was real. Pretty entertaining.
Additionally, the ocean has other ways of tricking your mind. Because of the constant motion, you may become seasick. Do what
you can to limit this, because vomiting will only accelerate dehydration. You can minimize seasickness by focusing your eyes on a fixed space in the distance, which helps you regain a sense of equilibrium. Lying down can also help to relieve symptoms. Another common effect of spending too many days at sea is hallucinations. Try to use tricks to pull the mind back to a state of reality. Perhaps recite the names of all your friends, or make lists of some kind. Given the condition and environment you are in, though, you may just need to accept these mind tricks and even try to be amused by them.
The Long Haul
As soon as you left the vessel, your mindset should have gone into a prioritizing and conserving mode: “I may be out here for a very long time.” Remember this checklist:
Stay positive.
Occupy time with goals to keep you alive another day, such as fishing, water collection, and production.
Conserve energy: If you’re not actively doing something, then sleep.
Inventory supplies, set ration limits, and generally conserve resources.
Focus on achieving little victories: View each drop of water collected or each fish caught as a big deal.
If with others, prop one another up. Stay strong as a group. Weakness or a breakdown will eventually come to each individual. It is up to the others in the group to boost them back up.
Shark Attack
Another danger you need to deal with while lost at sea is sharks. Although we like to think we are at the top of the food chain, when we are in the ocean that is no longer the case. Sharks are the masters of this environment. Although the fear of sharks, thanks to news media and films, is much greater than the chances of actually getting attacked by one, shark attacks do happen and could create a life-or-death situation. There are more than 360 species of sharks, but only a few are given to attacking humans. Most fatal encounters are caused by great whites, tiger sharks, bull sharks, and white-tip sharks.
In 2011, worldwide shark-related deaths were higher than they’ve been in nearly two decades. Surfers and others involved in board sports took the brunt, accounting for 60 percent of unprovoked shark attacks; swimmers were attacked 35 percent of the time; and divers accounted for 5 percent of all incidents.
MYTHS
Sharks can’t smell one single drop of blood in the water from miles away, as many believe. However, a good amount of blood will surely cause sharks to congregate. Sharks are actually relatively cautious predators and will often circle their prey several times before attacking.
HOW TO PREVENT AN ATTACK
• Pay attention to warnings and be alert to reports of recent shark sightings or attacks in the area.
• Sharks are attracted to light colors that resemble fish. Cover up all skin, including arms and legs, with dark-colored clothing. Even the lighter soles of your bare feet are attractants.
• Remove any jewelry or watches that shine or reflect.
• Excessive splashing or movement will attract a shark’s attention.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE IN THE WATER AND YOU SEE A SHARK
1. Remain calm—your goal is obviously to get out of the water, but that is not necessarily the first thing you need to do.
2. Reduce excessive movement or splashing. Start your combat breathing: four-second inhalation, four-second exhalation. It would be a shame to die from drowning in this situation. If you start splashing wildly, you’ll look more like a meal. Don’t make erratic, sudden movements. This makes you look weak and wounded, which makes you more attractive-looking as prey to a shark.
3. Move away from the shark by doing a slow and steady reverse backstroke, with the bare soles of your feet downward.
4. Until you can get out of the water, keep your eye on the shark at all times. Unlike the case with dogs, this eye contact will not provoke an aggressive response. Be ready to get into a defensive position, but always adjust yourself so the front of your body is facing the shark. If you can put your back against a reef or drop-off in the seafloor, do so. If you are with someone else, get back-to-back, so you can see one or more sharks and defend from all directions.
5. Fight or flight: Similar to your chances of outrunning a grizzly bear, your chances of out-swimming a shark are minimal. However, unlike with a grizzly, if you play dead the shark won’t care and will continue to tear you up. You have no choice in this situation—Fight like hell! Punch, kick, elbow, knee, and stab at anything you can, paying particular attention to the eyes, nose, and gills. If you have a spear or pole or some type of weapon at least a couple of feet long, use it to fend off the shark. The best place to poke at a shark is from the gills forward. And when you strike the shark, let them know it with the maximum amount of force.
6. Once you have made it to shore or to a boat, check yourself for injures. A shark bite is a very violent injury, and if you don’t seek medical attention immediately, you could bleed out.
Several years ago while filming a show in the Bahamas, I had the opportunity to dive at Tiger Beach, which has the second-largest population of sharks anywhere in the world. On this day I saw something that has to be one of the top five experiences in my entire life. As I was squared up watching a twelve-foot tiger shark pass from left to right, the shark suddenly changed direction and swam directly toward me. Then I saw the eyelids roll back, which is a protective trait common to these sharks just prior to their attacking. Time stood still. For some reason, I had decided to take a three-foot piece of PVC plumbing pipe in the water with me, and I immediately slammed this into the nose of the approaching tiger shark. It worked. The shark swam away as the water surge from his tail pushed me back a couple of feet. That is a moment of my life forever imprinted upstairs.
LOST IN THE DESERT
If, for whatever reason, you find yourself alone and lost in the desert, know that this unique environment requires you to follow a set of survival priorities. As it is in every life-threatening scenario, the key to enduring is to know what actions to take, and in what order. In the desert your priorities, from highest to lowest, must be shade, water, and shelter. The distinctive element about surviving in the desert is that it requires you to take immediate action to secure these priorities, yet conserve energy while doing so by implementing a long-haul strategy from the outset.
Of all the environments I’ve had the privilege of operating in, I can tell you without hesitation that the most challenging is the desert. It is a vast and lifeless place that can reach 130 degrees in the day and drop below freezing at night. The landmark-less terrain can be a combination of sandy dunes and mountainous rock that is not only taxing to navigate but difficult to traverse, with each step a potential ankle-breaker. There is little or no shade to protect you from the abusive intensity of the sun. And if you think the slight breeze that you feel on your face is a welcome relief, just wait . . . it’s actually only a warning of a monster, blinding sandstorm to follow. As you inhale and chew on sand particles, your body is screaming for something that is incredibly scarce in this place—water. Oh, and let’s not forget we had assholes out there who wanted to kill us.
Survival Priorities
1. Shade
2. Water
3. Shelter
1. FIND SHADE
Getting off the X in this case means finding shade, pure and simple. During the day, you must get out of the sun and into the shade immediately. Don’t spend the first hours of the first day in the blazing heat wandering around looking for a way out. Instead, seek temporary shelter.
• Get to the nearest rock outcropping or to the shady side of a dune, or an indenture in the sand, or a gully.
• First and foremost, you must cover all exposed skin, especially your face, neck, and arms. A hat will be worth its weight in gold, and a T-shirt can be pushed under the hat, so that the other end is hanging to cover your neck. If you don’t have a hat, make one. Improvise, using whatever scrub brush you can find, and tie it any way you can to cover your head and neck with whatever strip of fabric you have. In the desert, any place the s
un strikes is your X; it will literally cook you alive. Getting to shade and covering yourself is the first priority in this environment.
• Conserve your energy until nightfall. Once the sun goes down, that’s when it’s better to construct a more “permanent” shelter by rearranging rocks, if available, or digging deeper into a gully bank, or by using the shelter-construction techniques below. You need to immediately shift into a conservation or long-haul mode. You should become nocturnal; once the sun goes down, that’s when your “day” starts. By doing this, you will minimize perspiration and therefore keep more of the water you have in your body.
2. LOCATE WATER
Now that you are out of the sun in a temporary shelter, the next priority is water. Without water, you won’t make it more than a few miles if you attempt to travel in the heat of the day. Even lying dormant, your body will require a gallon of water every twenty-four hours; without water, you will be dead in three days. Do the following, and then use the Rule of Three to decide upon a course of action.
• Carefully examine the widest vista you can see in all directions. Look for signs that may indicate the presence of water, and narrow down your search to these areas.
• Look at the terrain and identify any areas that have vegetation or growth. An area of vegetation in the desert could have a very subtle change of color. It might have only a slightly darker or greener hue than its surroundings. This means water, since vegetation, just like humans, needs moisture to survive.
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