Well, I am moving to a suburb soon, and our neighborhood is close to Long Island Sound, and I'd like to take it up.

Otherwise, I think storing anything, a decent inflatable kayak might be an answer. But things still would need to be pretty desparate. If I needed to go, my first option is the car, followed by a train. If using the trains can get me about 30 miles out, I should be ok for most things that require fast evacuation.

If I got stuck on the wrong side of an incident of prolonged civil unrest, I would be thinking about using the tides to get me from here to Long Island Sound.

Bilojax,

Sounds like a nice little set-up for your boat. I didn't realize we were taking an inflatable and motor of that size (nice set-up btw!). I can see how you could get some pretty good efficiency out of that combo.

Of course the other nice thing about that size/style of boat is the ability to beach when and where needed. It's not like you need to look for a slip like you would with a bigger boat. See a gas station along a coastal road? Just beach it and walk up with your cans. Nice.

In a worst case situation I would also worry about the lack of cover on the water. Perhaps traveling at night but that would make the navigation harder. There would be the noise from a motor boat that may attract unwanted attention.

I like that idea better than walking. But, in the part of the country I am familiar with, rivers are dry ditches most of the year...

True – an abandoned lock is like a dam and requires a portage, which could be very time-consuming. Here it helps that my transport means in crisis is also my hobby in everyday life, so I have occasion to learn the location of such obstacles. As it happens, there are no locks or dams on the Mississippi River below St Louis, or on my local tributary.

If absolutely necessary, I can make a portage with my described set-up. Everything breaks down into pieces with the heaviest piece (the outboard motor) weighing 60 pounds. Of course, if I’m carrying over 1000 pounds worth of supplies all together, we’re talking a great many trips and a day long portage. I wonder if I could tie the two mountain bikes together to make a wheeled cart of some sort?





Well, that’s actually a hard question for me. In most disaster scenarios I can think of, I’d rather stay and try to help out in my local community than bug out with just a few people. I guess the turning point would be how others are behaving. If everybody around me turns predatory and it’s a survival-of-the-fittest, dog-eat-dog, thunderdome-road-warrior type situation, then I guess I’d rather compete in the wild than in a post-urban-wasteland environment.

Of course, even if you run for the woods, other men are still going to be your greatest danger. That thought contributed to my choice of the Arkansas River swamp as a hiding place rather than a more scenic and pleasant location, like a mountain lake - plus, it’s hard to beat a swamp for natural food production.




Another poster mentioned floods also. I’m not sure I see the problem. In many cases, being in a boat in times of flood would be an advantage. Are you thinking of navigation hazards? It’s true that floods can create some very devious death traps for the unwary, and they may be unexpected to someone who is not familiar with small boat navigation. However, this reinforces the advantage of using a recreational hobby as your transport means in the event of a forced bug-out. I think I’m aware of the dangers created by flooding, and I even go out purposely during big floods to get first hand experience (we call it “having fun”) with whirlpools and low-head dams and temporary cut-offs and the like.

Is there another flood-related concern I should be thinking about?

Tillamook Bay Lifeboat Station, opening summer season, 1976.

I walk down the PCH to the boat shed. I pass 4 car collisions in less than the half block distance. I observe a cab over camper towing a airstream trailer and behind that a boat. He is backing the boat down the loading ramp. He hits the gas instead of the brakes. The huge V 8 puts everything into the water. Owner is screaming he's drowning. I remove my shoes and socks, walk into the waist deep bay and open his door, guiding him to the dry bosom of terra firma.Some jasper makes a joke about 'shallow water sailors.' I conduct an immediate courtesy safety inspection, find him wanting and tell him to buy 3 more PFDs before he launches.

I get down to the boats, find 3 tourists on board 'just looking around.' I threaten them with arrest for tresspassing on government property.I'm reminded they pay taxes. I remind them I do too and call the sherrif.

I am barely underway when a high performance oat races down the pier, hits the beach, becomes airborne and explodes in hte still jumbled logs from the great tilllamook burn decades past. Sherrif walks over with me and calls the coroner. We get a radio call about a flipped boat. I switch on the strobe, hit the horn and push my throttle forward. Some guy in a handbuilt, italian rowing shell crosses my bow yelling 'sailboats and rowing vessels have hte right of---crunch' and I take off most of his shell just forward of his feet. He is scraming profanities as I continue on.

We dodge several other 'vessels' oblivious to our strobe, siren and my loudhails before reaching the 'capsized vessel.' It is a boston whaler and out of gas, the one I told to buy 3 more PFDs.

I tow tehm in and am told our Co needs to talk. I return to the station and my rowing enthusiast is in the office screaming. Chief asks me what happened. I tell him. Chief says it's my call. I issued a citation for interfering with a emergency vessel underway.

We get a call about a 'disturbance' up at Neah Bay and the local sheriff couldn't investigate right away, and could we take jurisdiction? I drive up and discover a very dead, beached pilot whale. A crowd of people are stabbing it with every tool imaginable and one guy shooting the body with a BB gun.

I disarm the BB Nimrod and order the beach cleared. Nimrod protests. It's a Great White Shark and it needs killing to protect his grandkids in Portland.

I drive back to base, observing 3 more car accidents.

So, tell me again why you want to venture onto a waterway after a situation calls for buggong out?

I'm in the same boat with Dan_Mcl (pun intended). I have a 26 foot motor sailor in Brooklyn. My concern is that it is on the opposie side of Brooklyn from where I live. Don't know that I could get there in a SHTF situation, or that the boat would be there when I did. For that reason, I don't keep bugout supplies on board, other than the regular emergency supplies.

If I had some warning, or had someone prepositioned at the boat, it could be sailed to within two blocks of my home, near the Gowanus Canal. So it is always an option. I figure if they have to evacuate a major metropolitain area like NYC, boat is much preferable to driving or walking. Trying to get approx. 9 million people out over seven bridges or three tunnels is not going to go smoothly.

BTW, the mileage chart provided by bilojax is probably accurate. I have a 50 hp Honda on the boat, and if I keep the rpms at about 1,500 I get an easy 25mpg. Haven't figured a way to account for the current, so that figure will increase or decrease depending on conditions.

"...I issued a citation for interfering with a emergency vessel underway..."

You luck dog you. Many is the time I wanted to stop and cite some yoyo for putting me into the dirt median of I-5 at 'bout 140mph or so, oblivious to my lights and siren (OK, at that speed the siren can't be heard ahead of the my vehicle, but the lights are sure visible). But I just got back under control and continued to whatever "emergency" I was responding to...

That must have been in a rural area. All my experience on the 5 was at 5mph in all lanes.

Welcome to Los Angeles!!!!!

"So, tell me again why you want to venture onto a waterway after a situation calls for buggong out?"

Ha Ha. Opening day of the boating season is always a lot of fun. As long as you are watching from the beach.

I would definitely not bug out on the opening day of boating season. Usually takes a week or two for Darwin to do his thing, then it is somewhat safer (relatively speaking).