How would you equip the S.S. Minnow, the boat in Gilligan's Island, for a "three-hour tour" in addition to the complete wardrobes already onboard?

I would include Adventure Medical Kit's Marine 1000. It is designed for coastal cruising for a crew of eight.

Jeanette Isabelle

Other than Mr. Howell's trunk with millions of dollars, nothing. TV tells us that if you have coconuts, you have electric power. If you have bamboo, you have pedal cars and bikes. If you have a sitcom script, you have everything you need, from the power of flight to the means to escape to neighboring islands. Even to host the Harlem Globetrotters!

FWIW outfitting Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra is a mildly more interesting exercise than the SS Minnow. She and Noonan had definite weight issues, and maybe the hubris to think they didn't need even the basic essentials (ex. basic preps such as radio navigation skills).

adding to Lono's comment... modern emergency communications..EPIRBs and PLBs would make all the difference in the world...

in 1972 (only 35 years after Earhart and Noonan's disappearance) we worked an SOS by a Filipino fishing vessel in the Sulu Sea off the Philippines...one of my morse search positions picked up the message, and ordered a flash DF fix.. we got a class A fix via the AN-FLR9 system... by the time the Coast Guard got there, they estimated the vessel was off our reported position by less than 500m (UTM grids) due to drift...

For her plane I would get the following:

Pocket Survival Pak™
RSK® Mk3
Photon Freedom Micro
Lansky Quick Fix Pocket Knife Sharpener
Doc Blue's Emergency Medical Kit
CO Experts Carbon Monoxide Detector
ROBIN "Safety Boy" Rescue Cutter
Safe Escape Smoke Hood
A344T H3R Fire Extinguisher
ACR ResQLink
Icom-A24

Jeanette Isabelle

An Icom A24 would be a good radio for contacting other VHF equipped aircraft. But at sea, being able to contact a ship might be even better -- consider the Icom M72.

I'm not familiar with marine radios but you bring up a good point.

Jeanette Isabelle

The evidence is that Amelia Earhart ("AE") and Noonan landed, survived and radioed for help, the radio calls being received and DF'ed to the vicinity of Gardner Island (where they were). Fly over of the island reported evidence of recent habitation of an island that had not been inhabited since 1892--and this was 1937. No one actually went to the island to look. They caught fish, survived for a while, and probably perished from lack of water. They had enough equipment with them to survive. What they lacked was water.

AE's radio navigation skills were poor, and probably, along with possible damage to the antenna done during the last take off, got her into this position. They survived. But no one bothered to follow up on the evidence that was there.

22 years of research and several on-site expeditions by TIGHAR.org have pretty much reconstructed what happened. A good quick summary of their research is here:
http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/AEdescr2.html

So what they needed, as did Tom Hanks' character in Castaway, was a solar powered satellite phone. Not available to AE of course, but certainly available now.

So my addition to the S.S. Minnow is a solar powered satellite telephone.

Oh, I think the Professor could improvise this, maybe a coconut powered satellite phone. Surely the combined work of Ginger, Mary Ann and Mrs Howell stirring the coconut electrolyte could be depended upon to fuel the Professor's unique MacGuyver'd invention. But we're through the looking glass on this one folks...

Assuming tighter storage space, like I'll have on my fishing trip this coming weeked, I'd include a PLB, Ritter AMK PSK, FAK, bandana, micropur tabs, canteen cup, fire steel or magnesium block, heat sheet, photon and a good knife and a change of clothes, at a miniumum.

Is this in addition to the first aid I already included? Either way, any kit in particular?

Jeanette Isabelle

I'd have added a decent shipboard radar, GPS and a plotting display for them and datalinked weather information, along with PLBs. That way I could have avoided the wreck in the first place or been much more successful in calling for help.

For Amelia - a decent GPS (or if you claim no satellites a good Inertial Nav) and a PLB. Stay on course or get found faster.

-Eric

The new aviation survival vest I have carries an Icom M72 radio (discussed earlier) and a small Garmin GPS in a clear vinyl dry bag -- that's my comm/nav system. An ACR ResQLink PLB is attached separately. One attached pouch is used to carry flashlights, chem lights and my laser flare.

I'm not about surviving and thriving at sea or on a desert island. I'm about being found and rescued in the shortest and most efficient manner. A PLB gets the SAR system activated, but as we know that can take time. If a ship is nearby and responds on channel 16 I can give them a lat-long from the GPS. If a Coast Guard helo responds, I can give him a bearing and range from one of the aviation navaids he will be using (navaids are programmed into the Garmin as waypoints).

In a modern day SS Minnow, the PLB would suffice, although I don't think coconuts would replace the lithium battery; it would void the warranty.

In Amelia's case, a portable HF radio with a good long wire antenna. In the 70's we had one that was hand-crank for electricity for use from a 12 man raft -- the AN/CRT-3 was not a new design, but I seriously doubt they were available in the 30's. Amelia only had the radio in her Electra and when it was pulled off the reef and sank, she had nothing.

Modern day Amelia -- PLB, GPS, Sat phone, bug repellent & sun tan lotion while you wait for help to arrive.

This reminds me of the story about Tom Hank's, stuck on the deserted island, and he has one box that he won't open. Zemeckis, the director, jokingly said in an interview that the box contained a waterproof, solar powered, GPS enabled satellite phone.

But if Gilligan had a satellite phone, I'm sure he'd screw it up and drop it in the fire or something.

The most important thing the SS Minnow was missing was a weapon to kill Gilligan. All they ever had to do was get rid of him and they would have been rescued 1,000 times over. But I'm not bringing up anything new - entire books have been written about killing Gilligan and the metaphor it represents.

Sort of like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alSQpinagp0

Jeanette Isabelle