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