Rather than be a "forum hog," I'll post these together:

1.) I'm reading a book called "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook." It is bit of a tongue-in-cheek survival manual that discusses the basics of situations like "How to Fend off a Shark," "How to Survive When Lost in the Desert," etc. Anyway, there is a list of supplies under the "How to Survive Adrift at Sea" that includes the usual VHF radio, drinking water, signaling devices, etc. and something they call a "handheld watermaker." This sounds to me like either a fictional item in an otherwise sound list, or perhaps another name for something I'm familiar with. Any thoughts?

2.) We always hear more stories of folks who almost didn't survive or just plain didn't survive some emergency situation than we do folks that did the right thing and did survive. Certainly, there are lessons to be learned from both, but I was wondering if anyone knows of some reading material about people who were faced with a survival situation and succeeded. Reader's Digest occasionally contains one of these stories, but I'm looking for longer, more involved narratives to read. Any thoughts? By the way, I already have "The Long Walk" by Slavomir Rawicz, which I highly recommend.

Thanks.