My wife comes home from 'Curves' today. There's a contest: What six things would you want to take with you to a desert island?

Three weeks in, they have (1) water, (2) fire, and (3) an axe. Winner gets a free month. My wife says she wants a tarp next. What do you think?

Water, Fire, Knife, Axe, Large cook pot, 200 ft paracord. I could do fine with these things.

While you're thinking of survival, I'm betting they want to hear junk like "The Beatles Collection on CD". LOL

The sacred order of survival is shelter, water, fire, food and the items should probably reflect that. You could add first aid in there, and a rescue item seeing as how it's a desert island scenario.

However, since I can rarely manage to be too serious about much of anything, I'd make the first thing I'd take "Les Stroud" so he could keep me alive while I lounged on the beach taking advantage of the time to get away from the world. HAHA

I agree with Angel, but I'll take a 300 yard spool of 550 cord, you can never have to much cordage! If I had to limit myself to individual items instead of generalities...
1. 100' 550
2. custom survival axe (in development)
3. custom multi tool (in development)
4. 25' x 25' heavy duty plastic tarp, dark as possible
5. stainless steel cooking pan/pot
6. extra large adjustable bic lighter

I am basing my list solely on staying alive where I am, not on being rescued. Rescue should of course be your ultimate goal but keeping alive until then is the key.

I'd ditch the multitool & take a 5 pronged fish spear. What good is a pot if you have nothing to put in it?

I guess my six items would vary depending on how I was to get to said island.

If I am being taken there and will be picked up in a known time, then my six would be:

Enough water for the planned time
Large blade like a kukri or golok
Ferro rod
Cordage (as much as I can take)
Tarp
Metal pot

If I was being stranded there somehow, I would swap the pot for a personal locator beacon.

I ultimately would want to get off the desert island.

Good luck to your wife on her contest.

Why don't we look at this from the viewpoint of what problems are we going to have that can be solved with equipment. Example: sunburn - the dark tarp, water - machete for digging a weep hole or solar still if you find some clear plastic, you can dig sanitation holes, cut coconuts, cut fire wood, kill fish or Komodo dragons & the blade is longer & thus will stay sharp longer than an axe. If you dull the end of the blade digging, you can still use the rest of the blade for cutting. The sheath is part of the machete, so if you get a sheath that has the little sharpening part (military) you can resharpen it. Also, a magic marker to draw a face on your soccer ball (found on all islands).

Actually my first thought was "Free real estate, and beach front at that" Why would I want to be rescued, I'd be building a hut and furniture. If rescuers come by, I'd just send for more supplies but I would stay there. Attitude is everything.

0311, all the cordage is for making traps and snares, plenty to eat. A fish spear requires there to be water nearby that has fish and requires that you are holding the spear actively trying to spear a fish. This means you cannot do two things at once, traps and snares work for you while you are making shelter, resting, making a ground signal such as an arrow, setting other traps, making a fire, cooking, repairing clothing, building improvised tools etc. Also you can make a fish spear with all sorts of available materials. A multi tool has so many useful things, especially when in a survival situation. About "the blade is longer & thus will stay sharp longer than an axe" well a properly ground axe will outlast any conventional knife or machete, even if said knife/machete is a quality piece and not some POS from an army/navy surplus place. Knives have thinner blades with finer ground edges, this is because their focus in most instances is sharpness, not edge toughness. An axe does not need to be shaving sharp to do it's job well, you will dull a knife very quickly using it as an axe. Using an axe as an axe you will have that axe for a long long time.

If you want to go digging holes for any reason be it a solar still, latrine, cooking hole or whatever you can make a dig stick. Use the things around you, use the tools you have to the greatest effeciency, don't kill a knife digging. Use a dead branch or break one off, cut a rough spike on one end and you have a dig stick, if it breaks or otherwise becomes useless you haven't lost anything, you can make another. You will only have your one knife or multi tool whathaveyou in the wild, use your brain to solve problems. As far as cutting coconuts, I have done this myself several times, the ones you might find in the real world are a LOT tougher than something you get at a supermarket. A knife or even a small axe is next to useless for opening a coconut. I hate siting a film but do like Hanks did in Castaway, wedge the nut in something sturdy (dig a shallow hole, put a stone at the bottom and the coconut ontop of the stone) then bash the nut with something heavy. The point is to not damage those ever priceless tools any more than you have to.


-Olaf

The desert island description doesn't say what is available on the island. I'm thinking of the classic joke island that has only 1 coconut tree & nothing else. It is an island, so I am assuming that we are talking about it being surrounded by ocean. I am not familiar with making fish snares with 550 cord for ocean use. You make some good points about the axe. However, bear in mind that it is the only sharp that you have & no mention is made of a file for sharpening it.

I approach all scenarios as if they were real situations, those that are plausible at least. As far as a paracord snare, no, but you can make a net or net trap with the cord which is much more effecient than spearing. As far as the axe goes, my multi tool will have a metal grinding file, problem solved.

-Olaf

Well, so far, something has been terribly amiss from the listed items. If you only get to take six items, then you obviously don't want to stay on the island forever. You almost certainly have to make one of the items a PLB, or short that, a signal mirror.

The other five should spread through the standard necessities of survival: water, shelter, fire, food, tools, etc. Keep in mind that some categories can be improvised from others (i.e., build a shelter using tools).

PLB or sat phone.

Barring that, a tarp might not be bad, nor would a good coil of rope. Or a canoe- you can do a lot better fishing if you can get a hundred yards off shore, from what I've read.

Although a real pot wouldn't be bad either.

fishing net
signal mirror
tarp....us army survival manual would be handy too tho

This is always the problem I find with things like this... Is the island the cartoon one palm island, something more realistic like Castaways' Island or something more substantial like Gilligans Island, or much bigger like Carusos' Island.
I think that if its a smaller island with no or limited resources your list would be a lot different then if you have a larger island with some or great resources.
For instance if you had Gilligans' or Carusos' Island there are enough resources that you might drop the cordage for another item and get to work makeing your own cordage from things found on the island.
On the other hand if you find your on the other two islands it might be better to have three or four items to cover food/water/shelter then have a solar panel with a PLB and/or satphone.
But then if they are going to be less then specific about what they are going to drop you on, you can be less then realistic about what 'things' you want with you.. Ask for a nuclear sub and a desalination plant... other then food, your set.

You make a very good point, I was thinking of a Caruso type island myself, wishfull thinking I guess.

I'll be making room in my kit soon! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

For the purpose of winning the contest we need to think like the person judging the contest. I sincerely doubt they would prioritize the same way people on this board prioritize.

Who is judging the contest? Do you have any personal knowledge of them?

Cameron

How about just one item: a cruise ship!

Satt phone. Make a phone call and get rescued.

A GPIRB (or EPIRB) would work too..

"A cruise ship" meets my criteria for the answer to this contest question. They probably aren't looking for a serious answer from someone who knows what they're doing: "cordage, sharp and signaling mirror" will only get a yawn. But "cruise ship" is humorous, comes with a gym, food, radio and water, not to mention an attractive captain. Oops. This is your wife we're talking about, right? Sorry.

"This is always the problem I find with things like this... Is the island the cartoon one palm island, something more realistic like Castaways' Island or something more substantial like Gilligans Island, or much bigger like Carusos' Island.
"

---------------------

Update from the wife: It's a cartoon island with one tree.

I'd take a Hilton--the hotel, not Paris. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

personally, a fully charged sat phone with extra batteries and lots of minutes. Get me off a desert island. Being hot sucks, can't take off but so much. Being cold is much better, can make fire, put more clothing on... =)

Then I will stick with my choices.

Fire up the PLB, string up the tarp to the one tree for shade after I make sure no coconuts will fall on my head, crack open some of my abundant water supply and have a nice drink.

Take a dip to cool off and see if there is anything to eat that is readily harvestable in the water right off shore. Have a coconut.

Drink more water. Wait for rescue by cruise ship?

I was thinking that 'food' 'water' and 'fuel' would be 'things' all on their own so haveing the Cruise Ship without these things, and no people, and it becomes no fun.. and without the fuel maybe no way to power the radio.. with the nuclear sub you always have power, it also comes with several forms of communication gear.. and if a nuclear sub goes missing, you can bet that the government that the sub belongs to will not lightly stop searching for it.. I threw in the desalinization plant so you could make your own water from the sea, you would then have enough to keep the subs reactor cool (I hope) as well as drink..

Being serious, if you are sure the contest is 'if you were going to be stranded on a desert island (1 palm tree and a little spit of sand just big enough not to be covered by water at high tide type), which six things (assumeing 'things' are limited to single items) would you most desire to have droped with you to help you survive and get rescued.' and not 'If you were to visit a desert island (1 palm tree and a little spit of sand just big enough not to be covered by water at high tide type) for the day, which six things (assumeing 'things' are limited to single items) would you like to take with you for fun and convenance for the day.'

1. A manual survival desalinator like this one but I'd do further research to find out exactily which one would be the best.
2. Satphone or PLB, whichever further research would prove to work most reliably in the middle of the ocean assuming no SAR operations will be underway for you or if they are, they are way off, so that rescue is expedient.
3. Favored shelter, I'd go with a tent of some kind over a tarp, you don't waste a spot on cordage as its included and has poles and it works better on rain if a storm comes up, you can work at half burying it if you think it will go someplace (remember you only have the one tree)
4. Food, eather as big a container of compact survival rations as you think they would allow (case, crate, cargo container), or a fishing net (forget the rod and reel) to catch small fish just past the surf
5. A solar reflective oven to cook the fish, one palm tree would not provide enough fuel for a fire for long
6. a good knife, mostly for cleaning the fish or if you go the ration way maybe a solar panel to keep the batteries up on your PLB/Satphone.

Things to think about:
I am not sure, but I don't think a single coconut palm can produce coconuts, I think they need more then one tree to produce them. I have also heard, that if they do produce, they produce a little less then one a day, although this I am very unsure is true.

GASP, think about not haveing a knife?!? With this setup and the extremely limited resources on the island, while I don't like the idea of not haveing one, I think its usefulness would be severely limited.

No plant in the world, not even the fastest growing vines or weeds produce that much material in a day. You certainly would not get a mature coconut in one day.

I was always skeptical about this too for just that reason, however the coconut is the seed and it was more referring to the one of the seeds falling off the tree each day. I never held much stock in it though, but if it was true then you could have something to eat year round if you only have one coconut a day.

Hypothetically even if the tree did produce one mature coconut per day you would need more than that. You would still need another food source, coconuts are lacking in vitamins and protein, for long term health a coconut is just not sufficient. You would have the benefit of some liquid you could drink but like they show in Castaway, coconut juice IS a natural laxative. One cool thing about coconuts is you can use their shells (if they weren't obliterated from you opening them) as bowls and containers.

You and I agree.. I don't even think that if there was just one tree there would even be coconuts, thats why I didn't include them in my thoughts when I was comeing up with my list. My thoughts were more along the line of, if it was true, and it was produceing, then if you limited your use of them to supplement your other food, you would be able to have one (perhaps) a day.

Coconut trees produce "up to" 75 fruits per year, according to the wikipedia article.

A "cartoon" island with a single palm and about the same square footage as an average bedroom during high tide is better than a raft in some ways I suppose... but not much. You won't get seasick and probably won't have salt sores from staying in one spot too long immersed in salt water... but it also means you're not going anywhere! You'd still need to live off the sea, not so much off the island.

Depending on where the island is located, you could get plenty of fresh water from rain, or it may not rain for weeks....

Lets all just hope/pray/whatever that if we become stranded on some desert island that it is a Caruso/treasure Island type. I for one want some meat and construction material.

Even Gilligans Island would be ok by me. Much smaller but look at all they did, and I can't remember ever seeing the 'other side' of the island.

By the way, if you want to be silly with the contest you might ask for The Worlds Largest Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Okay then, for short term, I'd go with:

Enough potable drinking water to last me the whole stay
a decent tent/tarp arrangment for shelter
enough MREs or equivalent to last me the duration
enough toilet paper to last the duration
something to occupy my time with (a big book of Sudoku, a good knife and a pile of whittlin' sticks, or some such)

For an indefinite stay:

A self flushing triple pass reverse osmosis water purifier
a hardened shelter (metal walls, but open so it don't become a sweat box)
a darned good fishing net
a solar cooker
an SAK or Leatherman
a wind up radio/flashlight

Hmmm ... would a satellite phone help rescuers find the user's location?

I'm thinking only in a round-about way. I wonder if the typical rescue team's gear can locate satellite phone signals (or cell phone signals for that matter).

I'd rather have the PLB with a GPS (internal or external).

A PLB. done.

I think they could do the same thing with the satphone that they do with cell phones couldn't they? Get your location off the sats or a triangulation (or something similar), but with the satphone you would hear someone say 'ok, your in trouble, we are rescueing you, but there is a storm on the way so you're going to have to sit tight for a few days 'til it passes by...'

I'd take a Hilton--the hotel, not Paris.
-----------------------------------------------
Hummm. I did see her car-wash video. I'm torn.

(Sorry Honey, just kidding,)

1. Knife w/ saw blade
2. Fire Starter
3. Hennessey Hamock
4. Pot with Lid and Copper tubbing
5. Fishing Net
6. Para Cord