"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.
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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.