Pick Five: Desert Island

[WETSU]

Due to popular demand, I'm resurrecting my "Pick Five" posts on survival mindset and thought exercise. I'm starting out with an old standby, the desert island.

You are stranded on a island in the south pacific. Washed ashore from your sailboat. You are uninjured, and clothed in shorts and a T shirt. You have NO idea where you are. You cannot see anything for miles around you. Just the ocean. The island is about 20 acres. Sand on all sides with one side having some coral. There are plenty of palm type trees and vegetation. There are coconuts, and small edible mango type fruits on the island, as well as small reptiles, and rodents. There are no predators. The largest animal is about racoon sized. There is abundant marine life including in a small tidal pool. There is fresh water in the middle of the island in a small pool.

So, you don't know if you are there forever, or if you can attract help, or make a dash for safety on your own. Pick 5 things from this picture to help you execute your plans.

Items: from left to right. MSR water filter, flare launcher w/ 6 flares, binoculars, water bottle/steel cup and alloy spoon, small fishing kit w/100 ft 12# line, some hooks, some sinkers, and some lures. Strikeforce Firestarter and USGI fuel tablet, Leatherman multitool, signal mirror, HT Ham radio, 100 feet of 7 strand paracord, rescue strobe, SW radio, 6" survival knife w/ sharpening stone and sheath, M6 Scout survival rifle with a box of .22Lr stingers, 6 rds onboard and 2 410 shotshells. First aid kit w/ bandaids, tape, 1" pads, NSAIDs, tummy meds, eye drops, tooth repair kit, hemostats, tweezers and iris scissors etc.

Each item listed is one item, so the M6 Scout includes the box of ammo, the sling etc. The first aid kit includes everything, and so on.

[/IMG]

 

[Kutnupe14]

I'm intrigued. I'll play.

Survival knife - dressing game, scaling fish, protection, building
100 ft paracord - pulling down/climbing/fishing line
Firestarter - fire is harder to start than most people know
water bottle/steel cup .... for the portability of water/boil water
binoculars - if you plan on being rescued, a far line of sight is invaluable

 

[d.kaufman]

1) Firestarter
2) Fishing Kit
3) Survival knife
4) Medical Kit
5) Steel cup

The island sounds lovely, and i don't want to be rescued

 

[Hkindiana]

Flares (invaluable for signaling ships or aircraft), fishing kit (for catching fish & making snares), leatherman (it does everything a survival knife does + much more) water bottle/cup (for transporting water and cooking), rifle (protection & killing small game). A fire plow is easy enough to build a fire on a desert island, so I would not need a fire starter.

 

[spencer rifle]

Something to consider - any beach on any island in the south Pacific will be covered in plastic junk, including containers, footwear, packaging material, etc.

I hope the raccoon-sized things are not coatis. I hate them.

 

[snorko]

1. flare launcher w/ 6 flares
2. signal mirror
3. water bottle/steel cup and alloy spoon
4. small fishing kit w/100 ft 12# line, some hooks, some sinkers, and some lures
5. 6" survival knife w/ sharpening stone and sheath

And I agree with d.kaufman

 

[femurphy77]

I'm no woodsman but:

Leatherman
Paracord
Flares
Firestarter
Med Kit

I don't see the rifle as necessary with no predators on the island and you WILL run out of ammo eventually when used for hunting so I might as well go ahead and get self sufficient.

I thought about the binoculars but if there isn't any high point on the island your horizon at sea level is going to be relatively short.

I don't know enough about the radio; is it multi freq, will it work for contacting shipping you may spot?

Water containers as stated above will be provided by the tides or coconuts.

With scuba gear I used to be pretty decent with a hand held spear so I could probably adapt to free diving and spear fishing so no fishing kit.

The survival knife would look cool strapped to your thigh and as delirium set in you could recreate the scene with Honey Ryder emerging from the surf although I'd rather imagine Halle Berry emerging from the surf in my delirium entranced brain.

The water filter might not be a bad idea although there is some form of water on the island to support the small animals, hopefully it's usable.

 

[d.kaufman]

Ive already voted but can we add a volleyball to the list? I want a buddy named Wilson to keep me company

 

[woowoo2]

Ginger.

No wait,


Mary Ann

 

[Leadeye]

Ginger.

No wait,


Mary Ann

Need to add more hot women to the list of choices.

 

[jinks]

MSR water filter. Your body will probably be more able to fight off the effects of untreated water at first and adjust to continued use. The filter is not a long term item.
flare launcher w/ 6 flares The small flare pin would probably not be seen unless it was in an active search.
binoculars The binoculars would be helpful looking for rescuers and a lens could be removed for fire starting.
water bottle/steel cup and alloy spoon A useful nice to have item.
small fishing kit w/100 ft 12# line, some hooks, some sinkers, and some lures Many uses for this kit.
Strikeforce Firestarter and USGI fuel tablet A good fire starter is a great investment but, other items have greater use.
Leatherman multitool Another good choice.
signal mirror Mirrors are effective for daytime signaling. Two mirrors are better.
HT Ham radio HTs are low power and often are unable transmit on marine and aircraft frequencies. If you were able to contact someone on "skip" can you tell them where you are? There are also battery life and corrosion issues.
100 feet of 7 strand paracord Good stuff but, cordage could be made from beach trash.
rescue strobe Probably of little use unless there is an active search for you. Passive signaling can be effective in most conditions.
SW radio Issues with battery life and corrosion. Only provides information that you probably would not be able to use.
6" survival knife w/ sharpening stone and sheath The knife is useful for many uses.
M6 Scout survival rifle with a box of .22Lr stingers, 6 rds onboard and 2 410 shotshells A rifle would have limited use in this situation.
First aid kit w/ bandaids, tape, 1" pads, NSAIDs, tummy meds, eye drops, tooth repair kit, hemostats, tweezers and iris scissors etc. Lots of useful stuff in a first aid kit.

 

[WETSU]

You guys are awesome. This is EXACTLY what I wanted to see. Lots of different, well thought out answers. Good reasoning. Keep going! There are no wrong answers.

 

[JeepHammer]

Leather Man (I prefer Gerber) since you will be BUILDING & MAKING a lot of stuff, and they have a smaller blade for cleaning game.
*Assuming* it's not a tidal island that gets swept clean in heavy seas, there will be drift trash.

Coral means lagoon/atoll, lagoon means fish, crabs, mussels, etc.
Learn to spear fish, collect those little crawlers.
Coral also means rocks. Doesn't sound like much but lining a seep well, fish traps, cooking/baking platforms, deadfall traps, even breaking into shells...
Lots of sea critters are armored, same with coconuts.

Knife, but not why you think.
You will be doing a BUNCH of chopping, and a crap load of digging/prying.
If you want a fresh water seep well, you are going to have to dig in coral...
If you want to work a 'Palm' tree, get used to the idea of burning or prying, they aren't hardwoods.
I'd MUCH rather have a machete or axe...
The gun barrel might come in handy for splitting/prying once it was hammered flat & sharpened.

The water filter.
Until you can reliably find & purify fresh water, that would be the only thing keeping you alive.

Fire Starter, but probably the binoculars rather than the fire stick.
Lenses used to be called 'Fire Glass' for a reason, and you keep one side intact for looking...

Anyone that's ever tried to start a fire in 100% humidity at sea level knows it's super difficult to impossible.
You will probably learn to build a drying platform up off the sand so the sun can dry your tender like the natives in central & south America do, or you will do without fire...
There is no such thing as 'Dry' tender, you never hear about 'Forest Fires' in Palm or mangrove swamps.

Never eat anything fur bearing without cooking it first!
That means drying time for tender, then a try at fire starting.
Once a fire starts, keep tender/fuel close to the fire to dry, it will make your life MUCH easier.

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

Keep in mind a little flat island probably won't have fur bearing life for long, open ocean islands get swept clean quite often,
Even in Tom Hanks movie he had a big rock outcropping and drank fresh water collected from storms.
He had enough altitude over sea level to have hardwoods, and hardwoods need fresh water.
With work, rocks & mud, you can build a catch basin for fresh water coming off a rock out cropping.
Sea level sump wells will be salt no matter what, the salt is in the sand/coral...

That only leaves you with collection of rain water & solar stills, or building a boiling still that needs constant fueling, and that's *IF* you can find/fabricate a boiler & condensation coil...

 

[teddy12b]

My priorities in order:

1. Stay Alive
2. Get rescued

My 5 picks:

1. MSR water filter. You mentioned fresh water pool on the island, but just because it doesn’t have salt doesn’t mean it won’t kill or disable you. I want to know what makes up 75% of my body weight is good to go.
2. Fishing kit, for the obvious reason of being able to catch a fish, but also the line for snares for the furry critters. Honestly though, if I wasn’t comfortable with my ability to catch a fish I’d have passed on this.
3. Leatherman will have all the tools I’d need, but my tool of choice would likely be that saw blade on those. Getting a structure setup with little stuff is going to be a lot easier with even a small saw blade and it’s makes a small tinder pile every time it gets used.
4. Strike force firestarter or any other ferro rod. On an island, my day job would be to get some premade bon fires ready to go from any vantage point and would have tinder piles as ready to go as I could. Just in case I saw something in the sky or on the horizon, I’d be ready to light the whole island on fire if it meant being rescued.
5. Signal Mirror. I don’t like it because the sun has to be shining and in the right spot in the sky, but it doesn’t run out of batteries and the reflection goes a lot ways.

 

[indiucky]

 

[femurphy77]

Looks like Indiucky packed plenty to eat! Quite the variety too.

 

[teddy12b]

That sounds like a good idea, but I think I'd rather be alone than listening to 5 spoiled and shallow diva's whining about how miserable they are after day 3 and all the makeup has worn off.

 

[churchmouse]

Ginger.

No wait,


Mary Ann

Mary Ann.....hands down.

 

[d.kaufman]

Mary Ann.....hands down.

I concur!

 

[Vigilant]

Ginger.

No wait,


Mary Ann

Get both! Ferment the mangoes and coconuts into wine, apply liberally to Ginger and Maryann, enjoy!