How to Survive a Shipwreck
Your boat has sunk. Ideally you're in a well-equipped life raft. You're problems have just begun. To survive a shipwreck, you have to take on the factors that can doom you. Let's look at them.
- Difficulty:
- Challenging
Instructions
-
-
1
Shun despair. It is easy to lose hope in dire circumstances. If you believe in a deity, it's time to pray. Otherwise simply be grateful that you have survived and realize that, with determination and the right attitude, you can get through this.
-
2
Protect against hypothermia. We lose temperature far more rapidly in water than in air. Remember the 50-50 rule. A 50-year-old person has a 50-50 chance of surviving in 50 F degree water for 50 minutes. Mild hypothermia produces shivering and goose bumps. A severe condition produces violent shivering, and bewilderment as blood leaves the brain while the body tries desperately to raise its core temperature. The best way to handle hypothermia is to prevent it. At sea, this means wearing a survival suit if you have one. If you can get out of water soaked clothes and put something warm on, do so.
-
3
Dehydration can kill you. There is a rule of threes when it comes to survival. A human being can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. Obviously there are variations within these limits. It is important if you are packing your own life raft to have a desalinator on board. One of the best values available is SeaPack, which uses osmosis water filtration to filter out 97 percent of the salt in a passive easy to use device. Each filter lasts for ten days and produces about a gallon of fresh water a day. Additionally, the drinking water is charged with sugar to provide needed calories. Best of all, the device costs $99. In contrast, Watermaker makes an innovative machine that is towed behind a yacht. The motion of the boat spins a propeller that takes in seawater. The salt is filtered out and freshwater is pumped on board. It can be taken into a life raft and pumped by hand. They are pricey, starting at $2,400, but the company describes its supply of fresh water as "endless."
-
4
Consider drinking small amounts of sea water. Conventional wisdom is that when you are lost at sea you should never drink sea water because the salt will actually dehydrate you more, permanently damaging your kidneys. Dr. Alain Louis Bombard was a French doctor who concluded that this wasn't always the case. If people limited their intact of sea water to less than a quart a day and supplemented that consumption with fish, a source of protein and fresh water, plankton for Vitamin C and rain water, he thought people could survive for weeks at sea. In 1952 he set out across the Atlantic in a rubber raft to prove his point, bringing fishing tackle, nets for plankton, and drinking sea water and rain water. His voyage lasted 65 days and he ultimately lived into his eighties, although his theory remains controversial.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Whenever possible, capture rain in a sail, tarp or from soaked cloth.
Bombard managed to limit his seawater drinking to less than a quart of day. This quantity was balanced by the fresh water in not only the fish he caught but rain water. Mindlessly gulping large amounts of sea water in a desperate attempt to slake your thirst will kill you.
Related Searches
Resources
Comments
-
im an ugly old hag
