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David Weilacher wrote:

> Read a book called "Survive the Savage Sea".  It is a story of a family
> whose sailboat was attacked by whales.  The boat sank within 2 minutes.
> They took to a liferaft and dinghy.  It doesn't go into the details of
> navigation nearly as deeply as I would have liked but the man's navigation
> skills and understanding of his environment were obviously prolific.

I have Dougal Robertson's book right here.  one of the things he says, and
Steven Callahan said in his book "Adrift", and nearly all my other survival
books say, is that you can't navigate when you can't sail.

Robertson's dinghy was too small to carry the family, and the lifeboat just
wouldn't move.  indeed if he were able to sail then he could have beam
reached back to Galapagos.  if you can make 2 knots you can get somewhere,
it will just take a while.  if you are making 0 knots then you are really
just drifting with ocean currents at what, 10, 20 miles a day?

this is not to denigrate the psychological advantages of navigation in the
life boat.  it gives you something to do, and may give some reassurance and
feeling of control over the situation.  dunno for sure, never been there!

so I guess this begs the question, what navigational items are appropriate
to pack in the ditch bag?


Cliff

   

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