Stranded at Sea

We organized the most important things to have if you're trapped at sea. We were given a list and had to number them off from most important to least important. This is my ranking of the items: A 25 liter container of water, a case of army rations, a fishing kit, maps of the Pacific Ocean, a sextant, a can of shark repellent, 20 sq. feet of Opaque plastic sheeting, a shaving mirror, 15 ft. of nylon rope, a floating seat cushion, 2 boxes of chocolate bars, one bottle of 160% proof rum, a small transistor radio, a 10 liter can of oil/petrol mixture, and a quantity of mosquito netting. I chose a 25 liter container of water and a case of army rations as my first two choices because you need food and water to survive and have energy to get rescued and do what you have to do. A quantity of mosquito netting was my last choice because there is no mosquitos in the middle of the ocean. Some items that I had a hard time ranking were a can of shark repellent, a floating seat cushion, and a sextant.

My team's list was: a 25 liter container of water, a case of army rations, a fishing kit, maps of the Pacific Ocean, a small transistor radio, a 10 liter can of oil/petrol mixture, 15 ft of nylon rope, a floating seat cushion, 20 sq ft of Opaque plastic sheeting, a shaving mirror, one bottle of 160% proof rum, 2 boxes of chocolate bars, a can of shark repellent, a quantity of mosquito netting, and a sextant. Two items that the group ranked similar to mine were the water and army rations. Supplies is very important in survival, you need energy to use energy. One thing my group ranked differently from mine was the sextant. Our group worked together by discussing plans on how to survive while discussing plans on how to get rescued.

Our choices were similar to the Coastguard choices. There were a couple big surprises in the difference of a couple things. I would put more weight in experiential data over an expert opinion because an expert only researched about it and never had to actually do it in that kind of position. Someone who experienced it and experienced how the day is and how you live being stranded so I would probably listen to that over an expert's opinion.