Island Escape Entry #4: Robert Cornwell

Another Island Escape Design Entry

Island Resources
Plants
Coconut
unknown fruit #1 (Mango)
Unknown fruit #2 (Guava)
Unknown tree #1 (Koa)
Unknown tree # 2 (Teak)
Seaweed
Aloe Vera
Bambo
Jute
Giant Cane

Debris
Driftwood (40 board ft)
20 plastic bottles
6 buoyant containers
4 yards of netting
100 ft Polypro rope
Pieces of metal scrap (approx 20sf at approx 165 lbs)
6 glass bottles
6 cans
an 8 x 10 foot poly tarp
6 shoes
3 fishing floats
rubber boot
4 cubic feet of Styrofoam
4 foot pallet
car tire
80 sf tarp 
rubber duck
light bulb
4 cigarette lighters
Garfield theme telephone.

On himself
Cotton pants
shoes with laces
pair of socks 
T-shirt
Eyeglasses
Letherman Multitool
Leather belt
Nylon wallet w/credit cards

This is the inventory Larry came up with after he assessed his situation, some three weeks after being washed ashore.

After arranging seaweed he’d harvested into a huge SOS  on the beach (during his first few days) he came to the realization that help would not be coming.

It was then he thought of making some sort of escape craft. The 2 x 4s and 4 x 4s, that had washed up on the beach, probably ages before him, were going to be of some use, but very little. There were pieces of steel plate that must have been the remains of some project done on the island ages ago. But he had no way to cut or shape them. The saw blade on his multitool was only 2.75 inches long and was likely intended to cut wood or even softer materials.
 
He had taken some of the branches from the two different kinds of trees and floated them. They didn’t have much buoyancy. It would have been nice if he could have hollowed out one of the larger trees that had already toppled, and turned it into a canoe, but he had no axe. And using his pathetic multitool to do the job would take ages. Besides, it was bug infested and mostly rotten, anyway. 

It was only after taking a hike to the other side of the island that he found a stand of huge bamboo plants which towered as high as the trees on his side of the island—some were almost eight-inches thick. It was in them he saw his escape ticket—he would build a raft. This would take up almost a year of his life.

He needed rope or twine to lash it together. And he needed lots of it. He recognized that jute was used to make rope. Could he do it? It took him weeks of experimentation to learn how. But then he was able to make crude, three-strand-line. He spent months doing it until he had nearly 1,000 feet of it.

Then, using his multitool saw and the polypro rope (which he didn't dare cut at this time) he felled seven of these big fellows and four of their smaller relatives. Out of them, he made his raft.

He realized he had to travel at least 200 miles, and none of that was downwind. So he needed the raft to not only be sail-powered, but capable of sailing upwind too. It also had to have good course-keeping capability. 

Somehow he had to fair the bow of his raft to cut through the water. And sharpening the ends of the bamboo was not going to work. The bamboo structure was like that of beer cans placed end to end. Cutting a taper in one merely exposed one or more flat surfaces that were nearly 90 degrees to their length. Perhaps he could use some of the 2x4s to make a plow-like fairing to divert the water sideways past their ends. These he would have to lash onto the bow of his raft and hope they held.

He spent days cutting the 2x4s into the right lengths then cutting notches into them to take the lashings. He managed to split one 2x4 down the middle to make a pole for his sculling/steering oar. He spent days, too, carefully dismantling the pallet, being careful to save as many of the staples that held it together, as he could.

The seven slats would become the blade to his steering oar, the dagger board, and the leeboard. He would arrange them in tandem so he could “balance” the raft while under sail.

 
For the sail itself he would use the tarp. He decided he would not dare cut it up to make the sail. Instead, he would use the grommets, already on it, to lash it to the bamboo yard and boom. The only modification he made to it was to burn a few holes through it down the center, lengthwise, for reefing ties.

He used some of the netting to hold chunks of the Styrofoam to the top of the stern, and some to hold the fishing floats on top of the bow. The bottles would be used to hold his water rations. He even considered taking the tire with him to use as a sea anchor. It would fit into his “cargo pen” somewhat uncomfortably.

It was only near the end of the build that he dared to cut up the precious polypro line. and he did this only after drawing the rig, full sized, in the sand. 

Oh, if he only had a halfway decent needle and thread.

Using what he had on his multitool and some of his homemade twine, he patched together a “blanket” out of the clothes he found. This would be his only cover from the sun and rain.

Somewhat pleased with his creation, he loaded it up and levered it into the water on a calm day, and started sculling it south. •SCA•