Island Escape: Entry #9: David Nghiem

Another Island Escape Contest Entry

Day 1 -  I found my self on a deserted island, after jumping off of a sinking, small fishing vessel somewhere in the South China Sea during a storm. I hired a fishing boat captain out of Hainan Island to take me to a remote island on the far eastern edges of the sea, that wasn't charted, but supposedly existed. I was in search of a clue from the time when the pirates of the South China seas ruled the waves, when Madame Zheng Yi Sao ruled with the world's largest, ever, pirate navy, and waged warfare against the Qing Dynasty, the Portugese Empire, and the East India Company. 

I was looking for a legendary pirate hideout for a flotilla of her fleet that apparently carried jade wares that they took when they raided the many store houses in the ports of the Maritime Silk Road. One of those items was a rare jade, tiger pendant that was given to a Vietnamese general. 

But here I am, washed up on the sand with a pair of cotton thai fisherman's pants, a pair of Merrill's trail runners, cotton socks, a T-Shirt that said, "Shipwrecked but not $#!T Wrecked" and had a bawdy pirate babe on the back with a pitcher of rum. I have bad taste in fashionwear and art. Luckily my eyeglasses were in my snap case, as well as a leatherman tool on my leather belt, and a wallet with credit cards, not that would do me any good in this situation. 

I got up assessed the situation. I went into the shade of some coconut trees, and found a cluster of fallen coconuts. I cut one open with my leatherman, and drank the succulent juice. 

Then I went looking for food. I found some mango tree's, and some of the fruit was already ripe. I dug into the sweet juicy fruit. My head felt a lot better after that.        

I hiked into the woods, and after an hour, came out to the other side. More beach, more coconut tree's, more beach refuse, and more mangoes, along with guava trees, aloe vera, and more importantly, bamboo groves, as well as jute, teak, koa, and giant
cane. Apparently the storm  that sank my fishing boat also brought a lot of trash ashore.

But first things first: water, food, fire, and shelter. I got to work. I also found a cigarette lighter. Next to to the knife and cordage, this was gold. 

I found a creek of fresh water inland that was fed by a stream that came down off of a higher part of the island. My guess was that the island was volcanic once a very long time ago. It exited into a brackish area full of oysters. I also found wood for a fire, and
interestingly, about 80 square feet of blue, polypropylene tarp that wasn't UV damaged. I also found 100 feet of polypro rope. Gold. Pure gold. I smiled, I might not have been lucky finding the pirate hideout and the jade pendant, but I was definitely lucky in finding the things I needed to survive!  

After setting up an A tarp shelter in the woods, I lit a fire using some bits of dried fabric as tinder, as well as dried up coconut husk that was rotting in the sun. Sitting back and watching the flames, I assessed the situation and the feasability of escape. During my preliminary hike, I also found a bunch of metal scraps, some of which
was aluminum, but the real treasure was some scrap 1/4" thick plate steel. It was thick enough, and more importantly, it was triangular shaped. With some creek stones, I sharpened the base of the triangle, after a meal of mangoes,  coconut meat, and guava fruit. I always told friends that I could live off of fruits and nuts, but this wasn't what I had in mind. By the time the sun had set well in the horizon, I had a very sharp, and very useful axe blade that I tested on a coconut in the warm glow of the
fire.

I boiled water in a tin can, and made a mango and aloe tea to maintain my health. Now that I had a real tool, I needed my health to be top notch to make if off this rock.  

With some poly pro rope, I attached it to a hefty piece of drift wood that I found, stone age style, and after some wraps and fraps, tested it on a palm tree. I felled the tree in about 10 minutes, and in another 5 minutes, had a delicious heart of palm. Better than Whole Foods, and instead of costing me a whole paycheck, it cost me a fortune and some bad luck.

I fell asleep next to the dying fire.

Day 2 - After a breakfast of mangos, oysters steamed in seaweed, and some more coconut juice, I did a full walk around the island. It took about an hour to walk across, that would make it about 3 miles wide. The basic circumference of the island is about 10 miles, give or take, and it took 2 and a half hours walking all the way around. A high plateau rises above the forest on 1/3rd of the island, which is where the fresh water collects and flows down, creating a brackish area where I found the oysters. I also found plastic bottles, which I grabbed a few for fresh water containers, 4 yards of
netting, more metal scraps, some aluminum, but also a bunch of steel. Glass bottles, cans, shoes, misc textiles, 3 fishing floats, a rubber boot, about 4 cubic feet of styrofoam, a wooden pallet, which made me think maybe the steel came from a lost shipping container. But the most important discovery happened as I was looking for a way to get towards the high plateau.  

I found a grove of Teak wood. Not just any teak wood, but Philipine Teak Wood. Around that grove was a whole bunch of fallen teak logs, just sitting there, high and dry on the ground. I counted 5 logs, 2 feet wide, and about 30 feet long. I also found a massive growth of what looked like Japanese timber bamboo. I use timber bamboo
for all kinds of things from spars for sailing canoes to tripods for art projects, and platforms for gardening. I cut 7 of them, and dragged them back to my campsite.

The teak grove gave me an idea.

As an adventurer in 2007, I built a raft in the middle of the Amazon in Northeast Bolivia, to float down a river back to civilization. Of course, this was different. Here, I was somewhere in the South Pacific, far from civilization. It was the simplest, fastest, and most efficient method I could think of to get me off the island, and to some kind of rescue. I started sketching the design in the sand.

Me lifting a log to build a raft (Amazon) Standing on the raft we built. Steering the raft with a pole.

The sailing canoe rig I made with bamboo and a tarp

It would be 15 feet long, by 8 feet wide. It would be made of the teak logs that I found. I would line them up and use bamboo in bundles of three, as cross pieces to reinforce the structure. The cross pieces would be extra long, about 8 feet off to one side to hold a thinner teak log as a sort of outrigger to stabilise the raft just in case. The tarp that I was using as my shelter would work as a sail, with a gaff type rig. I also found some flat pieces of drift wood that I could shape into a workable centerboard, and rudder. I already had experience setting up a rig for a sailing canoe too. So I could
combine those two disparate projects together to escape.   

Day 3 - I woke up before sunrise to forage for breakfast, I found a Garfield themed landline telephone, a rubber ducky,  and a light bulb. I also found a spare tire. Since prevailing winds were from the east, I cut the spare tire in three, and put the pieces
on the beach with three wood piles on the western beach as an SOS setup.

I had also fashioned a fishing spear and a fish trap from some bamboo and jute. I put the trap with some oyster bits in the brackish area and staked it down with sharpened pieces of bamboo, while I hunted. I found a milk fish browsing in the algae and speared it. I had lunch and dinner, and milk fish is a delicacy. After some more steamed oysters, boiled seaweed, and mango tea, I got to work.  

With the axe, I chopped through the four logs. It took the better part of the late morning and early afternoon, but I got it done. I stripped them of branches, and started dragging the logs towards my encampment near the beach. I also found a grove of Koa trees along the way. Weird. A grove of Teak tree's, a grove of Koa trees, mangoes, coconuts, bamboo, guava... It felt like at one point, people must've
lived on the island to have these tree's in concentrations. Like an overgrown garden that they must've planted long ago. 

I shook the feeling off. After dragging the logs to the beach, I went to the bamboo grove, and cut another 8, 2.5 inch thick culms of bamboo. Timber bamboo can be a little tricky. Too wide and thick, tends to be a bit weak. Too thin is too young. From experience, I found around 2-2.5 inches tended to have the best density. I also found some bamboo shoots, which I also harvested for food.

I dragged the bamboo back to camp, and made lunch from the milkfish. I lined up the logs. Then I had roast milkfish and coconuts for dinner. At night fall, I walked to the other side of the island, and lit the three signal fires.

Day 4 - Polypro rope wasn't enough, and it's too weak to use for a material to build the raft. So instead, I went to a field full of giant cane and jute, and hacked for the whole day with the axe, until I had armfuls of the stuff that I dragged back to camp.

One of the steel pieces was a 3'X4" rectangular piece, which, once I sharpened an edge, made a workable machete. I started cutting and stripping the cane and jute with. I was making fibers, which I would roll on my leg into strands of cordage. I knew that I would need about 300 feet of quality cordage to hold the raft together, and that would take about 3 days to make. I'd made cordage before from stinging nettle, but this was a whole other animal. 

When I took a break after processing the fibers, I went looking for rotted coconut husks. Coconut fiber rope was what the Polynesians used for their Proas, and the stuff is fantastic.

I did find rotted coconut husks. But then I realized that it would take too much time to make the rope. But I took them back to camp with me anyway, since I could blend some of the fibers in with the jute, making it stronger.

Day 8 - Making the cordage took longer than I realized. By now I had a routine where I would wake up before dawn, check the fish trap, spear some fish for the day, harvest some shellfish, whether oysters, mussels, or a conch snail, cut down some fresh coconuts, mangoes, and guava, fresh seaweed, aloe, and then bring them back to camp. Since I had more ingredients, I could make some tastier fare for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner.

My days have been occupied peeling fibers off jute, cane, and rotted coconut husks, rolling them into strands, rolling strands into larger yet strands, and the making cordage from three of them, usually each about 20 feet long. By now I have about 100 feet of quality cordage. I would need probably another three days to make the rest.

Day 11 - I finally have 290 feet of rope. This should do it! The rest of this process should go a lot faster. Plus, I have quality tools now, with my makeshift axe and machete.

I started wrapping and frapping the logs into a raft. I used a bundle of three bamboo poles crosswise to reinforce the raft structure, which I tied on top. I also made the mast and spars from bamboo, and using the tarp, made the sail. I harvested some more bamboo and with palm fronds, made an A frame shelter just in case of rain. 

Day 13 - The raft and sails were done, so I started carving the flat pieces of driftwood that I found to make the center board and the rudder. I carved notches in the logs in the center of the raft so that I could drop the centerboard into it. On the top of the centerboard I carved out with my knife, two 2.5 inch diameter holes, that I lashed to pieces of bamboo through to hold it to the raft. For the aft of the raft, I carved out a notch, and lashed a short post of teak that I carved to taper into a very thick board shape. This would hold the steering rudder. With the wooden pallet, I lashed that to the top of the raft to make a sleeping surface, and a small area I could light a fire with. I also made a solid bamboo A frame that I could setup and take down as needed for shelter. I cut a piece of tarp and tied the corners and middle with cordage for that purpose.

Day 16 - I tested the seaworthiness of the raft, and she floats, she takes wind, and I can steer her! The last few days were spent gathering supplies. I gathered every plastic bottle with caps, and filled them up with boiled water. I also had about 25 green coconuts, and piled them into the net with the water. I had my fishing spear and
fishing traps with me as well. I made another fishing trap, and attached both of them to two of the three fishing floats that I found.

Just in case, I lashed 6 buoyant containers to the sides of the raft, but high out of the water so that they didn't drag. I also had a small pile of drift wood for making a fire. I made a box with some of the drift wood, and filled it with sand for fire, and packed dry
coconut husk, teak wood shavings, into one of the buoyancy containers to keep dry. I lashed the Garfield phone to the sail, and tied the rubber ducky onto the sail boom. 

Using the net as a cargo net, I lashed all of this down. I had to go south, about 200 miles. I launched from the island, set and lashed the center board down, and proceeded to sail in that direction.

As I left the island, I realized something. Rounding about the southern tip of it, was the plateau's sheer rocky side, and what looked like a cavern. I recognized it, because it was in a sketch from a pirate, from Madame Zheng Yi Sao's crew, with regards to the location of the jade pendant..•SCA•