Hydration Technology Innovations: AnyWater AnyWhere

I just received several samples of a product I had not seen before that I think will be of great interest to preppers as well as adventure travelers needing a safe and reliable water source in questionable areas.  A box of these samples was sent to me by the editor of Sea Kayaker magazine, a publication I've been contributing to on an occasional basis since they published an account of my solo Caribbean sea kayak journey back in 1990.  I will be testing and reviewing this product for the magazine, so I can't publish the review here until after it appears in print, but I did want to share some photos and a link to the company website with you, and I'll post a link to the article here when it's available.

The Hydration Technology Innovations HydroPack Water Filter is a self-hydrating drink pouch/emergency water filter that is claimed by the manufacturer to produce a refreshing drink while removing viruses, bacteria, cysts and parasites from the water.  The small pouch on the left contains six individual packets that produce 12 fluid ounces each when hydrated.  The larger package on the right is a 10-day water filtration system that weighs less than 5 pounds in your pack and is claimed to produce up to 8.5 gallons of safe drinking fluid in the field. 

This system, by Hydration Technology Innovations is in use by Marine, Air Force, Army and Special Ops personnel.  If it works as advertised, it could be a useful addition to the bug-out bag in many situations.

Even more interesting to me, the company also manufactures a reverse-osmosis water filtration system that works in a similar way.  Shown below is the Emergency Desalinator foward osmosis membrane filter and the SeaPack Crew Emergency Desalination Pouch

These SeaPack self-hydrating pouches work like the HydroPak pouches for freshwater, but create a clean drink that contains electrolytes and other nutrients from seawater by removing up to 97% of the salt from the water.  All this  comes in a compact package that can easily fit in the storage compartments of a sea kayak or in a life raft or abandon ship bag, without the complication of an expensive reverse-osmosis pump system.  I can't wait to see how it works.

I plan to put all these units to the test in the coming weeks by seeking out the nastiest Mississippi swampwater I can find for the freshwater systems and heading south to the Gulf of Mexico for some salty seawater to sample with the desalination systems.  If they work as advertised, I'll let you know here, and I'm sure I'll be adding some to my gear collection - especially the desalination units.  One can never have too many back-ups when it comes to a freshwater drinking supply when venturing out to sea on small boats.

Looking Forward to the Oregon Outdoors

Working on the current book project has kept me busy and kept me indoors too much.  Tomorrow, my publisher is sending me to Portland, Oregon for a television interview to talk about the most recent book: Getting Out Alive: 13 Deadly Scenarios and How Others Survived.  The interview won't take long, then I'll be free to explore for a couple of days.  I definitely want to do some hiking in coastal areas that look like this:

 

Leon Pantenburg, of Survival Common Sense, who lives in Bend, Oregon, also recommended that I check out Silver Falls State Park, which he wrote about here.   It's not far south of Portland and certainly looks worth the trip:  

It would be nice to have a couple of weeks in Oregon to really get out into the backcountry, but this trip will be a short one.  As I wrote in Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before It's Too Late [Paperback], Oregon has some truly spectacular big wilderness areas, particularly in parts of the Cascade Range and for example, the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area.  But any short hike I can do near the coast or in the old-growth forests will be a welcome break from working behind a keyboard; and from the heat and humidity that has already arrived to mark the beginning of another sweltering Mississippi summer.  

I'll have more about the interview and some photographs from the trip after I return.

Went to the Beach Yesterday....

Yesterday I drove to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a first hand look at the oil that's washing ashore, and to take some photos for a magazine article I will be writing.  The oil is coming ashore almost everywhere on the mainland in my home state now, not to mention the once-pristine barrier islands on the other side of the Mississippi Sound.  The first thing you notice driving down Highway 90 is group after group of clean-up workers, concentrated in the areas where the most oil is on the sand:

Working with rakes, shovels and plastic bags, they are picking up globules of oil and tar balls in the sand.

It seems futile, as every wave washing up to the beach is carrying more tar balls and oil.  You can see how calm and gentle the Sound was at the time I took these shots.  Note all the black particles in suspension.  With the well still flowing unchecked, and who knows how much oil already in the Gulf, how long will this keep washing in?  Imagine how much would be coming ashore if the wind was really kicking up.

In places, the water is black with oil:

The so-called "booms" that are supposed to keep the oil off the beaches and out of the marshes are pitifully inadequate.  Look how much oil is washing over this one in an almost calm sea:

This is what this stuff looks like after it ends up on the sand.  You can try to step around the globs and tar balls, but there is more of it under what appears to be clean patches.  I ruined a pair of shoes and socks despite being careful not to step in any visible patches.

Where this stuff gets in the marsh, it kills the marsh grasses and every other living thing.  Here you can see it is just beginning.  This is in the Waveland area. 

I found this oil-coated eel right at the edge of the tide line.  Believe it or not, it was still alive, but just barely, slowly moving it's head back and forth as it suffocated to death.  It is so black with oil I have no idea what species it is.

Despite the oil, radio commercials in Jackson and other places around the state are telling people to "come on down, everything you love about the Gulf Coast is still here."  Some people are still letting their children play in the water:

I took these photos and left feeling sick.  I've been sea kayaking and sailing in these waters for over 25 years.  I've written countless articles about the islands and estuaries here, and a boater's guidebook to the area published in 2004, Exploring Coastal Mississippi: A Guide to the Marine Waters and Islands.  No words I can write here can convey how I feel about what has been lost.  Will it ever be the same?  I don't know.  It all depends on getting that well shut down, and soon. 

Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season

The blown-out  BP oil well continues to spew unchecked into the Gulf.  The first named tropical storm of the season has made landfall in Belize and crossed the Yucatan to restrengthen over the Gulf.  While it won't be coming into the area of the oil spill, its outer wind bands are expected to push more oil towards shore.  This will also hamper whatever efforts are being made to contain or clean-up the oil.  Here's an article posted today at the Biloxi Sun Herald:  Tropical Storm Alex Gaining Strength Over the Gulf.

NOAA forecasters have predicted this will be a particularly active season, and I've got a bad feeling about it anyway, not to mention the unthinkable damage to the Gulf that is being caused by the oil spill.  At any rate, whether or not we get a major hit in the Gulf this year or not, the memories of Katrina's destruction in 2005 are still fresh.  Here are a few of my photos from the aftermath:

Nothing but rubble left was left on most of Biloxi's Point Cadet - houses and businesses swept away, boats everywhere left high and dry:

The U.S. Highway 90 bridge that once connected Biloxi's Point Cadet to Ocean Springs was reduced to a broken pile of rubble.

Steel-hulled fishing vessels were scattered all over the woods from where they were trying to take refuge in Bayou Portage.  As it turned out, this area had the worst of the storm surge.

Below: my own cruising sailboat, Intensity.  She was swept into the woods despite all the heavy storm anchors and mooring lines I used to secure her.  When I found her a couple weeks after the storm, she was dismasted, battered, broken and even looted by someone who found her before I did.  I had spent over five years restoring her to immaculate condition, had lived aboard her for a time, and sailed her across the Gulf to the Keys and the East Coast of Florida.

I guess that's enough depressing imagery for one day.  If you live in an area where hurricanes are a threat, now is the time to prepare, not when one is already bearing down on you.  There's an excellent post on JWR's Survival Blog on hurricane preparation, written by a south Florida resident who's been dealing with them for a lifetime.  It also includes a detailed checklist of what you need to be prepared for one of these storms, whether you stay home or leave. Read the full article here:   Hurricane Readiness, by T. in South Florida
 

What's the Truth About the BP Oil Spill?

 
Here in south Mississippi and other areas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, this on-going nightmare of gushing oil spewing unchecked into the waters of our very backyard is on nearly everyone's mind.  It's especially hard-hitting to me, as a person who has kayaked and camped along hundreds of miles of this coast from Louisiana to Key West and sailed thousands of coastal and offshore miles upon these waters.

For awhile, I tried to keep hoping that the problem would be quickly resolved and fears of a worst-case scenario would prove unfounded.  Now it's becoming more evident every day that this is a disaster of far greater magnitude than BP, the government and most of the media would have us believe.   So just how bad is it, and how bad can it possibly get?  What will the long-term effects be?

I've been asked by a couple of magazine editors that I write for to report on the impacts in my local area - along the Mississippi coast - and I wrote one early piece for SAIL magazine a couple of weeks ago when oil slicks were expected to wash ashore on Mississippi's pristine barrier islands.  At that time the oil remained offshore though, and was pushed west by strong winds to where it is now inundating the fragile marshlands of south Louisiana.  Here in the Mississippi area, it's too early to tell what's going to happen, but one thing's for sure, if the new efforts being made tonight and tomorrow fail to plug up the leaks, and some other successful solution doesn't come through soon after, life as we know it along the Gulf of Mexico could be changed forever.

A massive die-off of marine life is almost certain, what is uncertain is how far-reaching that die-off will be and how it will affect every other thing both natural and man-made along the shores of the Gulf.  Some of the scenarios presented by the scientists that study such things are grim indeed.  Survival Acres blog has been providing thoughts on these predictions and warnings and posting links to a variety of articles detailing them.  Some of these may seem far-fetched, but then again, we are in unknown territory here with such an unprecedented event.   Could something as unexpected as a massive oil well blowout like this precipitate a massive exodus from an entire region of the United States?  To ponder some of these possibilities, check out this post and some of the embedded links:  The Dead Zone

Sub-tropical South Florida

I had a great, but too-short getaway to south Florida last weekend, where as I mentioned in my last post, I was headed to attend a get together of Wharram catamaran enthusiasts in Islamorada, way down in the Keys. I've posted some photos from the rendezvous and more about the boats over on my Element II blog, where I'm documenting the construction of my own Wharram Tiki 26 - which will be my ultimate go-anywhere bug-out boat. On that page you will also find a link to a slideshow with many more photos from this rendezvous.

In this post, I just wanted to share a few photos from the unique environment that is sub-tropical south Florida.  I never get tired of exploring this area, despite the hassle of driving down the peninsula in high-speed, nearly bumper-to-bumper traffic on the interstate.  Although I describe several good bug-out locations in the state in my new bug-out book, I pity the millions who would be trapped in bottleneck of congestion trying to get out of south Florida in a true SHTF scenario.  Hurricane evacuations are bad enough.

But if one had a seaworthy small boat, such as the one I took with me on this trip, there are vast expanses of shallow, remote backwaters to bug-out to, many of them fringed by great mangrove forests, where it would be easy to hide out and easy to forage for fish, crabs, oysters and other seafood:

Many of these waters in the Florida Keys are so shallow that you often run aground even in a kayak, but if there is any sunlight at all, you can pick your way through because it's easy to see the bottom in the crystal clear waters there:

Most of the smaller mangrove-covered islands in the Keys and Florida Bay are nearly impenetrable, like this one in the photo below, but among these tangles of roots, you can find small pocket beaches, often completely hidden from view of anyone passing by on the open water.  I have spent weeks at a time camped in such places during my longer kayak trips that took me through the area. 

Inland from the mangrove-fringed coastal areas, the Everglades is  full of hidden, freshwater creeks like this one.  Some of these appear impassable, even in a canoe, but you can often push or cut your way through the thicker areas, and go for days, like my friend Ernest Herndon and I did when we spent some ten days canoeing the 'glades on my first trip there. 

Nowhere else in North America will you find the exotic plant species that are common in the Everglades and much of south Florida.  An example is the strangler fig, shown below - a tree that is common in the jungles of Latin America, where it is known as the "mata-palo" (tree-killer).  It grows around and eventually strangles the host tree. 

Of course, my favorite south Florida exotic is the coconut palm, which is not native to the area but is now firmly established and can be found in the wild in many places.  I've often climbed these to get the drinking nuts while camped on the remote beaches of Cape Sable, at the southern tip of the peninsula.  They are also common throughout the Keys.

The Everglades is a paradise for reptiles and amphibians.  Anyone who is not squeamish about eating snakes, lizards, turtles and the like would have no trouble finding food here.

Of course 'gators are everywhere in the 'glades - more plentiful in the freshwater areas, but also in the brackish and salt water of the mangrove fringes, where they share habitat with the American crocodile, which is making a big comeback in south Florida. Another big reptile that is doing well, but does not belong in this ecosystem is the Burmese python, which has now populated much of south Florida.  I looked, but didn't see any on this trip.

The 'gators alone are so plentiful that one could easily survive by hunting the small ones.  Alligator meat is good, too.  I used to stop in every chance I got to get a 'gator-tail po-boy at a little restaurant in Louisiana down near the Honey Island Swamp. 

On another note, I noticed that down along the Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41), where there are many small Miccosukee Indian settlements, large gated fences with "Keep Out" signs have been erected since last time I passed that way.  I also noticed this sign at one such village - apparently Bush is to blame for whatever's wrong here as well.  I didn't know he was British, however....

Florida Keys Rendezvous

I'm leaving tomorrow on a road trip to the Florida Keys; kayak on the roof racks and camera gear packed for some paddling, sailing, snorkeling and photography.  I've got assignments to write several magazine articles related to this trip, for magazines such as SAIL, Multihulls, Southwinds and Sea Kayaker.  

The kayak I'm taking is my 17-foot Arctic Tern, which I built in 1998.  In the background are the nearly completed hulls of my Wharram Tiki 26 catamaran.

Two of these magazine articles will be about the main reason I'm going there - to attend the annual Spring Wharram Catamaran Rendezvous in Islamorada.  As some readers may be aware, I'm currently building my own Wharram Tiki 26 (pictured above) - which to me is about the perfect bug-out vessel if one were inclined to really get out of Dodge and cross some big water safely.  Read more about Wharram catamarans on the designer's website here:  www.wharram.com

Wharram sailors are a different breed altogether from the usual "yachtie" types one typically thinks of when thinking of ocean sailboat cruising.  These are boats designed to be built by most anyone in their own backyard, and as fancy or cheap as you care to go.  Most people interested in the designs like cheap, and some of the catamarans built to these plans are "interesting," to say the least.

Of course, sea kayaking in the Keys will bring back many memories as well - as I have done two long-distance paddling trips that took me through the area, and have found many great little hideaway camping spots among the mangrove jungles and isolated patches of beach out of sight of the Overseas Highway.  

The rendezvous itself is an example of how these boats attract a like-minded crowd of self-sufficient and outside-of-the-box thinkers.  Wharram sailors from all over Florida and many ports much farther away congregate in an anchorage to raft up, share sea stories, compare notes on boatbuilding and outfitting details, and generally have a good time.  I'm looking forward to joining them.

Speaking of far-ranging Wharram sailors, I just got word from a friend that Glenn Tieman, who has been working his way slowly across the South Pacific on a Wharram "double-canoe" that he built in California, has reported in after four months with no word at all from him.  He described his experiences among the remote atolls he's been lost among as being "off the planet."  Here's a photo of his boat, named "Manurere," which is Maori for "Bird on the Wing."  This photo was taken in the Marquesas almost a year ago:  Glenn's boat is truly at home in this environment, where the concept of sea-going double canoes originated.

Well, the Keys won't be that exotic, but definitely better than nothing and at least the water is clear, the diving is good, and coconut palms are abundant.  This will be about the only real break I'll get this summer, as when I return, I will be back to the grindstone working to finish my next book manuscript, which is due in September.  I'm also looking forward to receiving my author's copies of Bug Out, which I just learned today will be shipped to me on the 18th, so I should have them by the end of next week, and those of you who pre-ordered from Amazon should be seeing yours soon as well.

Gulf Oil Spill About to Wreak Havoc

Sunrise at Mississippi's Horn Island, across the Sound at Gulf Islands National Seashore.
(photo by Dick Dixon)

Ironically, I just recently wrote a feature article for SAIL magazine about the fantastic remote and unspoiled barrier islands and the Mississippi Sound that I consider one of the best sailing and cruising grounds on the Gulf.  The article is in the May issue of the magazine, which was just published days ago.  Here's a link to more about that piece that I posted on my other blog: Scott's Boat Pages.

And just a few minutes ago, I posted the tips Dave Sears sent on Unconventional Methods of Gathering Seafood.  Reading this really made me want to be out on the salt again right now, but I'm still a ways from completing the construction of my boat that will replace the one I lost in Hurricane Katrina. 

Unfortunately, all the sailing, fishing and escaping to beautiful uninhabited islands in this region appears to be coming to an end for an uncertain period of time.  The growing oil slick and the wind conditions that are spreading it our way leave little hope that this area and much larger areas of the Gulf will be spared from its impact.  I just corresponded with my friend, Dick Dixon, who took the photo above and who is an avid sailor and photographer based out of Pascagoula.  He informed me that his boat is indefinitely locked into the Pascagoula Inner Harbor, as it has been closed off with booms to try and prevent the oil from reaching the marshes of the estuary.   He also told me of another marina that is already price-gouging in advance of this impending disaster, asking tenants for a monthly fee equivalent to about 10 times that of other marinas in the area.  Time will tell how bad all this will be, but it's not looking good tonight.

Other (Unconventional) Seafood Gathering Methods

Dave Sears, a reader who commented recently on my post about bowfishing, has had some interesting experiences in collecting food from the sea.  He sent these seafood gathering tips via email.  These are new to me, and sound fascinating. Here's what he had to say in his own words:

Not being a writer (I am a retired tug captain with 43 years experience all over the world), I really don't know where one would post articles such as: on catching shrimp with a junniper bush and a cement block anchor. The shrimp are attracted to the junniper for some reason and their whiskers get entangled in the dense shrubbery. It's maybe illegal I think, since it's basically a shrimp trap.   You shake the shrimp out of the bush into your boat. Haven't shrimped this way for 50 years. LOL. 

Or how about a trot line for catching crabs. My uncle used to buy "bull"  lips from the slaughter house very cheap. Theyr'e super tuff as cows actually pinch off grass with their lips, not their teeth as does a horse (which needs de-sanding frequently). These "bull" lips are twisted into a 21 thread line 100 fathoms long, every couple feet. The trot line is deployed along a channel side with anchors (cement blocks) both ends. No buoys for others to steal it as they do crab traps on occasion. Cross bearings enable you to relocate and grapple up the line when you want. A spool such as used for keel rollers on boat trailers, mounted on a bolt welded to a C-clamp affixed to the gunwale of your craft is your line lifter/guide. As the line clears the water, the tenacious crab drops off the bait, but you have sufficient time to see if it's a fat Jimmy or a berry crab (female w/egg clusters). We would flip the desirables into the boat with an old tennis racket while the other person paddled. You don't need to run it daily like servicing traps. The crabs are free to come and go. In Florida it's legal to have one 5gal bucket of blue crabs per person with regular fishing licenses. I suspect my uncle took me along more for the xtra bucket of crabs than any other reason. LOL. 

My dad was a Tampa boy and used to make cochina stew from the tiny cochina clams. He'd boil the cochinas, strain the broth, add milk, butter, and oyster crackers. Only seasoning black pepper.  well, not exactly survival food if you already have luxuries like milk and butter. if you want to use these ideas, feel free. I'm sure you'd write em up better than I can.

Dave Sears


Thanks for the useful tips, Dave.  I look forward to trying that juniper bush "shrimp trap" someday.

Now the cochina clams Dave mentions are something I have tried.  On my long kayak trip down the west coast of Florida and through the Caribbean, I boiled up a pot of these tiny clams on more than one occasion.  On parts of the Florida Gulf Coast, you can scoop them up by the bucketful right at the edge of the surf line.  Boil them until they open, then use a toothpick or sharpened stick to eat them right out of the shell.  It takes a lot to make a meal, but they are great source of easily-obtained protein on the seashore.


By the way, I welcome useful reader tips like Dave's, so if you have something related to Bug Out Survival that you want to share and don't have your own blog on which to publish it, send it my way.

Bowfishing: An Effective Means of Food Gathering

Anyone planning to bug out on coastal waters or along rivers or other waterways with reasonably clear water should consider adding a simple bowfishing rig to their gear, as it will take up little room and adds little weight even in the smallest bug-out vessels such as canoes and sea kayaks.

In the photo below (taken a few years back) is a good-sized Sheepshead I shot not far from the beach while camping on a remote barrier island.  These fish tend to congregate around rocks and other structure, and I got into a school of them by wading out an old wreck after setting up my camp ashore. There's nothing like fresh fillets cooked in the skillet on the beach as the sun goes down. The bow is a Hoyt take-down recurve drawing 60 lbs.  This is a versatile hunting weapon, but if you are choosing a bow just for bowfishing, you can get by with something much simpler, and of lower draw weight, since the shooting is done at close range. 

Shooting a bow from a kayak is difficult, if not impossible in most conditions, but it is feasible to bowfish while standing in a canoe, dinghy or John boat.  I've had great success with this method of fishing when cruising on my larger sailboat, especially when anchored in mangrove areas, where I rowed the dinghy up into narrow creeks among the flooded roots and waited for schools of mangrove snapper to swim by. It takes practice to get good at hitting small, often fast-moving targets under the water, but it's well worth the effort if you're in an environment where you can see beneath the surface.

In addition to a suitable bow, you will need at least one fishing arrow and some sort of bowfishing reel.  Modern, manufactured bowfishing arrows are usually made of solid fiberglass so they will be heavy enough to penetrate a few feet of water and still have enough energy to impale a fish.  They are tipped with a barbed point that can be unscrewed from the shaft since the barbs prevent pulling the arrow backwards out of the fish.  Fletching is not even needed at the typical close ranges at which bowfishing is done, but most fishing arrows are fletched with heavy-duty, waterproof plastic vanes for flight stabilization.  For the reel, I prefer the simple, open-faced design that looks like a handreel and screws directly to the front of the bow in the threaded receiver most modern bows come with for adding stabilizers.  Here is an example of one of these I found on Amazon for just $11.85 Bohning Bowfishing Reel With Line  You can get a complete kit with an arrow for less than 30 bucks: Sting-A-Ree II Bowfishing Kit. Tape-on reels are also available that work well for longbows and primitive self-bows lacking threaded inserts:  Beginner Bowfishing Package, Tape On Mount.

Fancier designs are available with reels that are more similar to those used for angling, but for this kind of fishing I like the simplicity of the hand reel.  There's nothing to break or get tangled and it packs away easily when not in use.  I will be posting more on bowfishing, and archery in general in future posts, including details on primitive equipment that can be self-made and can be just as effective.