Fishing with Coconuts
It was 0215 on the twelfth day of February and our Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer was cruising the Indian Ocean. I was in the middle of a watch, patrolling the main deck. Feeling the effects of sleep deprivation and being nowhere close to the end of my watch, the night started to become routine. As I had done numerous times before, I swung open the hatch to the weather deck and began to step out and into the pitch-dark night. By an unfortuitous coincidence, at the same time I took my first step out, a surging swell hit the opposite side of the ship and threw me over the side of the lifeline. In a complete state of shock, and with the taste of saltwater in my mouth, I failed to reach for a safety ladder …show more content…
The island was small enough that I could see the opposite shore through the trees and it seemed that no other mass of land was in sight. Escape was not an option. I had to find a way to survive on this desolate atoll until help could come to me. The only items I found on the island were rocks and young green coconuts that had fallen prematurely from the tall branches of the palm trees. All I had on my person was a waterlogged broken IPhone Ten, a titanium pen given to me for my graduation from the United States Naval Academy by my parents and my Navy working blue uniform, minus my cover.
The green coconuts provided me with an abundance of coconut water. Thirst was never a problem. However, the meat of the coconut was still too rubbery to be edible. I had to find a way to obtain food from the only other resource around me - fish from the ocean. To catch fish, I decided to make a basic fishing line. A fishing line consists of three parts: an actual line to cast out into the ocean, a hook to snag the fish and a bait. The trick is to get the fish to actually swallow the hook or at least snag it thereby entrapping it onto the
It was 0215 on the twelfth day of February and our Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer was cruising the Indian Ocean. I was in the middle of a watch, patrolling the main deck. Feeling the effects of sleep deprivation and being nowhere close to the end of my watch, the night started to become routine. As I had done numerous times before, I swung open the hatch to the weather deck and began to step out and into the pitch-dark night. By an unfortuitous coincidence, at the same time I took my first step out, a surging swell hit the opposite side of the ship and threw me over the side of the lifeline. In a complete state of shock, and with the taste of saltwater in my mouth, I failed to reach for a safety ladder …show more content…
The island was small enough that I could see the opposite shore through the trees and it seemed that no other mass of land was in sight. Escape was not an option. I had to find a way to survive on this desolate atoll until help could come to me. The only items I found on the island were rocks and young green coconuts that had fallen prematurely from the tall branches of the palm trees. All I had on my person was a waterlogged broken IPhone Ten, a titanium pen given to me for my graduation from the United States Naval Academy by my parents and my Navy working blue uniform, minus my cover.
The green coconuts provided me with an abundance of coconut water. Thirst was never a problem. However, the meat of the coconut was still too rubbery to be edible. I had to find a way to obtain food from the only other resource around me - fish from the ocean. To catch fish, I decided to make a basic fishing line. A fishing line consists of three parts: an actual line to cast out into the ocean, a hook to snag the fish and a bait. The trick is to get the fish to actually swallow the hook or at least snag it thereby entrapping it onto the