Posted on 12/06/2014 12:34:50 PM PST by aMorePerfectUnion
I don’t think you’re correct on the water requirement.
I allowed a gallon per day. Your 1/2 gallon might be ok for water only, but not IMO if all food is dehydrated, as it obviously is if he’s surviving on a little more than a pound per day.
I’ve had some experience in food and water requirements due to experience in desert backpacking. I used to carry a minimum of 2 to 3 quarts per day, but that was generally with undehydrated food.
In hot or dry weather much more.
Here’s a water requirements calculator.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/humanh2owater.html
I’m not familiar with water purification equipment of the type you mention. There is a feedback factor here. The more power needed to purify the seawater, the more he’ll need to work to produce the power, which means the more water he’ll need.
I’ve read Kon-Tiki, and from their experience it looks like, at least in tropical waters, he won’t have any problem with getting enough food to survive.
There are quite a few ways to process seawater with small equipment by osmosis, distillation and condensation. A search of the topic can yield some interesting reading.
That was my first thought.
Money buys you a roof over your head, shoes for your feet, clothes on your back, food in your stomach, hot water from a pipe in the wall, not to mention clean water you can drink.
People who have all those things all the time, like most of us do, take them for granted.
This guy has enough money to do these things. Good for him. Living more simply is good. But lets toss the preaching in the trash. I don’t want any lectures on how bad money is from a guy who can build lots of boats, stock them and sail them all over the world.
That takes money.
I think it was the “comfort does not make you happy” quote that really irritated me.
Tell that to someone who has to endure bitter cold with a blanket. I’ll bet they would be damned happy to have a space heater and fuel or electricity to run it.
I like what the guy is doing. I don’t appreciate at all the way it is conveyed.
A gallon a day would be great, all I’m saying is that he can get along on less, and he might have to.
Yes, operating a manual RO unit requires energy throughput. If it didn’t we’d have free-running RO plants all over the world making the deserts bloom. And yes, that will require work and produce perspiration, increasing water need. The equation must favor producing more water than is used or it wouldn’t make the slightest sense. Your points are valid.
I’d agree that he ought to design and install a system that can produce 128 fl oz per day and hope to get a good fraction of that in practice. This journey won’t be either easy or comfortable, to say nothing of the risk of the unforeseen. I wish him luck.
I was enjoying reading about this man until I came to the sentence that had this stupid thought in it:
...our excessive, consumption driven culture that takes way more than its fair share of the world’s natural resources.
Hey! I have a major crush on The Most Interesting Man in the World. And he looks much better than this geezer.
“I was enjoying reading about this man until I came to the sentence that had this stupid thought in it:
“...our excessive, consumption driven culture that takes way more than its fair share of the world’s natural resources.
.................
Eh, I’ve come to realize I don’t agree with every idea everyone has to offer, but I find him an intriguing person.
Your tale of hiking was very interesting to me. Thanks for making my day.
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