02x06 - South Pacific

[bunniefuu]

The fringes of the Arctic, the middle of
the desert, on a mountain in a blizzard.

Given a choice, most people would easily
choose a tropical island.

If they were forced with the decision of
where they had to attempt survival.

And I'm no different.

It may be easier, but that doesn't mean
it's easy.

Without fresh water, you're dead in a
week.

With it, you still need
to brave sharks, eels and

poisonous fish if you intend
to harvest from the ocean.

The intensity of the sun here can fry you
in minutes.

And brutal cyclones can wipe you off the
face of the island.

To create the right scenario, my crew is
leaving me a boat wreck.

They'll run it out ahead of me to wait on
the island.

Recreational diving is becoming hugely
popular worldwide.

And just like skiers looking for the next
mountain, divers are always on the search

for new, more remote locations for
underwater discoveries.

Diving is an addictive activity.

Though the lead-up is often
early mornings and rushed

boat trips, it all stops when
you fall beneath the waves.

You only hear your breathing, and
everything around you moves in a slow,

serene manner.

But the skill itself requires solid
instruction, and takes years to master.

And as with many things, along with its
inherent beauty, is the potential for danger.

But the risk is worth it.

The Cook Islands are in the middle of the
South Pacific Ocean.

And my island, called Motiktu, is on the
outside edge of a massive shallow lagoon.

I could literally walk or
swim my way across to

the main island where
people live in vacation.

That wouldn't be survival.

But accidents do happen.

A storm can blow in,
or a navigational error

can leave you stranded
on some small island.

But what happens more often than you might
think, your dive boat leaves you behind.

Either fearing that you're lost,
or simply forgetting to do a head count.

And you're left dumbfounded, horrified,
and alone in the middle of the ocean.

So with my safety crew a few miles away
across the lagoon, it's my lot to survive

the next seven days alone without food or
water, on my own little paradise.

You know, survival on a tropical island
might just sound ideal.

And I suppose if you compare it to the
middle of the desert, or the Arctic, it is.

But survival is still survival,
no matter where you find yourself.

And for the next seven days, I'll have to
survive here, alone, without a camera

crew, no food, and no one to film me but
myself.

To simulate a shipwreck, they left me a
wreck.

All my dive gear, including my dive bag,
and one shirt.

And as always, I have my multi-tool and my
harmonica along for the ride.

Tropical island survival or not,
it's gonna be a long week.

Already a storm coming in, and I haven't
even unpacked yet.

Well, the first thing I'm
gonna do is just get this boat

straightened up, and get
ready for this storm to hit.

Take a look at what gear I've got with all
my dive stuff that I can make use of.

And get out of this wetsuit.

Here's all my dive gear.

Underwater camera equipment, and my shirt.

Well, unfortunately, if it does come on to
rain, that's my only shelter for tonight.

That's it.

It hasn't rained yet.

The stars are out.

I can see the rain off in the distance.

So, night number one
of surviving on a tropical

island is gonna be
right here in this boat.

And with any luck at all, the rain will
hold off.

If it doesn't, I'm gonna have to crawl
inside underneath the bow.

And I won't sleep at all.

It's not very comfortable in there.

But, I'll get through the night tonight.

And tomorrow will be a new day.

See how it goes.

It's morning of day two, surviving in a
tropical paradise.

Well, I got through the night all right.

It did spit, though, just a little bit.

Just giving me the heads up on the warning
that there probably is rain coming.

Of course, right now, I don't have rain.

I've got the opposite problem,
which is the direct sun.

Burned me in this tropical heat in a very
short time.

So, I'm gonna pull everything out of the
boat.

I had to put everything
back into the boat last

night because this island
is crawling with ship rats.

So, I brought everything up into the boat
so it wouldn't get all chewed up.

And I'll take it out now and just see what
I've got to work with here.

So, for the most part, I don't
have anything with me that

any other normal diver
wouldn't likely have with them.

I've got my wetsuit, booties, fins,
snorkel, mask, regulator.

My BCD, and my dive bag.

With things such as casing for my mask.

And a few other items like that.

Everything that any normal diver would
have with them on a diving excursion.

So, we'll see what I can do with this
stuff.

And I'm gonna take a look at that boat.

To help keep some of that sun off my head.

Fry to a crisp out here.

That'll have to do.

This boat has a lot of junk that I can
probably use.

Full of buckets.

Full of rust and old oil.

How much I can use these for?

Way too dirty.

Poison myself if I collected rain with
them.

Just a little tiny bit of gas left in
there.

Probably also water in it as well.

Like even some old fishing line.

Old rusty hooks.

You know, in a survival situation,
anything is usable.

Nothing is too small or insignificant.

I think the first thing I'm going to use
is this crowbar.

It's time to do a little remodeling on the
boat wreck.

When it comes to building shelters in a
survival situation, the best thing for me

to do is to take any advantages I can find
and save myself a lot of energy loss.

Why go to the trouble of
building an elaborate bush

shelter when there's some
kind of natural shelter close by?

Or in this case, a man-made structure that
for now is high and dry.

The island is thick with gnats, rats, and
mosquitoes that can carry dengue fever.

In the boat wreck, I'm out in the breeze
and up off the ground.

The best place to be.

I might regret saying
this, but I think when

that rain comes,
it'll be quite a relief.

This tropical sun is a k*ller.

Just moving around in it at all,
wiping me right out.

I have to stop pretty often just to rest
in the shade.

Or I'll just be burned out.

I'm able to moderate my body temperature
with frequent dips in the ocean,

but that in itself has a lot of inherent
dangers around here.

Now it's time to make use of some of my
dive gear.

I was going to cut this apart
and use it as a blanket, but

it's going to make a perfect
rain catch if I ever get any rain.

That's what I'm going to use it for.

Let it rain.

Well, at the very least I can use this big
heavy tank like a signal device.

I have a dive knife that was strapped to
my BCD.

And I was going to dangle it here.

Because what can happen is the sun can hit
it and it will flash.

An axe has a marker
for anybody out there

who might be looking
for someone who's lost.

But I just discovered that this dive knife
that I have, I forgot, it's titanium.

There's no shine to it, so I can't use it
for that.

That's a good thing to know when you're
buying a knife.

So instead I'm going to use underwater
writing boards.

Now the tank itself is bright yellow,
so that helps.

These cards are very
white, so with any luck at all,

they'll be easy for the eye
to pick up from a distance.

I'm about a hundred yards walk from my
boat shelter.

And I think I've found a nice little
supply.

Oh.

There we go.

Alright.

I need this bad.

This little baby will be the source of a
lot of benefits for me.

I've got four uses I can get out of it.

And the first one is to get a drink.

It's a little dangerous
walking around in bare feet,

but I needed to get them
out of those neoprene booties.

Let them breathe, get some air, or I
would have ended up with fungus problems.

Well, I do have a dive knife.

But in survival, if you have a knife, it's
best to not use it if you don't have to.

Any other means you can find to open
things or break things or cut things

instead of using up your knife are better
because it saves the knife, keeps it

sharp, perhaps for when you really,
really need it.

So, in survival, for sure,
the best thing you can do

is base everything on
spending the least amount... Ow!

The least amount of energy as possible.

So, what I'm doing here is, there's a
stump, it's already in position,

it's got some sharp, very sharp points on
it.

So, maybe I can use this, a little
leverage, to get into this coconut.

A safe way.

So, you just put it in once like that,
you don't keep jamming in, wiggle it in,

and then start to just push down on the
other side of the coconut here.

In, wiggle, and push.

Come around to this side.

There we go.

And that's what I'm talking about.

And all of this, inside of this coconut,
is a good fire starter.

Alright, I've got a husked coconut now.

See the little face in the front there?

And all I have to do is, pop in there.

There we go.

Ugh.

I need this.

There you go.

Perfect.

So, the trick to this, is simply to, hit
the coconut right dead center, just a bit.

All the way around.

Weaken it.

There we go.

And that way, when you open it up.

Two perfect halves.

And a lot of delicious coconut meat.

The other benefit I have now, with
coconut, is I can take it, and I can

scrape some, and, uh, this coconut mush,
and use it as a protective oil from the sun.

If I can eat one coconut a day,
I can survive.

They're full of a ton of essential
nutrients, vitamins, minerals.

Augment that with fish, whatever else I
can find or catch out here.

And it'll be some pretty good survival.

I found my small raincoat in my dive bag.

A good thing given that the weather here
changes very quickly.

Well, here comes the rain.

Might not necessarily
be the most comfortable

shelter I'll ever have,
but hopefully it'll be dry.

I'm a little worried about the peak.

The angle's wrong, and it could come
dripping down on me.

I'd have to sacrifice an airbag to keep
the, uh, rain out.

Well, that stops the drip at the peak.

Probably best I don't allow myself to get
soaking wet.

It is the tropics.

It's pretty unlikely I'll get hypothermic.

But I suppose the possibility is,
uh, is always there.

If it stayed raining like
this for a long time and

went into the night, I
could get pretty chilled.

No need to let that happen, so I'll stay
in out of the rain for now.

Even a paradise without fresh water would
quickly become a death sentence.

This rain catch is working fantastic for
me.

This is the regulator.

I'm gonna sacrifice it.

I can't use it anymore here anyway.

Okay.

Excellent.

Tastes like rubber, but hey, it's water.

Well, if it rains at all tonight, I'm pretty
well protected with this wooden cabin.

It's nice to get that bit
of water right before bed

like that, just to get some
liquid back into my system.

It also feels good to be up this high off
the ground and away from all those rats.

I don't know if they'll make their way
into the boat.

I would imagine they can sooner or later.

The island is covered in rats that have
little fear of me.

These are actually ship
rats, and they are likely direct

descendants of rats off
Captain Cook's ship itself.

That's morning of day three.

I didn't get quite as much rain
as I had hoped for last night,

but I still did get a few
cups, which is pretty helpful.

Shelter's holding out fine.

It didn't rain all that much last night.

So, now I'm going to go into the center of
the island and see what I can find there.

My priority, now that my
shelter is secure and I've found a

source or two of fresh water,
is to assess my surroundings.

See what I can take advantage of in the
tropical forest itself.

Anything I can use as an axe is likely
going to help.

It's a beautiful island, both in the
interior and on the beach, and my time

here is made safer by
the fact that there are

no poisonous snakes
or insects to worry about.

So, exploring comes easy.

Okay, good.

Here's something I can use.

Take these feathers out now.

These feathers are not just for show.

They're acting kind of like a baseball
cap.

They're shielding my eyes from the direct
harsh sunlight.

In fact, when you see Native Americans in
old paintings and pictures and they've got

just the one feather stuck out of the
side, what they're doing is they're

blocking the sunlight, the direct sun from
the horizon, when they go off hunting.

Alright, this I can make use of.

Yes, indeed.

I've got cuts on my hands and the flies
are trying to get at them.

I might want to cover them up soon.

Or something lays its eggs in my skin.

So, this fella here...

I can eat.

The tropical forests, just like the
jungles and the boreal forests across the

world, are filled with millions as of yet
undiscovered nutritional and medicinal

benefits from the plants within their
delicate ecosystems.

Alright.

This is gonna be good.

Now, those roots that are like that,
there are hundreds of them on this island.

If I can get maybe three or four of those
a day and drink this healthful liquid,

it's really good for getting liquid into
my system and it's excellent for the heart.

Mmm.

It even tastes good.

That's great.

Go get some more of those.

There are a number of stages
in the growth of coconuts,

and all of them have their
benefits to the lost victim.

Aha!

Ready for this?

This is my favorite part of the coconut.

Juicy.

Tasty.

Oh, so sweet.

Ah, ha, ha, ha.

Mmm.

Meh.

Before I was left out here,
the local islanders had shared

with me the survival benefit
of this particular time of year.

The availability of some wild game.

Got a great opportunity for a meal here.

It's still there.

Get back to it.

It's a young booby.

That's a bird.

That has fallen down out of its nest.

I don't think he can fly.

This could be a real substantial meal for
me.

I might have a meal tonight.

Now that is a survival meal and a half.

You see, these boobies and different birds
are nesting on the island right now.

And all of the young are in the nest and
they can't...

They can't fly yet.

They'll fall out of the nest sometimes.

And either, they'll
either starve on the

ground or they'll get
eaten by something else.

Or sometimes they make it.

But in this case...

I think rather than climbing
a coconut tree today,

I'm going to concentrate
on getting a fire going.

And have myself...

One heck of a meal.

Whenever you catch a wild bird, the best
thing is to pluck the feathers right away.

Body's still warm.

Feathers come off much easier.

All I really want to do is just open
this...

bird up enough...

to take the insides out...
so that I can skewer it.

I just want to get your fingers right up
inside.

Break the membrane away from the rib cage.

And pull.

Okay.

Leave the feet on.

I'm going to put that on a skewer.

First I'll go wash it off in the salt
water.

And...

Have me a meal.

I'm going to try something new.

We're getting a fire going.

I've got all the stuffing from the coconut
tree.

Add a bit of gasoline.

There we go.

So...

This... Is a rescue tube.

Diver's rescue tube.

And... Usually things kept in
our items like matches, lighters.

And often... In my case
anyway... I have... Flares.

These things tend to sh**t really far.

Wish me luck folks.

Here we go.

Yeah!

Look at that.

Excellent.

Woo-hoo!

We're having roast booby tonight.

What happened there
was... There's my flare.

You see you just pull down on this lever.

And... Boom!

You sh**t the flare.

And normally it goes flying up into the
sky.

So I just had everything closed in there
with the rock on top.

sh**t that right into it.

And I'll bet you that would work whether
there was gasoline or not.

So it's a good thing to know.

A flare.

Big bundle of dried tinder.

Protected with a rock.

And you've got yourself a good fire.

And I have myself some roast booby to eat.

Pretty much any bird is edible in a
survival situation.

And there are plenty of rescued survivors
to verify that.

Yeah.

Roast brown booby.

Mmm.

Cheers.

Roast booby.

Coconut milk.

Oh boy.

Oh man, is that good.

Mmm.

The irony being that I'm eating booby
breast.

Yet again, a tropical weather system takes
control.

I do believe I'm trapped in here for a
little while.

I'm glad I got that good meal in.

And I have a chance.

This should mean my rain catch is filling
up with water.

It's the middle of the night and it's been
raining non-stop.

It's been really hard to get out of the
boat.

The tapes had finished in
my camera so I wasn't even

able to get out to my camera
gear to replace the tapes.

Till just now.

The good news is that
my rain catch is filling

up with great, fresh,
clean rain water.

Huge difference for me.

But I see more black clouds coming.

And... Tuck back into the boat.

Try to get some more sleep.

Hey!

Well... Bit of a tropical storm.

T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t.

It's day four.

And the tropical weather patterns are not
giving me any breaks.

It's been raining all night.

And as morning comes in, it's still coming
down.

This is pretty much it.

Been stuck like this for...

I don't know.

Probably nearly 20 hours now.

Just on and off pouring rain.

Some of my cameras are actually shutting
down.

And, uh, from the moisture.

And, uh, haven't been able to even get
outside to change tapes.

To sh**t much.

Oh, man.

It's still coming down.

Oh, man.

Two of my cameras shut down.

And my audio pack shut down.

All from about 20 hours of non-stop rain.

They're just showing the, uh, condensation
meters.

They're blinking.

Won't allow me to turn the cameras on.

So...

Two down.

Two cameras left.

This is enough rainwater.

I'm sure.

As long as it doesn't become contaminated.

To get me through the next few days.

The thing I have to worry about here is
there are so many rats here on the island.

I'm still worried that what if they're
coming in here to drink the fresh water.

And then probably also defecating and
peeing in the water.

Better cover you up.

I don't want to lose this camera,
too.

It's time to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Oh, say goodbye to a good harmonica.

See where I'm getting at here.

Okay, so this is gonna be my spear point.

Once was a blues harmonica.

Now...

It is a spear point.

Since this has been pretty
much a whole write-off

this day, I've only got
a couple of hours left.

So I think what I'm going to do is just
work on my fishing implements.

And get everything made and ready for
tomorrow.

And then if I have to, if it's still
raining tomorrow, I'll put on the wetsuit.

But still get in the water.

Catch some fish.

Too tempting not to.

Well, this is an old wreck of a boat.

And as luck would have it.

It has its share of tangled up old fishing
line.

And some old hooks.

This will work perfect.

I can blow this up.

Nice bright float.

Get an anchor for it.

And I'm going to dangle a bunch of hooks
from it.

Use the zipper.

Got buckles I can tie to here.

The closest I can come to somehow
simulating survival at its best or worst,

as it were, is to not have a camera crew
and be out here alone.

But that means that,
uh, loneliness and fatigue

and, uh, I don't know,
maybe not boredom.

But, although boredom can be deadly out
here.

But it all hits me.

And a day like today
where it's just been

raining all day, it's
pretty hard on the system.

Pretty hard on the, on the emotions.

These are very rusty old hooks.

It wouldn't take much for me to slip,
fall, turn, pull, do something too fast.

I'm not watching.

And, uh, shove one of these barbed rusty
hooks into my skin.

And then I've got myself a whole new set
of problems to deal with.

Here we go.

So I've got a float.

I've got all these hooks dangling from it.

Put this out there.

Put some bait on it and an anchor.

And a rope to the shore.

Oh, that's one thing I have to make sure
that I do.

Let's put on my wetsuit booties.

Because right now is about the most
dangerous thing I could do.

Heading out into the water.

Reason being is, stonefish.

Stonefish are one of the most poisonous
fish in the ocean.

And there are a lot of them in this area.

All I have to do is step
on one of them, which

is a common occurrence
if you're in their area.

They're easy to step on.

They're camouflaged.

You can't see them.

And they'll, they'll, they'll tend to
hide.

So you can step on them.

And just one stab of that would be
excruciatingly painful.

The pain shoots from the bottom of your
foot, right up to the top of your head.

And can and has been fatal.

As is the case so often.

When an ecosystem contains some kind of
poisonous element, it also provides a cure.

And this little green leaf chewed up and
put in the wound would stop the

stonefish's venom in as little as a half
an hour.

Now it's time to get the bait.

Pull the crab out.

The part I want, this juicy little
specimen right here.

That's what I can use for my fish bait.

I want to break up because I'm going to
use it like chum.

When you chum the water for fish, you're
just basically trying to get all the scent.

If I leave the bait too big, then the fish
eat it.

They get fed and they don't bother going
after the bait that's on the hooks.

Alright, so I've got the float that I made
with all the hooks dangling from it.

And I figure I can use my own diver's
weight belt as the anchor.

And I'm going to get this out there.

I've got my crab bait now.

Let's see if I can catch something.

Oh, I did mention that I have to watch out
for stonefish.

I also have to look out for moray eels.

They are poisonous, but they pack quite a
bite.

Did I also mention that most shark attacks
occur in two to three feet of water?

The lagoon is like a massive swimming
pool, making most activities pretty easy.

The other side of the island
is the open ocean and can

be quite rough, so I'll try
fishing on this side for now.

For three days, there were flounder all
around me when I walked in the water.

Now that I have a spear, they're nowhere
to be found.

What's happened is that they've become
aware of me.

They've sensed me as a
threat and have moved on to

elsewhere in the lagoon
until I stop entering the water.

This is just another part of
becoming aware of the natural

cycles and rhythms of an area
when you're attempting to survive.

Well, here comes the rain again.

I didn't get a lot accomplished
today, but probably


played a big part in that.

So here I am stuck in the boat wreck
shelter again.

It's just the way it goes sometimes in
survival.

But I did get a spear made, a net made,
and a fish float made, so tomorrow I will

do as best as I can to try to catch some
fish.

It's day five.

My fish float with bait on it is in the
water and hopefully doing its job.

But this wet weather is frustrating me.

It's time to get busy.

You know, I'm just about
hot enough that if it stays like

this, maybe I'll just go
back out and fish in the rain.

What I want to do is I want to dive for
clams.

The tropical ocean is bountiful if you know
what to look for and what to watch out for.

This is a type of sea cucumber and the
white slime that comes out of it works

very much like an antiseptic covering for
cuts and scrapes.

It's even being researched
by scientists to see

how it can be utilized
for medical benefits.

All right, well, definitely worth going in
the water and seeing what was there.

There's not a lot on this side.

There's going to be more on the other side
of the island, I'm sure.

But, uh, I'll save that till tomorrow.

So I'm just going to cut into this clam
and get myself a meal.

Fresh clam.

And it's sweet.

Mmm.

Well... Wow, that's good.

Where there's one, there's going to be
more.

Since the flounder seemed to have
outsmarted me by leaving this area,

I want to see if I can outsmart them by
attempting some night fishing.

Bit dangerous, but worth a try.

Well... Here goes nothing.

I'm gonna grab the torch, set it on fire,
and make my way to the water.

Although how I'm going to carry the camera
at the same time is beyond me.

A lot windier than I was hoping it was
gonna be.

I just gotta make my way down to,
uh, where the coral beds are.

That's where the best fishing is going to
be.

This is not easy.

Should've built the fire way down there.

Night fishing is a spooky activity.

The light only gives you vision for a few
feet.

Sharks usually enter into the lagoon at
night to feed.

The chance of stepping
on an extremely poisonous

stonefish, or painful sea
urchin, becomes much higher.

It's one of those things that can work
once you master it.

You just have to take a deep breath and go
for it.

Given time and practice, I know I can make
it successful.

But it's gonna take a lot of Patience.

Well, I tried.

Obviously, fishing with a torch made out
of palm fronds that night here in the

tropics is something I'm gonna need to try
again.

The problem here was fire
was too far from the coral

spot, so running down
there I lost a lot of the torch.

So now I know.

Make sure that I've got a very short
distance between lighting it and getting

into where the coral is to try to find the
fish.

So I'm giving it another shot while I
still have the energy.

I would love to get myself a meal of fresh
fish.

It's day six, and I'm
bound and determined to

finish this survival
odyssey on a good note.

Maybe even with my own tropical feast.

Hmm.

Made a kind of a
mess of it, but... Hmm.

The insides of these palm trees...

are quite good.

Quite edible.

Come on, baby, burn.

There we go.

That's what I like to see.

How to cook up some of that bounty.

Welcome to dinner.

We've got, of course, my favorite coconut
centers.

Palm heart.

Roasted coconut center.

Mmm.

Coconut roasted clam.

My root juice in a beautiful coconut cup.

And, of course, my coconut juice.

I think maybe what I'll do is I'll add a
little.

Mix the two together.

There we go.

Nice.

What a smorgasbord.

Well, I can tell you, this is going to be
fantastic.

And all of this was gathered, really,
in not very much time at all.

But for now, I've got a fantastic meal
ahead of me.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Let's try these roasted clams.

Oh.

Oh, that's good.

The finest bubbly.

Oh.

Oh, this is good.

You know, I've survived in a lot of
places, a lot of remote areas.

And I've had times where there's been very
little food all week long.

But in a place like the tropics,
there's no need to starve.

There's plenty of food around.

This is the easy stuff to get.

I haven't yet been able to get a flounder.

When I was here in the beginning of the
week, there were all kinds of them.

The last two days, I haven't seen one.

It might be a lot easier for me to survive
here in the tropics than it is,

say, in the Arctic or in a desert.

But without the will to live, there's
survival nowhere.

And the rats are joining me for a meal.

Look at you guys.

One, two, three, four, five.

It's like Willard here.

There's rats coming in from everywhere.

Get out of here.

Well, tomorrow, my rescue comes.

The boat will come in for me.

And you know, I think
this is the one time I

wouldn't mind if they
waited a couple of days.

Let me alone out here for a little bit
longer.

Well, that's night number six.

Surviving on a tropical island.

It was a good day today.

I had a full-on island feast that wasn't
difficult to obtain.

Tonight, I've got a full moon shining down
on me.

And since I sacrificed my harmonica
earlier on in the week to make a tip for

my spear, I grabbed a couple of coconuts,
made myself a new instrument.

I just whipped this up this afternoon.

Yeah.

No one wants to find themselves in a
survival situation.

You just want to go home.

But sometimes, the ordeal becomes
long-term survival.

Longer than seven days.

And whether in a life raft, on a mountain,
in a desert, or on a tropical island,

long-term survival has always been about
maintaining the will to live.

And then becoming familiar with the
surroundings.

Especially the natural cycles of the
plants and animals.

Even the weather.

And then learning how to use these cycles
to affect better survival.

When the fish are coming in.

When the plants are ripe.

When the weather is most threatening.

All information the lost victim needs to
assess what to do next.

What to do to survive.

You live.

Umm...