Fleeing Pestilence.... flight of fancy... or rather voyage of fancy

[owly]

The current plague is hardly "the big one", but it is a preview of what could someday happen. The 14 day delayed onset of symptoms during much of which the person is a carrier has terrifying potential if the disease were more virulent. In this case transmission is mostly "self transmission".... touching your face, eyes, mouth, nose, after coming in contact with a contaminated surface. The ability of the virus to persist in the environment is limited. Inhaling droplets from a cough or sneeze is somewhat avoidable, so the spread can be controlled by responsible behavior of infected people and sanitary practice by others. The fatality rate is not overwhelming, but enough to be frightening. The fact that nobody has ANY natural immunity makes this far worse than it would otherwise be.

This is a repeated scenario.... again and again, and with the huge human population it is inevitable. There may never be an "Andromeda Strain", or Earth Abides scenario, but it is interesting to contemplate the option of removing yourself and family from danger until a vaccine is available, or it is otherwise safe to return.
There is no more remote habitable place on earth than the Mid Pacific... Thousands of miles from anywhere. You can choose your climate based on seasonal variations. The storm seasons are well known and predictable.

But how can a family or a couple or a few friends exist long term at sea? You can only carry so much in the way of supplies. You can make and/or collect water, generate electricity, harvest fish, grow veggies......... I grow an amazing amount of veggies with hydroponics at home.... The weight and volume of the nutrients is small. During the war (WW2) a lot of research was done on plankton as a possible food source. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/...shortages.html
But with all the micro plastics this would seem to be completely out of the question now, though the "garbage patch" could be a fuel source. Seaweed is often called a "super food", but how many places is it free drifting offshore? Varieties of free drifting Sargassum are found in most if not all of the oceans of the world and are "edible". A few chickens might turn less than palatable foods harvested from the sea (like plankton mixed with microplastics) into eggs.
How would outfit a family survival expedition for a long term aquatic existence, how much space per person, what supplies are absolutely indispensable, what kind of boat(s)? Imagine a group of say a dozen to two dozen families setting out to sea in the early stages of a serious plague, forming a remote floating community in mid Pacific... say West of Hawaii, knowing that you dare not touch inhabited land for several years. The whole endeavor would be a rush, with little preparation time, little time for meetings and coordination, perhaps people departing from various places with the same idea, and inevitably gravitating into the same area..........Taking the sails down and drifting, you would all end up in the "garbage patch" (the Mid Pacific Gyre). Each group would inevitably have shortages of some supplies, and surpluses of others, as well as different skill sets.....


It's material for a book or movie.... not a fantastical post apocalyptic "water world", but a serious examination of what resources are available and how people could utilize them for an extended period, with the idea that some day they could return to a more normal life. Think Rose Noelle.... 3 men adrift for 119 days in an overturned trimaran......a truly amazing story. They were NOT prepared, but survived in such good shape that people they met when they drifted ashore in OZ didn't believe their story!! What if you WERE prepared? How would you be prepared?



H.W.