Choices
 

What would you choose?

Water purifier, tent, matches, and rifle.

Water purifier, tent, matches and knife.

Water purifier, pot, matches, knife

Hang on a minute




Inflatable raft?



Ok that's interesting.

With the rod you get a reel of fishing line, that's the important part there...

With the pot (and fire) you get purified water... and a vessel to carry and gather water...

With the flare gun you get a handful of fire starters and an impromptu weapon...

The raft is a tent, when upside-down...

The weed will naturally attract stoners who will smell it from the shipping lanes...

Tent, pot, matches, knife

Pot, Matches, Knife, and Weed.

You'd have everything you need to make weed soup.

I'd bet that I could find something to eat.

A hammock might make a nice fishing net, at least to catch some smaller bait fish

If you don't choose hiking boots, does that mean you're barefoot? Is the water purifier good enough to desalinate more than a gallon or two without getting permanently clogged? How much ammo comes with the rifle and flare gun?

All you really need is a large quantity of duct tape (plus the clear plastic wrapping the duct tape came in.) Mythbusters told me so.

That's why I chose the knife. It never runs out of ammunition.

oh i doubt you could desalinate anything with that, but if you had a pot and a tarp you could boil sea water, condense the evaporating water onto the tarp, and direct that shit into a cup, if you had a cup. Like they do in movies and tv i seen it

Knives are popular in the preparation phase because they're small and more likely to be carried; or, available in a portable kit. But try taking fish in the shallows, birds in flight (or on the ground); or, mammals and reptiles with a knife. A rifle will do all that with relative ease. A knife is also among the choices most easy to improvise. Knapping will yield flakes with cutting edges. But try improvising a rifle, water purifier; or matches.

If entertainment is your priority, you could choose the weed, rifle, mirror and hand saw. Then get stoned and do some over the shoulder trick shooting using the mirror trying to hit the saw blade to make it sing.

Giving this serious thought, water is the biggest issue on all the small islands I have been on. Fresh water either doesn't exist or is so nasty that a purifier or boiling would do nothing. The tarp would let you collect rain water and you need a pot to put it in. Matches to get a fire going to try to distill salt water out of the pot, onto the tarp and maybe drip into your mouth. The only realistic chance at survival is getting rescued and a mirror is best for that because it will work for years and over great distances and a flare gun will only work if somebody is looking already.

The tent material can be used much like the tarp for obtaining water and makes for better shelter at night. Sink part of the tent floor into a depression in the ground and it will hold water away from contaminants.

The OP doesn't say the island is in saltwater. I'm working from the premise that fresh water is available either around; or, on the island otherwise the water purifier wouldn't have been offered as a choice. If there's no fresh water, you have only 3 to 5 days of useful function; so, you may as well opt for all the potential signaling devices. That is unless you're really good at rain dances.

I don't want to be on a deserted island with only four of these items.

I would die.

Tent, pot, mirror, knife.
I was going to go for tarp as roof and water collector, but UT is right, tent will also collect water and has handy guy ropes ....
Pot for water purifying/cooking
Knife - because I'm more like to find/trap small mammals/fish/birds so knife to kill/prepare.
And mirror because I'm vain. No, because of signalling and starting fires ....

I saw that.

How do you start a fire with a mirror?

Pile up some kindling and use the mirror to focus sunlight on the pile.

Yes, but that's a special type of mirror, a normal mirror won't do that.

And another one...

Link

Late in the year as well.

Makeup/shaving mirrors are magnifying mirrors with a concave reflecting surface that can focus the sunlight. Flat mirrors, like the one depicted in the choices, don't do that.

The optics in the rifle scope can be used to focus sunlight though (some disassembly may be required).

If you were one of the choices, a survivor wouldn't go hungry. :eek:

I took a catamaran out to Lady Musgrave Island as part of a snorkeling trip. If you look at photos of the place, it looks like a tropical paradise. But when you are there in person, it's a hot, dry, bird shit infested hell hole. There are plenty of fish and lots of birds. There are small trees to provide some shade. The ground is covered in sharp broken coral and shells. I spent most of my time there snorkeling on the beautiful reef, but the hour on the island was more than enough. So hot. The birds seemed like they would be easy to catch but I didn't try. They might have flown away if I tried to grab one. Is there enough moisture in a bird to keep you going? I read Unbreakable, and that guy survived without water for quite a while.

Tarp, knife, fishing rod, flare gun