Bug out Boat

[Swa]

With all the talk lately about Nuclear*war. Has anyone considered an escape plan when the SHTF? What would you do? Where would you go? Would you take your boat? Are you prepped and ready now? *I got into a conversation about it with a friend that's with*the Army special forces. He had much*to say. There is also*a lot of information about*surviving such a scenario on the net, books, prepper stuff etc. I'm thinking of Mexico. 520 miles across*the gulf. Do you think we'll make it? I'm sure we wouldn't have time to check conditions and I'll be pushing the old girl hard.

 

[mvweebles]

I did this calculus shortly after 9/11 events. Stocked boat with food stocks etc. Made a plan with my wife of how to meet if communications were not possible. Destination was less important than simply leaving a high population center such as San Francisco, our home at the time.

I was vaguely familiar with prepper types. I was raised in Salt Lake City Utah and although I'm not Mormon, became familiar with their culture which includes a strong vein of keeping food stuffs just-in-case. The 1970s also saw the burgeoning of isolationist groups - Idaho seemed to have been a mecca of sorts. Populist Bo Gritz ran for president in the period.

I am not a prepper by any means. I'm sure the internet is full of advice. I think you have to decide what the time horizon for your survivalist plan. Days? Weeks? Months? My Willard 36 has 800 watts of solar, a deep freezer, a large LiFePO4 bank, a watermaker, and 450 gals of diesel. It is setup for longterm offgrid cruising, but same attributes would be useful for survival scenario of course. I'd guess we could stay out for at least 2-3 months before replenishing food, but it wouldn't be fun.

As far as Mexico, keep in mind that during times of great change and distress, especially financial distress, crime shoots up out of desparation. Rural Mexico would be fine. But from west Florida, you are headed to the Yucatan Penninnsula with Cancun. Cancun is a city of over a million with a serious crime problem. There are not a lot of cruising destinations and anchorages nearby. I wouldn't rule out Mexico, Belize, and Rio Dulce guatsmsls, but Bahamas might be a better idea.

Peter

 

[Osprey69]

If SHTF, as in nukes, when nuclear winter hits, my understanding is no escape anywhere.

 

[cardude01]

I put this on the “too hard” pile. I’m a worrier by nature, but for a nuclear SHTF event I don’t think I would even want to be survivor, so I don’t worry about this one.

 

[mvweebles]

If SHTF, as in nukes, when nuclear winter hits, my understanding is no escape anywhere.

My reaction is to compare to a hurricane. Sure, you're screwed in a direct Cat 5 hit. No mitigation possible. But there are many storms for which preparation is prudent. In fact, a great majority of storms are such.

Would it not follow that there are gradations of SHTF scenarios?

Peter

 

[kthoennes]

Even though we're trapped above the first dam on the Missouri River, we're very firmly keeping the boat open-water ready under our five-year plan to ship it to Lake Superior and sail (motor) away to the outside world. Just maintaining that standard helps make it a safety-net retreat, at least a little. We might be only boat at our marina with working radar, AIS, all the MMSI stuff in order -- all the extras we never need and almost never use in our bathtub on the Missouri. I have been thinking about adding solar. Got about an acre of completely wasted square footage on the bimini...

If we ever actually need it, I'll call it the Zelensky Memorial solar array.

 

[socalrider]

Every time I go through this thought experiment I come to the following rhetorical question:

Of all the SHTF scenarios, which range from extinction-level-event to, say, a tactical nuke strike in Ukraine, which would be horrific but not a survival situation for *us*, what are the odds that some form of prepping will make the difference between surviving & not?

The answer I keep coming to is that there are a lot of scenarios on the extreme ends of that spectrum (annihilation & non-issue) but proportionally few I can imagine in the middle where some form of prepping might make a difference.

AND, it seems to me that the prepping would need to be pretty extreme - moving far away from population centers, for example.

For me, some basic disaster preparedness is always a good idea, but beyond that the costs get really high & the likelihood of realizing a return on them shrink really fast.

All that said, I do like having a boat with solar & a watermaker, and ~100lbs of wheat on hand.

 

[cardude01]

Every time I go through this thought experiment I come to the following rhetorical question:

Of all the SHTF scenarios, which range from extinction-level-event to, say, a tactical nuke strike in Ukraine, which would be horrific but not a survival situation for *us*, what are the odds that some form of prepping will make the difference between surviving & not?

The answer I keep coming to is that there are a lot of scenarios on the extreme ends of that spectrum (annihilation & non-issue) but proportionally few I can imagine in the middle where some form of prepping might make a difference.

AND, it seems to me that the prepping would need to be pretty extreme - moving far away from population centers, for example.

For me, some basic disaster preparedness is always a good idea, but beyond that the costs get really high & the likelihood of realizing a return on them shrink really fast.

All that said, I do like having a boat with solar & a watermaker, and ~100lbs of wheat on hand.

Well said.

Do you really carry 100 pounds of wheat?

 

[socalrider]

Well said.

Do you really carry 100 pounds of wheat?

Not on board - that's at home. Mostly because I like to bake bread & grind my own flour.

This last summer we departed with 40lbs of freshly ground flour, all of which was converted into freshly baked bread. We ran out 5 weeks into our 6 week cruise. Used a bunch of propane. Mmmm...

 

[cardude01]

Oh man, that sounds amazing. I’m imagining the lovely aroma now.

 

[kthoennes]

Socal is right, good post I think. Unless you turn into a total prepper nut (bomb shelter under the lawn in the backyard kind of thing) it's hard to envision and respond to the full array of possible scenarios. We get bad thunderstorms here, some seasonal flooding and a (thankfully rare) tornado. We had the house wired for a back-up generator -- although the power hasn't failed for more than a few minutes in the 14 years we've been in our house. I bought an additional propane tank last weekend. We're unusually well-stocked on groceries lately, not as disaster prep but because I get really annoyed at the oddball intermittent shortages on basic household products so we stock up more. Ellsworth Airforce Base is about 450 miles away so I don't think they'd lob a nuke anywhere near here, but who knows. Offut AFB just outside Omaha is a little closer. The boat is an hour south. Hard for me to envision needing to retreat to the boat, and that's only an option for half the year anyway, unless we want to live on jack stands under shrink wrap and can't run the engines. It has crossed my mind if there's ever a doomsday gas crisis, we do have a couple hundred gallons in the boat tanks that we could suck out. My family has already joked that if we do get nuked, everybody in my family lives near big cities on the coasts except me, so if they need to retreat here, we'll make room.

If we need to make bread after Doomsday, now I know whose boat to raid -- but first I have to get to San Diego.

 

[socalrider]

Oh man, that sounds amazing. I’m imagining the lovely aroma now.

It's the best & super easy. I just throw flour, water, salt & starter together before bed at night, dump it into loaf pans in the morning, proof for an hour while I have coffee, bake for an hour & you've got bread for a couple of days... well maybe a day with my crew & a couple of their friends.

It's really the only civilized way to survive a nuclear holocaust, bringing this thread back on topic... maybe you experiment with baking in some iodine tablets

 

[socalrider]

If we need to make bread after Doomsday, now I know whose boat to raid -- but first I have to get to San Diego.

I think Dago is right at the top of the list for Russian nuke targets tho! Let's sign a mutual non-aggression pact & I'll head over & live on your boat on jack stands if our town goes first & vise versa

I will admit to having that immoral thought when walking past a really well-kept Island Packet 43(?) with self-steering, fishing gear, water maker, etc... you just need to be able to get there before the owner! I suspect the USCG isn't going to be terribly interested in searching for a missing sailboat while the ICBMs are flying.

 

[N4061]

Where to go?

Thought about this once when we owned the Nordhavn's and decided south to Mexico until we run out of fuel. Never actually planned for it but it was nice to know if we had to make a run (OK, slow crawl) we could.

Fast forward to today and I don't see the little Sandpiper as our escape so if time permitted, we would make a quick run south to the boarder (70 miles away) prior to San Diego getting hit and keep driving 900 miles to Cabo in the truck. At least the truck has AWD in case we need to exit the main roads and take the scenic route. Once we arrive Cabo I would enjoy a few margaritas and watch CNN until the smoke clears. Hopefully this day will never come.

John

 

[MYTraveler]

A true bug out boat should have mechanical engines -- no computer to get fried by EMF. Even carrying spare ECMs may not work since it seems, at least with my QSM11s, that Cummins will not sell a spare ECM as they need, or at least require, the old ECM to download some of the programming data (things like hours, as I understand it). And you don't get your old ECM back, at least not in functioning condition.

 

[ssobol]

Don't forget that if you have something or someplace all nice and cosy and well stocked with food and other supplies, you'll be a target for all those other survivors less prepared than you. Do you have the resources and mindset to defend your little sanctuary?

 

[BandB]

To me, it's such a no win situation, I never give it thought. Who wants to be the lone survivor on a destroyed planet or one of the few in a new lawless and primitive world. One of the things I feel we must believe and we must continue to make sure all believe is that there can be no winner in a nuclear war or WWIII. All losers. I can lose without putting effort into it.

 

[cardude01]

To me, it's such a no win situation, I never give it thought. Who wants to be the lone survivor on a destroyed planet or one of the few in a new lawless and primitive world. One of the things I feel we must believe and we must continue to make sure all believe is that there can be no winner in a nuclear war or WWIII. All losers. I can lose without putting effort into it.

Exactly

 

[Kiltuish]

Well I live on a completely off grid 145 acres with access to food resources etc. and could probably survive most things but I am so disgusted at the state of humanity of the world to the point that I am looking to buy a new BOAT!!! and go float around the great northern coast of BC.

 

[socalrider]

Well I live on a completely off grid 145 acres with access to food resources etc. and could probably survive most things but I am so disgusted at the state of humanity of the world to the point that I am looking to buy a new BOAT!!! and go float around the great northern coast of BC.

What is your address?

 

[Kiltuish]

Undisclosed. I have to many friends inquiring!

 

[Kiltuish]

Undisclosed address. Recently seem to have a lot of friends. Ha Ha, but we are seriously going to go full time boat so will have to exit this great place.

 

[angus99]

Interesting how the sanity (or lack thereof) of one man can dominate the thoughts of most informed people around the globe. I like to think that the oligarchs or the military leaders in Russia are giving Putin a long, but not unlimited, leash and that there is a bullet with his name on it if he gives the launch order. But maybe not . . .

 

[twistedtree]

Dan Streech tells the story and I can only summarize, but in the early days of the Nordhavn 46 they had a flood of orders from Hong Kong residents. All were Cathay pilots, and nervous about the return of Hong Kong to China. The N46 was viewed as the perfect escape pod in case things turned sour.

 

[hollywood8118]

I would steal the biggest nordhavn I could find find fill it with fuel and barrels on deck, Stock it up and head West. Probably to some hole in the wall in BC of Possibly out to the South Pacific . Would it make a difference.. unlikely.

Hopefully my guns are bigger than the next guy.
Hollywood

 

[AlaskaProf]

Stock it up and head West. Probably to some hole in the wall in BC of Possibly out to the South Pacific . Would it make a difference.. unlikely.

Hollywood

Get in my submarine and head for Australia...no wait that doesn't work either.

 

[KnotYet]

On the Beach by Nevil Shute!

 

[Group9]

The best plan is to already be in the place you want to ride the apocalypse out at, before it happens.

 

[AlaskaProf]

On the Beach by Nevil Shute!

 

[Fish53]

The best plan for the scenario you're asking about is to have a reliable handgun to shoot those you love and then yourself, there ain't no place to hide. The worst case would be survival at all, nothing that supports human existence would remain and the violent moonscape you'd be surrounded by wouldn't be very enticing. Also being on a boat wouldn't contribute much safety as many nuclear targets are on, in or near the water and a detonating nuclear warhead will create a local sea condition that would be impossible for smaller vessels to survive. In reality it would appear much more productive to work for a peaceful world rather than hide somewhere with your guns and years supply of MRE's.