A tropical island, clear sea water on sandy beaches, sun, coral reefs, palm trees, everything that seems to us like a real paradise on earth probably seemed like hell to the famous character from Daniel Defoe's book, Robinson Crusoe...
Photo I took in the summer of 2018 at my favorite beach in Greece. For years I considered this photo the most beautiful picture of the beach in my album, kept it as wallpaper on my phone screen and listed that location and view as the one I would want to be the last thing I would see...
Now, with a topic like this, and the perspectives of being lost on a desert island, the idea doesn't seem very appealing.
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Darkness has fallen.
Storm clouds covered the sky above our heads.
The cargo ship on which we are being transported has fallen into a hurricane in the middle of the ocean. Waves over 10 meters high hit the sides of the ship, threatening to overturn it.
Containers stacked high were an additional threat of capsizing the ship.
The hurricane wind that was blowing sideways, rocked the whole ship so much that the containers on the edge of the deck were swaying and those in the highest positions, the wind had already blown into the ocean. It was necessary to get rid of the cargo, in order to save the ship from capsizing.
The captain gave me the task: "Put on the life belt and go down to the deck with the tool belt and release the container holders from the upper deck, so that they will overturn into the ocean, so as to reduce the risk of overturning the entire ship".
"Understood, Captain."
I received the order and went to get ready. I put on a lifebelt and put a backpack with a rope and carabiners on my shoulders, and around my belt, a walkie-talkie, as well as a holder with tools (hammer, ax, pliers, keys, flashlight...).
I go out on deck and move towards the base of the containers that I have to free.
The captain tells me on the walkie-talkie to speed up because strong gusts of wind will capsize the whole ship.
I release the holders of one row of containers, and in doing so, the gust of wind, which until then was hitting the containers that I had released to fall into the ocean, throws me, along with the containers, over the fance of the ship.
I fall into the ocean from the platform of the ship and briefly lose consciousness.
The cold water quickly woke me up and I heard the voice of my captain calling me on the walkie-talkie. "We won't be able to turn the ship around to get you back. We've written down the location where you fell in. Hold on, as soon as we're out of the hurricane, we're sending a boat to get you".
Through the heated waves, I look at the ship moving away from me.
At one point, from the left side of the ship, a wave over 20m high, a wave bigger than the ship...
Wave folds it over, turns it on its side and sinks it.
I press the button of the walkie-talkie, but on the other side there is silence...
Oh God, is it possible, the whole crew, all my colleagues and friends are on a ship that is sinking to the bottom of the ocean...
All dead...
But, what will happen to me...?
The night still goes on, the lifebelt keeps me on the surface of the swirling ocean.
The coldness of the water puts me to sleep, I can no longer keep my eyes open and look in the direction of the sunken ship, hoping to see any sign of life... Nothing...
Darkness...
I fell asleep.
The bright light that breaks through my eyelids brings me back to consciousness.
I feel a stone under my head and my whole body.
The light I see is certainly not heavenly, because if it were, I would be dead and not feel the pain in my right cheek.
With my eyes closed, I touch my cheek and feel the cut...
I roll onto my back and open my eyes.
Yes, I'm alive.
But where am I?
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** *If you were stranded alone on a tropical island for the rest of your life (no chance of getting off) and could wish someone there with you but doing so would strand them there for the rest of their life also, (you both would die there eventually), would you do it and why, or why not? ***
This is the only scenario that I can imagine that it would happen to me, and that I would find myself on some desert island.
I believe that the scenario with the plane crash, which happened to Tom Hanks in the movie "Cast away", I would not survive if I found myself on a desert island, but come on, for this topic, let that be an option 🙂
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I stand up with pain all over my body and turn around. In front of me is the expanse of the ocean, behind me are tropical trees.
No one in sight.
I take off the life belt, the backpack from my back, release the tool belt.
Finally, I can take a deep breath.
I don't know where I am, but I'm alive.
I have always loved adventure, imagining myself how I would manage if I found myself in this situation... Would I know how to orient myself in space, to know which side of the world is according to the stars, sun or moss, to find water, light a fire, make a shelter, find food...
The equipment and tools that were on my back in my backpack and in my belt would have helped me a lot in that...
I am almost certain that I will be able to survive on the desert island, at least for a while, but I need to start the action immediately, shelter, fresh, drinking water, fire, food and finally the search of the place where I found myself, in order to meet the other inhabitants these out-of-the-way locations, if there are any...
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The topic that @galenkp asked is deep and difficult to decide, but I'm almost sure how I would proceed.
Certainly not like Chris Pratt in the movie "Passengers", when he woke up Jennifer Lawrence from hibernation. The decision of the two of them was voluntary.
They signed up for another planet settlement program, accepting to be put into hibernation that was supposed to last for 120 years...
Leaving their lives outside the lives of their family, friends, society.
But the situation that would bring me to the desert island, would not be by my will.
Fate would force me there.
Far from my family, relatives, friends, colleagues... they wouldn't know that I survived and that I was left somewhere, in an unknown place, to live and die alone.
In that way, torn from the life of my loved ones, I could never imagine the desire for, for example, my wife to appear by my side permanently.
I wouldn't be able to tear her out of the lives of our families like that, because surely #galenkp didn't mean by setting this topic that we would come to an agreement, so that she would voluntarily agree to come and live with me only for the rest of her life (which she might have chosen, but if she knew what she was doing and what she had to decide, so that before that decision she could properly say goodbye to all those closest to her)...
But I could not unilaterally get her by my side.
But I would very gladly accept the company of any other shipwrecked man or woman, with whom I would live for the rest of our lives.
Anyone, besides myself, whom fate would have brought to that island, would have been better company for me than Wilson, Hanks' ball buddy.
My conscience would not allow me to be so selfish and to bring someone else to the hell in which I found myself.
Conscience and morality...
Why would I look for female companionship beside me on a deserted island for the rest of my life?
To create a family and descendants?
Even if I were with a female person who could bear children, the question is whether they would do so. Would they lead to our descendants living in incest, to a brother and sister being in a situation to be sexually attracted to each other (as in the movie "The Blue Lagoon"), or to me, as a man, being in a situation to sexually observe my descendants (as in that's what Craster did in "Game of Thrones").
It's very likely that for the rest of my life, I'd be trying to get off that damned desert island over and over again, trying my best to get the attention of the planes in the sky, if there were any, or distant ships offshore, or I'd just die trying.
I would leave the island even if I died of exhaustion on some improvised raft on which I would head towards the open ocean...
Thank you for stopping by my post and I hope you enjoyed the story I shared with you
This photo is my property, taken with a mobile phone
