92
votes
Accepted
Jumping off of a cliff into water - survival tips
There's an abandoned quarry near me where local kids used to jump off the topmost cliff edge, 100 feet up, every summer. When done properly it is survivable without injury.
You have to break the ...
- 866
44
votes
Accepted
How do people drown while wearing a life jacket?
Life jackets do not make one drownproof, just increase your odds significantly.
Our data also show that over 80% of drowning victims were NOT wearing life jackets when
found. We know from other ...
- 69.2k
41
votes
How do people drown while wearing a life jacket?
In the specific case you mention, both the NY Post and Deutsche Welle say that the cause of death is still being investigated, and both of them point out the low water temperature (the victims were ...
- 3,752
37
votes
Accepted
How to transport personal belongings while swimming long distance?
There are these types of dry-bags that float and are combined with a leash and waist band. They are often marketed as primarely a "safety buoy", as they provide you with visibility, which is ...
- 21.7k
37
votes
Accepted
Ways to desalinate water when "lost at sea"?
Salt dissolves in water so will pass though a normal filter or cloth. You can try that with a coffee filter at home. So there's definitely an error in the article.
A still (i.e. distillation ...
- 26.1k
37
votes
Ways to desalinate water when "lost at sea"?
You can place an empty cup in the middle of a lightly filled bucket of sea water. You then place a plastic bag over the bucket, with a stone in the middle so it has a dip in it over the cup. The sea ...
- 471
30
votes
Accepted
Surfacing out of a sunken ship/submarine - Survival Tips
Even though the question describes a hypothetical and unlikely situation I think it has some merits as it is somewhat relevant for SCUBA diving also: it describes an emergency uncontrolled SCUBA ...
- 12.7k
24
votes
Surfacing out of a sunken ship/submarine - Survival Tips
First and foremost: Don't Panic
At 30m, you'll be fine if you can free yourself within about 20 minutes and know what you're doing. That being said, there is a good chance you won't know your exact ...
- 341
23
votes
Accepted
Can I get fresh water from ocean fish flesh?
Let's say you lose 2 liters of water per day. To replace 2 liters of water by eating fish, you need to eat, for example, 2,500 g of cooked Pacific cod, which, besides water, also contains 500 g of ...
- 1,329
23
votes
Jumping off of a cliff into water - survival tips
Feet first is always best - you might break your legs if you hit the bottom, but at least you won't break your back, neck, or be knocked unconscious - all of which can kill you, either through the ...
- 9,664
20
votes
How to keep paper from being damaged by water in the outdoors?
At the risk of stating the obvious...
... just not letting your paper get wet in the first place is by far the easiest and cheapest solution.
How you might ask? These solutions worked well for me in ...
- 12.7k
20
votes
Had to drink untreated water: Any immediate action to avoid getting sick?
The best thing you can do to both ward off illness, and catch any illness so it can be treated early, is to schedule an appointment with your doctor, soon. When you request the appointment, make sure ...
- 4,384
19
votes
How do people drown while wearing a life jacket?
PFDs come in various flavours:
The best ones have sufficient floatation around the neck, and enough more flotation on the front compared to the back, than an unconscious victim is naturally rotated ...
18
votes
Hanging water bags for bathing without tree damage
Instead of using the branch as a pulley, lift the bag into position with one hand while pulling the slack out of the rope with the other. If the bag is too heavy to lift over your head with one hand, ...
- 4,384
17
votes
How to keep paper from being damaged by water in the outdoors?
The solution to this problem is waterproof paper. You can get it in notebooks, journals, legal sized for printing maps or documents etc. I have also seen at least one organization that had their ...
- 69.2k
16
votes
Jumping off of a cliff into water - survival tips
Well, first thing first, 100' (30 metre) is likely not to end well for you. So really the question stops being valid way before that.
Second, if you've ever spent anytime diving and had the pleasure ...
14
votes
Hanging water bags for bathing without tree damage
Using anatolyg's idea of the carabiner, I think this will work. Thank you Anatolyg!
- 465
13
votes
How to transport personal belongings while swimming long distance?
Until you got to "shorts and T shirt" I'd have said a waterproof belt bag. I've used them kayaking (on the rare occasions when it's warm enough to go without a drysuit or at least dry-cag in the UK) ...
- 26.1k
13
votes
Does adding new water to disinfected water clean that one as well?
Generally no, it doesn't.
Chemical disinfection requires a certain concentration of the active chemical, and by diluting it you've got a weaker solution. This is like using a tablet for more water ...
- 26.1k
12
votes
Accepted
Hanging water bags for bathing without tree damage
Make a figure-8-on-a-bight knot on the center of your rope; clip a carabiner into the knot. Clip the center of a second rope into the carabiner.
Toss your first rope over the tree branch using the ...
- 4,486
10
votes
Ways to desalinate water when "lost at sea"?
Disclaimer: This is not safe. This is not well tested. This belongs here, not on the other question. This is weak evidence in collaboration for the drinking seawater claim.
On request by Seth ...
- 613
9
votes
Surfacing out of a sunken ship/submarine - Survival Tips
Escaping a sunken ship or submarine has some similarities to an emergency ascent in the course of SCUBA diving, but it's not identical to it.
First the differences:
You don't have fins. Without ...
8
votes
Titanic survival, ice cold water?
The US Coast Guard has done a number of studies too try and predict this and it looks like survival times can are highly dependent on the person and what they are wearing when all of the other factors ...
- 69.2k
8
votes
Accepted
What is the minimum amount of water per day to survive?
According to NAP.edu, the minimal (obligatory) daily water loss for an adult is at least 1 liter (~1 quart), which includes losses by the urine, feces, insensible perspiration and breathing (but not ...
- 1,329
8
votes
How to keep paper from being damaged by water in the outdoors?
One option is to laminate your paper. Normal lamination pouches aren't ideal. You need special pens for them, and they always fail at some point (usually when you need them). There are matte ...
- 21.7k
8
votes
How can divers be sure that there are no sharks or other lethal water animals where they dive?
People have varying levels of shark awareness, anxiety and tolerance. To start with, you're really quite unlikely to get eaten by a shark. Much more likely to drown for some reason.
A big part of ...
8
votes
Drinking very cold water in cold weather at what temperatures is it dangerous?
As others commented, it depends. But unless you are at camp 4 on Everest or in a similar extreme situation, it won't actually matter much.
If you do the math or let online calculators do it for you (i....
- 1,077
7
votes
Finding water in the dry wilderness
Look at the surrounding terrain and think what water would do when it rains.
No place is perfectly flat for very long, so suface water will flow away from some place and gather in others. Someplace ...
- 21.4k
7
votes
Where can I find public water tap for cleaning/bathing in the Netherlands?
There is a website which has a map listing all public fountains, some examples of how the fountains look can be found here. But most Dutch people tend to be friendly, so if you ask them if you can "...
- 230
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible