"To end with: Many urban Americans hunger for precisely 'these kind of Adventures.' They oh-so-want what the sailor experienced for real: stranded and alone in the wilderness for five fantastic days."

Um, they do?

To clarify, I was under the impression that urban Americans' idea of a "wilderness adventure" usually includes plentiful amounts of decent food, water, and L.L. Bean supplies. But maybe that's just me.

thanks, Charles, for telling us what we Americans want. I always get confused on that point.

Did you see the names of the lichen? Stonewall Rim-Lichen and Bare-Bottom Sunburst Lichen!

What I don't get is why he didn't eat the seaweed. It fills you up.

Oh yeah, I really want to spend five days stranded on an island eating lichen. Are you fucking nuts? (Wait - don't answer that.)

@ 5 Exactly what I was thinking. He would have been much better off eating the kelp and seaweed.

"Who the fuck are you quoting?" I'm not sure if you mean to or not, but you come off "extremely arrogant."

I come from a long line of urbanites, with absolutely no desire to "connect with nature." Nature can suck it.

Bethany, you and your militant particularism.

Stonewall Rim-Lichen and Bare-Bottom Sunburst Lichen--holy shit, Bethany, even I missed it. I'm slow today.

I'm not American, but I fall into that (somewhat sad) category. If the opportunity arose, I would like to spend 5 days or so on my own in a very remote place. I would want a knife, a torch, some rope and a lighter (unreliable, I know, but I hate using flint, and matches are too flimsy). And I'd probably take a first-aid kit, just to be safe.

Also, if it was going to be in Canada - like this poor guy - I'd probably add a wool blanket to that list.

So, many urban American may want to be alone in the wilderness, but I can guarantee you that they also want (1) food and (2) some assurance that they're not going to die alone in said wilderness.

I should point out you can get a mild case of MSG overdose from seaweed, as it's a source. But if you're starving, seriously, you should be eating (on West Vancouver Island):

bugs, worms (cook both close eyes swallow)
seaweed (made into soup is best)
small mussels and other such things in the sea rocks (unless red tide season) (cook if you can)

if you don't have fire, it's pretty rough, but lichen also burns when dry, as well as being edible

mushrooms are pushing it if you don't know which are safe

(technically you can eat birds, but ... i don't recommend it)

Yeah, I know people who crave that type of adventure...after they've dropped a grand at REI for supplies, and no fucking way they're eating lichen.

you can eat lichen. the old people used to eat boiled caribou stomachs with the lichen still in it. a great delicacy. but i guess the caribou maybe did some of the digesting of it for you?

Where does anyone get the idea that there was kelp or seaweed nearby?
It sounds like this guy made bad decisions from the start. He and his friend went to Anacortes to buy a boat and then almost immediately after left for Mexico? I have to wonder how thoroughly they had checked out the boat before departing. It's a very bad idea to leave for a long-distance cruise before first doing a shakedown trip to identify any potential problems with the boat.
If the boat "started to fall apart" a couple of days into the trip, there were obviously problems with it that they didn't identify before setting out.
And how did his survival gear immediately go missing out of his lifeboat?
Sounds like some serious negligence to me. He's lucky he's not dead.

He's also lucky he's still got both feet.

o_O

Plenty of shellfish abound. Sea urchins, mussels, and oysters are abundant. But might be kind of hard to open, admittedly.

@19:

That's what rocks are for. Even seagulls have figured that one out.

I've been kind of obsessed with eating the kind of black tree lichen that grows east of the Cascades, and last fall I baked a loaf of it in something vaguely resembling what the interior Salish tribes traditionally cooked.. but that's probably completely different than the kind this guy ate.

He's since been arrested by the CBSA- apparently this poor sailor isn't so innocent. What I want to know is, how do you get blown off course and end up in Tahsis - its on northern Vancouver island - thats a long ways away from Anacortes. If he had ended up on southern vancouver island, i'd find the story totally believable. but something seems fishy.