Read n Seed 5: fourth quarter of Man vs Wild

The fourth quarter of this book is the last chapter, about the sea, and some extra info about Bear Grylls.  There are many ways you could become stranded at sea, the ones that some to my mind are Tom Hanks in "Cast Away", and obviously "Gilligan's Island". The most important thing that Grylls points out at the beginning of this chapter is that "Unless you sink, freeze, fry, or are eaten before you get there, reaching land will eventually be inevitable".  The point is to get to land, but that might be harder than you think. All of those things Grylss talks about can be avoided just by staying out of the water. The simple way to do that is to have a survival raft, without a raft it can be a matter of hours before you are dead. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't normally put a survival raft in my carry on whenever I get on a plane, so I don't know what you are supposed to do about that. Anyway, once you are in your raft, water is the #1 priority, it seems ironic to be stranded in an ocean, and not have anything to drink. One way you can make drinking water is with a make-shift solar still in your raft, also rainwater is probably the easiest thing if available. Finding food is much easier, seaweed is considered a delicacy in some places, but it must be rinsed in fresh water to be edible. If you have anything reflective, use it at night to create a concentrated light on the water, you will be able to grab fish with your bare hands.  Besides eating and drinking, all you can really do is hope for land or a passing ship, and of course, never give up.
Overall this book was great. I learned several important things. First is that the first step in survival is mental, if you are willing to go on, you will. Secondly is that you have to be creative, it would be really convenient if you got stranded with a survival kit with all the equipment you would need, but you have to be able to put your imagination to improvising.  And thirdly is that you have to be lucky, so save up your karma, it would be terrible to be in one of those situations, however rare you must still be prepared.
I think this book is very important, and I would recommend it to everybody. There is so much information in this book I barely skimmed the top.  If you know just a fraction of the stuff in this book, you will be just fine in any survival situation.

A Pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.