Indian Ocean Castaways: Island Life (Part 2 of 2)

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0:56It's March 1981. On a remote island in the Indian Ocean, three people, a young man and two young women, sit on the beach, staring out to sea. It looks as if they've been here for some time. Their hair is long and straggly, and their ribs are clearly defined beneath suntanned skin. 28-year-old Gordon Brace leans back on the bony points of his elbows, and gazes at the ocean. Feathery white clouds fleck the sky, teasing the castaways with the prospect of a rain shower. How badly they could do with one. The heat has been sweltering these last few days, putting a strain on their limited supply of drinking water.

1:44Gordon is staring into the lagoon, when suddenly, after three months marooned, the castaways' senses have become heightened, alert to any boat-shaped specks on the horizon, or any unusual sounds from the sky. Gordon sits up. His two fellow castaways, Elizabeth and Nicole, do the same. They've heard it too. We knew immediately it was a play, and it was just action stations, and we had prepared for this. The marooned sailors leap to their feet. This is not a drill. Nicole sprints to an SOS sign etched in the sand, filling in the letters with sticks and palm fronds. Elizabeth rushes over to the campfire and hurls a special chemical powder onto the flames, which instantly billows a thick emerald green smoke, signaling distress.

2:36Gordon, meanwhile, races to the makeshift life raft and starts pulling it down the beach. The most obvious thing was to get in the raft and go into the lagoon, because from the air, the thing that you will spot that's out of place will be a vessel in the lagoon. Gordon paddles furiously as the drone of the plane gets louder. He squints up into the cloudless blue expanse, shielding his eyes from the sun. He starts yelling and waving his arms, groan desperate, his head jerking left and right as the raft bobs and bucks beneath him. And then, there it is, directly overhead. High, high above, there is a gunmetal grey US Navy aircraft trailing ribbons of white vapour across the azure sky.

3:25Optimism swells, and then deflates, as the plane soars obliviously past the island. Gordon can only watch helpless, as the aircraft makes a wide banking turn, not back towards them, but south. away from their little atoll. Within seconds, their would-be salvation is out of sight, leaving nothing but a distant echo and a smear of fading contrails. Gordon kneels on the raft, chest heaving, staring after the plane. Did they see us? Didn't they see us? Didn't they see us? Didn't they see us? It became obvious that they hadn't spotted us.

4:13Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we return to Gordon Brace and the rest of the crew of the Mykon. After almost two weeks at sea, and with just four hours worth of fuel left in the tank, the sailors have reached the island they originally set out to find. The one rumored to contain a stash of diesel drums hidden somewhere in the trees.

4:53The number one thing was to try and find that diesel, and we explored it so we couldn't find it. Without fuel, the crew faces the grim reality of being stuck here indefinitely. And the place they have landed could hardly be more isolated. This island, within the Peros Baños Atoll, is one of the remotest places on the planet. A seldom visited speck of jungle, thousands of miles from the nearest mainland. We had no long-range radio, so we couldn't call anybody. We had flares, not that many, so highly unlikely that we would be found. With no rescue in sight, escaping the island will soon be replaced by another immense challenge.

5:33One with no finish line and no room for error. I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is Real Survival Stories.

6:04It's late December 1980. On Ile du Croix, a remote island roughly 2 ,000 miles east of the coast of Africa, five castaways stand with their backs to the ocean. In front of them looms a wall of dense jungle. Here and there, corrugated iron structures peek through the foliage, dilapidated buildings, the only remnants of this island's inhabited past. Clearly now the place is deserted, empty, save for the five new arrivals. Gordon Brace, his wife Elizabeth, and their three crewmates, Dave Faulkner, Nicole Hascoe, and Ken Alton. We found this sort of big barn area with this roof and big pillars, and we cleared it out so that we had some shelter.

6:56a rudimentary type of clearing out, get it livable kind of thing, so we could get off the boat. After clearing out the barn, the crew spends the rest of the day ferrying items across from the which is anchored in the lagoon. Later, when the sun starts to set, they find places to bed down. Dave, Ken and Nicole head to sheltered spots away from the beach, but Gordon and Elizabeth spread their blankets right there on the sand, gazing up at the awesome canopy of stars. Tomorrow, all being well, they'll find the diesel drums in the jungle and plot their onward journey.

7:41The next day was just a day of exploration. The number one thing was to try and find that diesel. All day, Gordon and the others scour the trees at the top of the beach. But there's no sign of the diesel drums Still, it's only day one There are many parts of the island they haven't explored yet No need to panic And in the meantime, there are plenty of distractions to keep them busy As they comb through the jungle The castaways discover more and more about the island's history We found some quarters that must have been the slave quarters It looked very much like slave quarters Pretty run down Found a few other odds and ends the little cemetery.

8:23As they piece together these ghostly clues about the island's past, the castaways also discover more about its geography. From what they can tell, Ile-de-Croix is roughly three miles long and about a mile wide. The southern side of the island is marshy and open, with a grove of needle-covered trees rising from the brackish swamp. The island's north side is dense and overgrown. On their third day, Gordon and Dave are beating a path through the jungle when suddenly Dave cries out. He has seen something glinting through the trees. Cut our way through and we find this pile of drums. We kick the one drum, boom, it's empty.

9:06Next one, boom, empty. Boom, empty, empty. It's like, oh, these drums are all then, Tina. Gordon and Dave exchange worried glances. If there's no diesel in these drums, then they're stuck here. But just when they're about to go and break the bad news to the others, they spot another collection of drums hidden in the bushes. So we went there and Dave went and kicked one. Poof. Poof. This one's full. This one's full. And we found 11 full drums of diesel. Incredibly, the outlandish story told to Ken by a group of strangers about fuel hidden on a desert island. Turns out to be totally true. Gordon and Dave race back to tell the others on the beach.

9:50The news is met with unbridled relief, especially by the captain. At 52, Ken is the oldest member of the crew, but you wouldn't think it to look at him. Imposingly tall and strong as a bull shark, the former big-game fisherman has a fiery streak, and a temperament he rarely bothers to hide. With a roar of triumph, Ken jumps into the dinghy and rows out to the Maikon to start the engine. Gordon and the others wait and watch from the beach.

10:22About 20 minutes later, the captain rows back to shore. Even from a distance, it's clear something is wrong. Ken's eyes are ablaze. The muscles in his giant forearms tense angrily. And he came back. The guy was beside himself. He was furious. And it's like, what's happened? What's wrong? He said the batteries are flat. He said he can't start the engine. It's completely flat. He figured the alternator hadn't been charging. Now we got a problem. They've got the diesel, but it's useless if the boat's batteries are dead. A hush descends as the gravity of this discovery sinks in.

11:08Later, once Ken has calmed down a little, they sit around the campfire to discuss their predicament. One thing's for certain. With no way to start the engine, they won't be sailing out of it, even with the assistance of the sail and the outboard motor. Both were intended to work in tandem with the main engine, not as replacements. They wouldn't stand a chance on the open ocean. Their only hope of getting off this island is if a passing boat happens to stumble across them. And on that front, Ken's outlook is bleak. He reckoned two years before we'd be found. That was Ken's estimation. Unless somebody by chance, some yachty, wanted to come and explore those islands, he said it was highly unlikely anybody would find us.

11:54We had no long-range radio, so we couldn't call anybody. We had flares, not that many. So highly unlikely that we would be found anytime soon. So we kind of accepted that. We kind of planned in our minds to be there for a couple of years.

12:18The realization that it could be two years or more until they're rescued creates something of an ideological split in the camp. For Ken, it's simply more motivation to find another way to get off the island as soon as possible. He starts workshopping potential solutions and soon settles on a creative means of starting the boat's engine by using a wind turbine to kickstart the alternator. This could make matters worse, but he seems determined to do something. Ken's urgency, however, is not shared by everyone. For their part, Gordon and Elizabeth stoically accept the two-year prognosis. If they're going to be stuck here for that long, they'll need to focus on how to survive with what they've got.

13:03So while Ken busies himself with his engineering project, Gordon and Elizabeth continue to explore the island One afternoon, Gordon is cutting a path through the jungle when his machete strikes something solid And I hit a wall, bam, and I thought, what the hell's this, bam So I pull the vines aside and I uncovered this bungalow in the middle of the jungle And it looked pretty livable Gordon spends the next couple of days cleaning out the bungalow. And it doesn't scrub up too badly. I then uncovered an old stainless steel tank next to the house. And it was like a little washroom there. So I built catchments across the roof of the house to catch rainwater to go into the tank.

13:46And then I made a shower. Gordon's survivalist upbringing is certainly paying dividends now. One by one he ticks off their list of needs. shelter, drinking water, hygiene. It's not much but it gives them a fighting chance of making it through this very long game. In the course of their exploration the castaways also discover other houses often rotted and collapsing but they do manage to scavenge a few useful items from within. We found this base of a double bed in there and I claimed it and the mattress we had on the boat was a perfect fit it was great so we started making ourselves was quite comfortable.

14:27The castaways variously settle into their own quarters, with the barn on the beach reserved as a communal space, one they jokerly christen a clubhouse. They unload their provisions from the boat and set about creating as much of a sense of normality as possible. Chairs are arranged around a campfire, which is kept permanently fed with kindling from the jungle. They gather together kitchen utensils, crockery, as well as their collection of books and board games. A portable wood stove is placed over the fire for cooking. But for all their progress in making things more comfortable, there remain several glaring issues to contend with.

15:08Firstly, and most pressingly, their limited food. Elizabeth looked at the supplies that we had, and we had a bit of porridge, we had a bit of coffee, hot chocolate, a couple of biscuits. So what she did is she made, like Monday was porridge day, and then Wednesday would be biscuit day, and we'd just get two biscuits. The rationing became very strict. The canned foods, we didn't touch, because they would keep. The first week on the island is spent adjusting to their new surroundings. Their evenings are spent sharing meals and listening to the BBC World Service, still incredibly reachable on their little radio.

15:47They even manage to make their own alcohol using syrup collected from the flowers of the coconut palms, fermenting the sweet sap along with some yeast they have on the boat, creating a small supply of moonshine. But despite all the progress they've made, for some of the castaways, the island feels less like a home and more like a prison. The desire to escape remains as strong as ever, and soon there will be trouble in paradise.

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18:46A week after their arrival on the island, Ken bursts into the clubhouse. His turbine is ready for testing. Gordon and the others follow him down to the beach where he set up his invention. It's quite a sight. The windmill consists of two beams fastened together to form a cross. Plywood panels have been nailed to the end of each arm, creating four large blades. Finally, an elaborate system of wires and pulleys connects the spinning mechanism to the alternator. A stiff breeze blows in from the ocean as Ken points his contraption in the direction of the wind. Then he and the others stand back and wait.

19:31They worked like a bomb, they spun like a bomb. I actually joked about the fact that we could use it to fly out of it. It was spinning so fast. Gordon can see Ken bristle with optimism as his windmill spins faster and faster. They watch the alternator with bated breath, waiting for it to rumble into life. But it doesn't. The alternator would just not charge. It couldn't get it to charge. There wasn't a spark coming out of it. Ken barks a few obscenities and storms over to the windmill, chuntering under his breath. Over the next few days he continues to labor over his contraption, making countless tweaks and refinements.

20:12But eventually, after several more unsuccessful attempts, he gives up. He stalks back to camp and collapses into a chair by the fire, glowering darkly into the smoking embers. As much as those things spun furiously, wouldn't charge the batteries. We were stuck. We were stranded. There's no way we'd get off the island without that. So that changed the whole dynamic. Everything changed after that.

20:46It's January 1981. Gordon and Dave are wading out into the lagoon, armed with a spear gun and two snorkels. After realizing fairly quickly that their stock of rice and flour wouldn't cut it, the castaways have had to turn to another source of food. I would say 90 % of our food came from the ocean, came from the sea. I mean, there were moray eels, there were clams, there was lobsters, crayfish, cucumbers, and different kinds of fish. So we could mix it up, but it was an everyday mission I had to go out and get food from the sea. Normally, Gordon ventures out alone. But today, Dave was asked to tag along.

21:29He wants to learn the rope so that he can help share the burden of providing food for the camp. The pair of them swim out to the reef, where it doesn't take long for Dave to spear his first catch. A decent-sized sweet-lips fish. Gordon dives to retrieve the speared creature, which is lodged in the coral several meters down. As Dave waits near the surface, Gordon yanks the spear from the coral. But when he turns to swim back up, he spots something. A pale flash, darting from the deep. And I turned, and out of the deep blue, there was this torpedo coming at Dave. It was a mecca shark coming at full speed, and they are the fastest freaking shark, and they are vicious damn things.

22:18And this big buck-toothed, pointy-dose thing was coming straight at him. In the course of his daily fishing expeditions, Gordon has seen plenty of sharks, mostly smaller, more docile species, scavengers who wait for him to spear a fish before darting from the shadows to pinch it. But mako sharks aren't mere scavengers. They are hunters in their own right. And this one has its sights set on Dave. Gordon spits out his mouthpiece and yells through the water. Dave looks around. A bluish-grey blur of teeth and pectoral fins is barreling towards him. With a flail of limbs, Dave turns and starts powering himself towards the shore, legs kicking like pistons.

23:01Then, suddenly, his pursuer changes direction. Clutching the speared fish in one hand, Gordon can only watch horrified as the shark turns with a swish of its tail and fixes its cold black eyes onto him. And now this shark came at me, and I kicked my fins at this shark, and he backed off a bit, and when they come at you, they drop their pectoral fins, and they arc their back, and then you know he's coming. And he came in again, and this time, because I couldn't fend him off properly, I blew bubbles at him. And this really worried the shark. He didn't like these bubbles, and it worked, and he backed off a bit.

23:41As the predator backs off, Gordon seizes his chance. He pushes off and starts pumping his fins towards the surface. Filling his lungs with oxygen, Gordon glances over his shoulder. Is he being followed? Sure enough, a grey, dorsal fin slices through the waves as the shark mounts another charge. The two men race towards the nearby jetty, swimming for their lives. Don't let anybody tell you a mecca doesn't go into shallow water. This thing followed us aggressively all the way to shallow water, and we eventually got to the end of the jetty, and we clambered up onto the jetty, and this shark smacked its tail in front of us and then turned around and cruised out to the deep again.

24:27Gasping for breath and buzzing with adrenaline, Gordon and Dave watch as the shark slinks back off into the deep. The commotion in the water must have caught the attention of the others on the beach because Elizabeth and Nicole have come rushing down the jetty to check on Gordon and Dave. All four of them head back to the clubhouse, talking energetically about their thrillingly close encounter. But when they reach camp, they discover that not everyone sees the fun side. Ken glares at them, his arms folded in disapproval. He said, what if you guys are getting bitten by the shark? What do I do? What do we do?

25:03He was really upset. And you could see the wheels turning. He said, we've got to get off. We've got to get off here. Somehow we've got to get off. Over the course of the next week, Ken's frustration builds. The big man spends hours pacing back and forth, deep in thought, a lit cigar held between gritted teeth. As Gordon and Elizabeth continue to adjust to island life, they can only watch as Ken descends deeper and deeper into cabin fever. It got to him more than the rest of us. He felt imprisoned. He wasn't a guy to sit around and do nothing. And he was getting agitated about this feeling of being trapped on the island.

25:47After the failure of his wind turbines, Ken's focus has shifted. His new obsession is the Maikens' tiny 25-horsepower outboard engine. They only brought it along in case of emergencies, as a last-ditch backup should any problems arise with the principal engine. It's more like something that you'd attach to the back of a small speedboat. It wouldn't pass muster against ocean currents. But Ken is becoming increasingly desperate. One day, the castaways are on board the Maika, exploring some of the other islands in the atoll. They're using the outboard motor to chug across the lagoon, which is about the limit of its capabilities.

26:28When suddenly the captain makes an announcement. Ken says, I want to take this boat out to sea. I said, you've got to be kidding. He said, no, I want to see how it works in the open ocean. And before he could say anything, we headed out through the passage into the open sea. And he wanted to test this boat out there. And we get out in the open sea and this damn motor sputters and stops. Gordon glares at Ken as the boat limply stutters to a halt. What did he expect would happen? At least now the older man will surely give up on his mad scheme. After a few attempts, they managed to restart the engine and return to the island.

27:11But the experience has not deterred Ken. Quite the opposite. The next day Ken comes and he says, I think it's my responsibility that I do something to get off this island and go and get help. I said, well, how are you going to do that? He said, well, that 25-horsepower engine, I can mount it. And with the petrol that we've got, I've worked out I've got enough petrol to get to Diego Garcia.