Worst Case Scenario with Abi Clarke and Julia Stenton - Day 1 - The Robertson Family - Part 1

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

In the first ever episode of Worst Case Scenario, Abi Clarke and Julia Stenton share the story of how one Dad's dream for his family turned into a nightmare. With Dougal Roberston at the helm of his newly bought boat, Lucette, he set sail for the Caribbean in 1972 with his wife and sons. But, after being capsized by a pod of orca, they found themselves scrambling into the lifeboat 200 miles off the coast of the Galapagos Islands.Send in tales of survival from your own worst case scenario to [e-mail] and follow the podcast on Instagram @wcspodTheme tune by the brilliant Crizard who can be found on Instagram @crizards Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get attacked by an angry shark Stuck up a mountain in the dark Pushed off the top of a big landmark Hit by lightning in your local park Caught in a downpour of acid rain Struck by meteor or a train A proton beam passing through your brain Attacked by that angry shark again

Hear how they survive Trappled by a herd of buffalo chased with an axe by your new friend Joe Buried alive in a pile of snow It's not the worst case scenario. Hello. Hi. Episode one.

Oh my God. It's finally happening. Here we go. Who are you? We've just started. It's a bit. I'm Abby Clark. I'm Julia Stenton.

We're based stand at comedians. I also do social media. And I'm in my 30s. Yeah. But despite the glaring age gap, Julia's my best friend. Colleague. We both met at our very first gig in Bristol back in 2019 where we... Feels like longer, doesn't it?

Okay. All right. I blame the lockdown. Okay, yeah. Those years you were without me. Yeah, they felt long. So we immediately bonded over morbid stories and true crime. But our favourite true crime stories are the ones of survival.

Yes. We love those ones. We like a happy ending. Like most true crime fans, our first words to each other were, have you heard of Mary Vincent? Yeah. When we announced this podcast, one of the first comments was you have to do Mary Vincent. No.

Yeah. She's just the name. Yeah. When I moved into my new house share and I said I liked true crime, my housemate Ash, went, oh my God, have you heard the story of that girl? And I was like, Mary Vincent. Wow. She's like the name.

She's a hero. I mean, what a survival story. And she's genuinely why we're making this podcast. Yeah. So we have to save her for a very special episode. Yeah, we have to definitely. If you don't know who Mary Vincent is, where the hell have you been? But she was attacked by a man who cut both her arms off.

That's right. We're going hard. Everyone's straight in. Keep it like. Cut both her arms off and threw her down. Was it a ravine? Yeah. Mountain?

I believe it was a mountain. yeah let's go ravine something very tall yeah um and then at the bottom she caked her severed arms in mud yeah to stop the bleeding to stop the bleeding climbed back up the ravine slash cliff and survived to tell the tail in court how inspiring is that we cannot measure up to that and now she walks dogs oh there's like a really nice picture of her just like with loads of leads and loads of dogs Yeah. She also probably does a lot more important things, but I like the dogs. And as we are now overly anxious recovering true crime addicts, we've consumed too much. Probably all the true crime there is. Yeah. A lot of it. Every day, whenever there's silence in my life, I went to a like course

recently, like a podcast course, because I take, I take this shit seriously. And they were like, let's go around the room and say what podcasts we all listen to and when. And everyone was like, oh well I like listen to this gossip podcast and I like to listen to this documentary and I listen to this and a bit of that and it got to me I was like I exclusively listen to true crime and when oh yeah whenever there's just like

silence in my life. Yeah, trying to fall asleep and everyone just like scooted their chair just away from me a little bit genuinely though. I'm surprised you were the only one. True crime's huge. Maybe just because I surround myself with people who also like true crime so I feel like it's a big deal. It is a big deal.

I think so. But I think some people balance it with other kinds of podcasts whereas I'm like nope yeah no me neither I have one thing and I like but we do like survival more which is why we've made this because I was like I just wish I had a true kinds of podcast where they always survive it does take some of the anxiety out of it a little bit because I think I've just got to a point where I just believe I'm screwed in every situation and I just needed a little bit of hope to be like oh okay even if you know the worst case scenario nice got the title in there really but like even if you get into your work nightmare like survival is possible and it's good to be reminded of that yeah and that's what

this podcast is going to do for us yeah and you hopefully actually it's it's just for me you guys are just here to not even me just listen i don't know we'll see okay um but yeah we're going to be basically telling each other shocking inspiring survival stories we can find um and take one thing from each story to add to a survival toolkit to um help us survive Yeah, to help us in our own lives, maybe. Well, I don't feel like many of them are relevant to, like, everyday life. But it's good to have in your back pocket. But should the situation arise, we know what to whack out.

There we go. And what else, Julia? We also want to hear from you, because we're going to end every episode with some listener stories of survival. Yes. So if you have a story where you've survived the worst case scenario. Whatever you take that to mean. Yeah. So send them to help.

at WCSpod.com. I survived a wasp the other day. Okay. Maybe worse than that. No, it was bad. Okay. Let me tell you. No, I didn't, I gave up my room for three days. I don't know if we want to set this as the bar.

Do you know what? I was like, you take your time, mate. You've taken up squatters rights. Just let me know when you're done with the room. Did it officially check out or? No, it died down the side of my wardrobe. Okay. But I couldn't sleep in there until I found it and confirmed.

were you popping in every day just to check or was it yeah yeah yeah i set out a trap but that didn't work everyone was like why don't you open the window because there were more wasps outside the window i think there may be an ass i called a exterminator for one wasp you didn't i didn't even they did abby clara okay okay okay but yeah i couldn't open the window to let out the window because there were more wastes outside and they'd just come in yeah so that's why i just gave up the room i was like you know what mate fair enough you okay you have your time but because there were so many outside the window we were like there's probably a nest yeah so he ran the exterminator he couldn't come that day so i was like okay can you come tomorrow

he did loveliest man what a guy um but obviously when he turns up all the other wasps are gone yeah um funny how they do that to be fair the was where my room was gone oh god but like not like i hadn't found it so this exterminated corpse yet so like i still wasn't sleeping in the room okay so he just like turned up and he looked he was like well i can't see anything so i can't help but like he was like you're going to have to be fair i'm still worried because then for the next few days every day i found a dead bee and that's worse because like bees are cute and so we need to save the bees yeah we need to save the bees no one's campaigning to save the wasps no and also like an extermination can't deal with bees you have to like remove the nest and also if a nest is in

your like loft apparently can like fall through the ceiling like because like ah the honey or i don't know it like destroys the ceiling oh but we can't get in our loft because it's rented and our landlord lives in New Zealand so they're not coming back anytime soon right um so yeah so we called him out and he was like

I can't do anything but like let me know if you find a nest and then he just left I don't charge me I love that even your hometown is 18 pages long this is the first episode Julie they didn't know what that means

oh sorry okay we're recording this after the story turns out I wrote a dissertation yeah this the first two episodes are dropping at the same time as a two-parter because Abby decided that 18 pages is probably how long an hour takes to say out loud.

I thought the details would be interesting. She thoroughly... They are. Let's not actually like it's not. I'm not disputing. It's a real good story. It's a great story. You're in for a treat.

And it was worthy of all 18 pages. Agreed. But that is why they're coming at you at the same time. Two-part, baby. You're welcome. This wasp that took a little bit. took over your life is in your new house.

Yes, my new flat. Your new flat in London, which you have just moved to. Yes. From Bristol. Oh my God, I survived that as well because I found my housemates on Facebook and that could have gone real wrong. Oh my God, yeah. Real wrong.

I haven't learned anything from true crime. That's really trusting of you. I'm very surprised. I know. That's how desperate it is trying to find a place to live in London. Truly. Truly. Because I, like, I started, I was like, I don't want to live with anyone I don't know.

I was also like, I'm not living alone. Yeah, yeah. then I had to like take that down I was like okay I will live with strangers yeah and then I had to take down to I will live with strangers from Facebook but it's turned out great they're amazing yeah and I've also recently become a regular at a cafe

and it's like it's a really proud moment for me do you not know what like so I didn't realize that was a hard thing to achieve don't you just go there a lot yeah but like I don't like getting like recognized anywhere I like to know not in that way Oh my god But like I hate

As soon as you start going to the gym Enough that they know your name Right I don't like that I've never had that problem Yeah well you know Some of us Sure

We're all about the gains Yeah And I like to be just like Invisible Yeah You've chosen the wrong job What are you talking about This is audio only

I like to be like totally invisible But I go to this cafe now Where that's kind of like I go there like every day Yeah they walk in and they're like Abby No, they don't know my name yet And they asked me what I do

And I just said, writer Oh, mysterious Because, so they did used to have old management Do you wear a baseball cap when you go in? Only when I have a spot Okay Which has been this week Right

But the old people that used to have in the cafe I made the mistake when they said, What do you do? Because obviously I was in there a lot And I said, I'm a comedian, worst mistake in my life Yeah Because immediately Tell us the joke

Yeah And what did you say? And what do you do? And also, any man who finds out you're a comedian loves to ask, are you into like really dark humour then? Really? Yeah, because they're like, oh my God, yeah, finally a girl that's going to get my like, Madlin McCann jokes, yeah.

Oh, okay. Like, oh, yeah, you're going to get it. You're cool, you're fun. And you're like, no, I just do like really basic, relatable, observational comedy. Yeah. Yeah, so that was a mistake. So this time I went writer. but he brought a free lemon drizzle over.

Why? With a little wink. Oh, he fancies me. No, he doesn't. Did he have a napkin with his number? No. No, like I'd get nervous about that. That's too much stress.

So actually, he's given me three free things so far. So I got, first day, I got free lemon drizzle. Second day, I got free pastry. Third day. This cafe is going to go out of business. I don't know how they're making money. What the hell? And then the third day, I went in, and I was taking takeaway.

And, like, we're at the chatting stage now, so you're like, oh, I've got an idea, got to get back. And I ordered the coffee, and I was like, I also have a cookie. And he said, this one's on us. And I was like, and I said... Yeah, like every fucking thing else in this place, apparently. I bet you, if you went into the staff room, it's just pictures of your face all over the walls. I think he's just intimidated by my figure, and he's trying to fatten me up.

Oh, maybe he's planning to eat me. Okay, so then... he picked the wrong one and then I was like you're giving me too much free stuff I said it

because someone has to you know I'm a good person and he said no you're a regular wink slid it over

and that was a big life achievement yeah that is yeah would you prefer he fancy you no no I'd rather

be regular yeah because like regular you're cool of course you're gonna be a regular know if people hand out free stuff like that's how they get people hooked on crack the first one is always free but that's not why i'm going it sounds like it's absolutely why you're going which okay if he didn't give me anything free today so oh okay yeah because he's already got you in

he's hooked you i like his vibe though because the other day i was in the cafe and it was like three o'clock and he was already drinking wine yes i think he's just stealing from the business yeah does he own the business does he just work there i don't think so i think he's just the manager. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm worried about this guy. I like him. Yeah. He's fun. And he's Italian. So it's a little bit of like, ooh-hoo. Yeah. You know. Well, lucky you. That's my big news. Good. You've graduated to regular. I'd graduate. I've never been a regular anywhere. So I'm probably, like, I've moved a lot in my life, so I've never been a regular anywhere. Oh, okay. I feel like this is like a big moment. It is a big, yeah. You've established yourself.

Hey guys, this is a new podcast, so if you're enjoying what you're hearing so far, we would really appreciate your support. To help it grow, you can hit that follow button, follow us on TikTok and Instagram at WCSPod. Or the most powerful thing you can do is just tell a friend who you know who would also love it. Okay, we'll shut up now and tell you the story. Okay. It is the 23rd of July 1972 Storytelling already Okay A Japanese

Oh no I forgot to look up How to say all of these words Yes lovely Don't look it up Please don't look it up Please just do Read it and then say

Also what people won't know About the Abby Clark comedy Is that Yes she's great at sketches And yes she's a fabulous stand-up comedian That's the first compliment Julie's ever given me It felt bitter in my mouth

When I said it But also, Abby, she's great at accents, all accents of every different type. So over the course of this series, you're in for a real treat. Whenever we have a story from a different country. I'm not doing the Japanese accent, Julia. I would genuinely rather say we all had the same 24 hours in a day, all right? We're not saying it. Okay, all right, fine.

But this Japanese fishing trawler is called the Toker Maru. two. So if you could write in and tell us exactly how Abby Fugler. Neil's looking it up. Niels getting ahead of the drama. This is like succession. You've got to get ahead of the scandal. This could not be further from succession.

I've never watched succession. I just wanted to join in. Okay. Okay. Just say with confidence. Exactly. Toko Maru the second is on her way to the Panama Canal.

They are nearly 300 miles from land when they spot a distress flare in the distance, right? All the fishermen can see is a small dinghy measuring just nine feet long adrift in the Pacific Ocean. They watch as the tiny dinghy

pitches and rolls in the vast emptiness of the ocean. You can tell I copied and paste it that bit. And assume that the Occupants must be Longong. The Occupants. Occupants. Oh, so yeah. I copied in pieces

but they're wrong because spoiler this is a survival podcast everybody survives that's great oh yeah I did forget that a family of five

plus a friend unnamed friend this event did have plus ones are on board packed like sardines into every nook and cranny of the boat and they're about to find out

that these people have spent nearly six weeks stranded in the middle of the ocean Oh my God. B, ba, ba, bum. Musical sting. So let's go back. Okay.

That was good. We can add sound effects. Can't do accents, can do sound effects. Okay. A year and a half before this, Lynn and Dougal Robertson were running a struggling dairy farm in Staffordshire, UK. Great. UK represent. That sounded bad.

Dougal was a retired merchant navy officer and he'd been a farmer for 15 years but they were struggling and they couldn't afford electricity bills and things Lynn was a practicing midwife and state-registered nurse they lived a very isolated life and Dougal wanted to offset this and expose his children to the world

and educate them in the University of Life so when his youngest asked Daddy's a sailor why don't we sail around the world He and his wife sold the farm, took their life savings, and purchased a 43-foot sailing ship called, this is a guess, Lucette. That feels important. I feel like I should know how to say that. Can I just ask, how old is the kid that they're just deciding to change their entire lives on a flippant comment? Nine. Right, good, okay.

It's how all good stories start. Yeah, that seems smart, doesn't it? It's like, it's from the point of like a Disney film. The kids, they're putting way too much trust in this kid's decision-making skills. way too much yes fine watch six hours of pepper pig let's not sell the farm like keep the farm please okay they sell the farm they sell the farm they sell the farm they buy the boat they're trusting jimmy and they're selling the farm yeah okay silly okay his name's not jimmy sorry it's neal neal it's genuinely neil little neil shout out neil neil's our producer yeah look at us with a producer aren't we doing

well so they buy the boat and they sail her from i love that people call boats like her do you know I mean. I bet you do. Yeah, I can see that. They sail her from Malta to Falmouth in October 1970 and although Dougal, love that name, was a master mariner and an experienced sailor, and Anne learned a few of the basics on the voyage back from

Malta, the children had zero sailing experience. Yeah, you'd think the children of master sailors probably would have a bit more. Yeah. Especially if those children are the ones who are dictating how you spend Yeah. Like I have minimal football experience, but it was to gain my father's love.

yeah yeah take an interest i was a midfielder just wanted to brag if any you're so used to play for if any lads are listening not like other girls um they have no experience but even so on the 27th of january in 1971 dougal lynn and their children 16 year old douglas 18 year old anne and twin sons neal and sandy age nine climb onto their boat at Falmouth Harbour Cornwall

and set sail without any preparation ready for the adventure of a lifetime. Are you there? Do you see it? I'm there. I see the disaster in the... What's fun is I read in one article. I didn't include it because it was only in one article, but apparently they nearly died just leaving the harbour. Yeah, they should...

Like, I'll be honest. This does not surprise me. But I couldn't find that stories. That might just be hearsay. Okay. The first 18 months went off without hitch. Dad Dougal was living the dream. His son Douglas has a memory of his dad standing on the deck and screaming, yee-ha! As a wave came across the bow and soaked them all while his brothers fell about laughing. Oh, how idyllic. Dad is so fun. They sailed

across the Atlantic and they stopped. So yeah, they stopped at various Caribbean ports and the 18-year-old daughter decided to get off and have a little holiday in the Bahamas. Correct life decision. And then to replace her, the family welcomed on board a hitchhiker. You've got to have one in, one out on a boat famously. It's the role. And they welcomed on board a hitchhiker called Robin Williams. Great. The, who you could say was hunting for a little bit of goodwill.

Get it? Get it? Excellent. On the way to New Zealand. That's a really good joke. That's very clever. Do you say that when you do stand up? I do, actually.

That's a really good joke. If they don't laugh. You have to tell them. You're like, no, you've missed that. That was actually very good. In some articles... So just to be clear, it wasn't the Robin Williams. No, but it's not the...

It is now in my head. It's not the only joke I wrote. Oh, sorry, go on. In some articles, he was described as a deckhand, but he was a 22-year-old Welsh graduate in economics and statistics, so he loved Aladdin. Get it? because he was the genie in Aladdin

and he likes adding. Oh wow that's a stretch. That is a stretch. Well, Welsh Robin Williams would have starred in Good Whiff hunting. Oh my God, she's still going. She's still going. Got any more in the tank?

Yeah, but I'll save him for later. Okay. You got to have something to look forward to. Okay. Yeah, so they said he was a deckhand, but like unless he was put there to work out the probability of them all dying or horrible death, not sure how qualified he was actually was to be there

do you get what I mean I get you yeah yeah he was a waste of space basically yeah okay um they were heading for the specific ocean

I nearly spat by my readers all over the mics then the specific ocean love that love that I can't handle the pressure of being the first episode

I can't do this too yeah tell me more about the specific Oceans. It's a specific ocean. It's a very specific ocean. Part of the Pacific Ocean. Oh, is it? Oh, okay. Some 64 million square miles in area, so it's very big.

It's 35,000 feet deep, so it's very deep. And with over 30,000 islands spread over almost a third of the Earth's surface. And how many fish are in it? A lot. you don't have the stats on that I didn't see it as relevant but less after this story they left the Galapagos

islands smashed that on the 13th of June 1972 so that's over a year just over a year of sailing and they were just 200 miles off from the Galapagos when on the 15th of June 16 year old Douglas

and his younger brother Sandy saw a triangular fin Dern it Some members of the family were sleeping below deck Having kept watch throughout the night And at 9.57 a.m., they suddenly heard Bang, bang, bang. And they said, who's there?

Very good, here she is. No, it's serious. So there were three impacts in a row And it lifted the 43-foot boat into the air and threw everyone off their feet, okay? The whole boat shook and they heard a loud crack like the sound of a tree trunk being snapped in two which meant only one thing,

the piece of wood that runs the entire length of the boat had snapped. That does not sound good. I don't know much about boats, but I'd say that's bad. Sounds like a pretty integral piece of word. Pretty integral piece of the boat. They heard a large splashing noise behind them

so they turned and they saw a pod of three killer whales following the boat. Shit. So there's different articles said different reasons of why. One was that there was a big squid on the end of a fishing line which might have attracted them. And another... Well, they just left off the side of the boat. That was careless.

And then they were fishing and a squid... So in one article they rolled... They saw the big fin. They rolled in the fishing line. They saw there was a big fish. And they were like, that's going to attract some bad news. Something big, yeah. Or the other one was that the whales thought the boat was a whale.

Because killer whales hunt whales. Right. Okay. So, but they're not really sure. From them though, it took only minutes for the Luset to sink. Lynn, their mother was still in her nightgown. Oh, that's not good. Dugel shouted abandon ship overboard getting the raft. Ling got caught in the rigging of the sinking ship.

While Douglas was thrown into the water as the boat went under, he kept feeling his legs to see if he still had them because he heard that you don't feel a bite, you just know your legs are gone. Oh my God. He knows now that killer whales aren't actually interested in eating humans but at the time he thought it was going to be eaten alive.

Yeah. Which you would. That's, yeah. We've all seen blackfish. Oh my God. The family plus Robin Williams grabbed a few items. What do you call Robin Williams covered in whale flat?

Flubber. Yeah. Okay. Here we go. It's a serious story. Okay. Thank God he's there to keep things light there. Right, thank God.

That is who you want on a raft. That is who you want with you. Yeah. Like if you could have anyone to lift the spirit. Literally it would be Robin Williams. Yeah. Okay. He probably brought a few outfits, few characters.

You'd hope so. It'd be great. Okay. They grabbed a few items. Robin grabbed his wigs and abandoned ships scrambling to board their inflatable rubber life raft and a nine foot fiberglass dingy called Ednamer. So that's got a name too.

That's cute. yeah thank god um i hope i said it right so they've got like a big raft and then a smaller dingy okay um they managed to grab six lemons 10 oranges i'm going to ask you to repeat all of these back a tin of biscuits a bag of onions and half a pound of glucose sweets to sustain them go lemons no you have to say how many oh five lemons no you failed okay so lynn how many lemons was it six oh god damn it Lynn also grabs their papers, the logbook, a kitchen knife, flares, and her sewing box, which comes in very useful. They have no maps, though, no compass, or instruments, which is a shame.

Instruments? That's what I thought. I was like, a small violin would be real good at this moment. Like, do you. Yeah, exactly, to play the ship down. Mr. Robertson really reminds me of you at this point. Oh. Because he stays like, he stays very positive. He says very positive about situation. He turns to his family and tells them we will not survive this. That is absolutely what I would say. To be honest, they don't deserve

to have survived this far. The fact that they've made it to the dingy, you said they nearly died coming up. This whole story. Yeah, but they've made 18 months. And he's a master mariner. He is, yeah, he's really carried. But he's the great. He's the one to declaring we're not going to survive this. He's like, guys, this is it. So the guy who really knows his shit is saying

this is a real fact. Yeah, this is over. Nobody knew they were missing. They were not on a shipping route. So the chances being cited or rescued were remote. Stakes are high. Day two. In the life raft, not going to try an accent.

So day two of this ordeal, they're castaway. okay the survival raft was in poor condition and leaking um it got a hole in during the escape and it only got us so it's starting well um they have to take it in turns to constantly blow it back up by mouth oh no which is just have you ever blown up a balloon yeah and then your your jaw that's it no but you know when your cheeks like feel like they like stretch um horrid yeah yeah that's all um you seem like a pump girl to me though yeah yeah 100% I'm sorry if in any situation

something or someone else can do it for me yes yeah they will now the good news there is some good news they're in a place known for calm water and a lack of surface wind at the moment but they decide to make their way towards the middle of the specific why is this so hard

can we just call it the specific from now on Absolutely. You know what I mean? Yeah. Where there will be, where there's like more chance of there being rainwater to collect. Okay.

Because they need water. And there's more chance of being spotted by passing ships in the shipping lanes. And they also hope they'll be able to catch the countercurrent back to America. Okay. Early on, a few flying fish

land in their boat. Oh, that's handy. It's handy, right? And they eat those raw. They are so lucky. There's a lot of luck. But no, but wait. But there is some skill as well, which we will have to decide which one we're going to pick.

Also, in my head, the, what's the, what's the mariner called? Doogle. Doogle. In my head, do you know. Doesn't it just sound like he's from father, Ted? Yeah. Dougal is like, um, just sat with his arms crossed in the corner of the boat after declaring that they're all going to.

Sorry, that was the sound of me pouring. 37 day urine. Yeah. Um, Dougal sat sulking at the end of the boat. completely resigned to the fact that we're all going to die. Oh, is it. Is it? Spice. That is a spicy urine. Is it?

Goodness. Yeah, sorry, carry on. And it's really tickling me. The rest of them are surviving. They're all taking it in turns to blow into the hole. Yeah. They're sorting out the fish that are somehow just jumping into the boat. Dugel's like, we should be dead by now. Yeah, Dugel's like, this is the worst. No, Dugel, you know, he gets into it.

Okay. It's just a moment of weakness you do. He just likes to set expectations lot. Yeah, he's done that phenomenally well. He sets the expectation low, and then we can all only be positively surprised. It's how my mum lets her life, to be fair. Oh, lovely. That does explain a lot about you.

She told me I was going to be nothing. I'm looking at you now. Look at me now, mommy. What a pleasant surprise. You're proud of me now, mama? Oh, God. Right, right. It's a good turn quick.

I'm gonna, yeah. So, flying fish, yes. They use a six inch long piece of copper wire from Lynn's sewing basket, remember that? They were like, we have no idea why she had that, but she was. Yeah, she wanted an odd thing that on your side of a basket. And they connect fish hooks to the end of a paddle,

and that catches fish. Surprising. That's what you want. Yeah, rather than anything else. And they'd dry them in the sun to preserve them. On day three One flying... Dry the fish in the sun

Is that a tactic to... Apparently. Yeah. That could go in the survival kit. It could. I didn't know. Just you wait. Oh, sorry.

There's going to be so much more. I mean, copper... I'm trying to keep a mental note of things. Yeah, we've had copper wire. A sewing kit. A sewing kit is pretty strong. Yeah. And yeah, so they...

Dougal's optimism. They... Dougal's pure optimism. I think really saw them through. Yeah. Okay. So, on day three, a flying fish landed in the boat. And Lynn,

marinated it with some lemon juice Oh, thank God they had those lemons Like, it's nice to know that no matter how bad it got She didn't stop caring about flavour Mmm That is nice, that is really nice Did she have some salt? Did they dry out, dehydrate some of the sea water?

There's so much marination happening in the story I cannot tell you Nice. They made stews Stop it. They had steak and eggs I mean Just like if you're chicken

Well let me get to it They don't sound like nice ones But she really made an effort Good for her. She really made the raft her home. The boat, whilst she's just marinating fish in lemon,

the boat is floating just beneath the water and sharks are circling. Oh, God. But at least their food tastes good. In some article, okay, so this is when articles said different things,

in some articles it said water was up to their waists, some it said their chests, and others it said their knees. Have they given up on blowing into the hole? No, they're still drying. Oh, okay.

On day seven, Hope Douglas, the 16 year old spots a large cargo ship a few miles away from their position so they shoot two parachute rocket flares and three hand flares but the ship never turns towards them

and it sails on by so now they're really in trouble because they're on day seven and they only have enough water to sustain them for 10 days also how many flares have they just spunked on that one? lot. They used a lot of flares early on.

Oh, that's really... A lot of flares. It's really distressed to me. Yeah. They really firework nighted it. I suppose you would, wouldn't you? They were just like, oh well, looks nice. The family reduced their diets to one single piece of meat. So they're like, Lynn, let's... Yeah, scale back. Save some of those lemons.

Scale back on the roast. A single piece of meat three times a day and three or four sips of water each day. Getting enough liquids was the real challenge, especially sitting under the hot sun all day. It's very hot. Sometimes they would lie in the baking heat, sucking on pieces of rubber, trying to create saliva just to ease their thirst. And they're up to their potential wastes in water the whole time. Knees, waist or chest. Sure. People pay a lot of money.

Or chest, knees or chest. People pay a lot of money to do that in the Thames, you know, in one of those, like, hot, you do the, oh, sorry. You know, you can do the... The Thames? Yeah, you can do, that's right, is it? famously polluted Thames? You can do, like, hot tub things. No. Yeah, it might be nice water in the hot tub.

See, Neil's nodding. You can do hot tub tours. Tours, I don't know, journeys, float down the river. Yeah. That sounds horrible. Yeah, to be fair, it doesn't sound great. I thought it was like when you go abroad and there's the like natural salt baths.

Not with Thames. Yeah. Aren't they like eels on cocaine in the Thames? Yeah, I think so. Mostly. They're what makes it up pari. Yeah, it's having an absolute way. Yeah. Really paranoid eels. So where was I? Oh yeah. So it's very hot. It's my point.

Okay. Sorry. Their clothes were also disintegrating in the sun and salt water, leaving them even more burnt because their clothes weren't like protecting them. When they got to where they were hoping it would rain loads, there wasn't any rain to collect. They waited for three days and nothing came. So before long, they turned. to turtle blood. Oh, not what I thought you were going to say. It's mad to me that not once does urine crop up in the story. I was so confident. Okay, so I feel like we should just explain the urine.

Okay. Me and Julia. Don't include me at this. No. We made a friendship over sharing two-for-one cocktail deals. We did. On margarias. Yeah, big fan.

I can now admit to you at the time. I did not like margaritas. I just want Julia to be my friend. Abby, is that true? That is so pathetic. I did not like margaritas. I was a much bigger fan of a sex on the beach, but that was very university freshes.

And Julia is just such an adult. I was just wanted, I was like, okay, yeah. 2 for 1, because 2 for 1 famously, you have to get the same cocktail. Yeah. And I said... Margarita, so I said okay. You were always game for a margarita. I was always game for friendship. Oh, happy.

So sad. But actually now I like him. Are you sure? Yeah, genuinely. I've changed myself. Like I trained myself to like coffee and social interaction. Wow. Well, I'm glad that I could be part of your margarita journey.

Yeah. So now. our friendship is quite heavily based on margaritas and lies. So we thought we'd make it a central point of this podcast that we'd drink margaritas. Also, I think the most key item to survival is drinking your own. It's a spicy margarita, isn't it? No, but my theory is the key thing. Sorry.

Sorry, Julia, just trying to explain our podcast. I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry, I am listening. Yeah, the key... There'll be a whole chili in that, I swear to God. It is so spicy. I'm so sorry. I am listening.

Yeah, but I think a key part of survival is drinking your own urine. So we've taken margaritas and we've labelled them urine. Yeah. Because we've all watched Bear Grills. It's what Bear Grills does, day one. Yeah. They're not even like in the forest yet. It's just like he meets them in the hotel.

I think he just likes the taste of it. I'll be honest. Is any excuse? And he's like, piss? anyone? Yeah. He just brings it like in his bowl all ready to go. He doesn't bring water. No, just piss. He's like, hi, nice to meet you. I bet his is real syrupy as well, but he likes it like. You know how people like, like really strong coffee? I bet he likes a real strong. See, if I went for two for one with bear. Oh, I'd be drinking piss right now. Oh, Abby. Such a people pleaser. I mean, absolutely, bear. Let's do it. Sold around the room, yes, please. Okay. Okay.

That explains the piss. What was I saying? Turtle blood. Someone's listening. They turned to turtle blood, not urine. Okay. So I do apologise for that. How many turtles were they saying to be like,

this is enough of a source of liquid? Um, I don't know. They're in the ocean. Yeah, but turtles see, it's like a big deal when you see a turtle. You ever seen a turtle? Well, maybe they're like a bit more. Common in the Galapagos. Yeah, they are actually, aren't they?

Galapagos. They turn to turtle blood for hydration. After their rescue, Douglas, the 16-year-old boy, said, you have to knock it back quickly. Otherwise, it sets into a blemange. Pause for gag. Just going to give you a little moment there. That is foul.

That is so... Do you know what? I'd rather drink my own piss than blamage or... Oh, that actually isn't. point though so piss wasn't an option that's why no that they're not drinking piss so so because they're so dehydrated oh no them are weighing there is no piss so that's why they must yeah yeah so they said it often has an after taste which makes you want to wretch which is originally how i felt about margaries but we move no that's actually how i feel about vodka I can't do a shot

of vodka I really I like a shot of tequila because they give you something to taste after I agree They should serve shots of vodka with like a little bit of chocolate after. Oh, that's a really good idea. I know. Is it because vodka was your drink when you were a tea? Yeah, I remember the moment I went off it. It was at uni. I was on a sports night because once again, I was pretending to be someone I wasn't for other people.

Who were these people? Oh, the cheerleaders. Did not belong. I knew it. Did not belong. I just thought like if I wore the uniform, it would change my entire personality. You do look like you should be a cheery. cheerleader.

I've tried very hard. Yeah. Still have the same personality though. They didn't like me. So, um, I did a shot of vodka and it just made me feel ill immediately and I ran up to the toilets and I just haven't had it since. Yeah, I have that with Sambuca. I like a little tasty taste after.

Yeah. I seen that's what they were doing with the leftover lemons. They were just segmenting it up after the turtle. Yeah. Not back doing little swammers. Yeah. That's why it's always good. So I think we should add lemons to the survival care as possible.

Well, Actually, yeah, because scurvy, no scurvy, too. Oh, is that thing? I just think, like... Why did you think they brought lemons? Because when you have to eat something... You genuinely thought it was for a garnish. I genuinely, I think that would be helpful to me.

I think in a survival situation, I would really struggle eating and drinking horrible things. No, I love plain food. That is my ideal. Bage food. So if they could give me just something to just make it taste a little bit better, I think that would help me. So do you genuinely not know why they have level?

On a boat? No, why do they? To stop them getting scurvy. You know, pirates would get scurvy. Not personally, I don't know me. Oh, really? Pirates would get scurvy. What scurvy?

Scurvy is like a disease, right? It like attacks your teeth. Okay, so what did the lemons do? The vitamin C and the lemons stops you from getting scurvy. So, like, you could get scurvy on land, but because on a boat you don't often have all the vitamin... Their boat was more of a yacht, though. So I think the lemons were for pleasure originally.

Okay, all right then. But yeah, now, I think it's just what they grabbed, to be honest. The son Douglas also said in an article, you wouldn't believe how hard it is to kill a turtle with your bare hands. I bet. How do you kill a turtle with your bare hands? I was surprised, because from what I've taken from finding Nemo, they're very chill. They're like always high.

You think they'd be very relaxed about it. Yeah, okay. But no, quite the fighters, apparently. Don't they just retract into their show? No, apparently the first ones he caught, he had to live. let go because they fought so hard they slashed him with their razor sharp claws

but because when they got cut by the sea turtles because they've been so deprived of water not only are they not weeing when the turtle cut them they wouldn't bleed because the body was sacrificing their extremities to maintain heart lung and brain function

so their like hands and feet didn't bleed um no they just weren't bleeding Isn't that clever? Yeah, really clever. They learnt quickly enough though and they ended up catching 13 turtles in total.

Wow. Do we know how they killed them? I don't want to talk about it, Julia. Oh, okay. It's the one bit in the article I really didn't like. Oh, okay. We found Abby's line. It's animals.

Killing turtles. Yeah. Okay, so they'd tie them up. Oh, God. It's horrid. They'd tie them up and they'd cut the juggler. So they'd bleed the turtles. Right. Okay.

I haven't the script. I don't want to say how, because it makes me sad. But you just made me. You're sorry. And then they'd catch the blood in balers. So what they'd been bailing the water out there. They'd catch the blood and they'd have to be careful not to spill any of the blood into the water because that would attract sharks. Apparently the taste was grim and salty, but it kept them alive.

They would then also, this is when the steak and eggs comes in, they'd eat the turtles meat as steaks. and any eggs they found inside of them. Ew. Stake-an-X. Another thing they did to relieve thirst was drink fish spinal fluid and eat their eyes for a bit of liquid and vitamin C. So they'd run out of lemons at this point.

Oh, God. I'd deliver a different vitamin C sauce. So obviously, life on the raft was grim. Dougal was like, I told you so. I'm talking this is going to be bad. So they divided up the tasks. Whilst Dougal oversaw fishing and catching turtles, Lynn took care of the house, in inverted commas.

She encouraged everyone to keep up their hygiene, exercise. Imagine at that point, having to then exercise. No, this is the bigger raft. Oh, sorry, sorry. The smaller dinghy hasn't come into action yet. That's later. They're in the bigger raft.

It's for like 10 people. They've got some room. They haven't got much room though. So like it's for 10 people if you max it out, but it only comfortably fit five which is how many they have. So what's she doing? Run in some like yoga session.

I don't know, just like sit-ups, I guess. They couldn't even do that. Maybe they were just doing that thing where you put shopping bags on the end of your arms and just try and hold them out. Have they got shopping bags? Of lemons. So she just tried to kind of like encourage people

to keep some kind of normal schedule. She got them to write to friends and draw pictures on pieces of sailcloth. They also invented games and tried to imagine what their lies would be like if they returned home. They thought about getting a cat. Which is what I like to think of in any bad scenario.

That's really what brings me back. And they also thought of opening a restaurant. In the specific ocean. A really specific restaurant. That only sold lemon fish and turtle blood. So the daily routines and the planning helped distract them. And it provided structure to their days, and it helped them avoid the nasty anxiety that would have made it all much harder. And it's often the case, apparently, that people manage to survive things by planning future projects as it helps you mentally.

So another thing possibly for the survival kit. Yeah. Planning. Just going to look down the camera to my ex and just say planning. Okay. Speaking of planning and prep. Yeah. Oh, God, I love it. You've overdone it, haven't you? A little bit. You've over-prepped. Um, look, I love a detail. And I hope you do too. I think every single one is worth it. But it does mean we've had to make the story a two-parter. So you're welcome, really. Because it's ready to listen to now. Yeah. It's like your parents are divorced. You're getting a second Christmas present. It's a shame, but in the end, it's a gift. it's not a shame please don't describe our podcast as a shame

Jesus Christ and much like your parents promised to stay together I know we promised you survival stories of your own at the end of the episode and format wise that is what we'll be doing going forward

but seeing as we all need to just hop over to that second episode now you'll find them at the end of that episode and if you want to send in any of your own for the future, please send them via help at wcspod.com and we can't wait to read them. Perfect. If you've enjoyed the podcast so far, please click the follow button and rate and review the podcast if you're enjoying it.

That would be really helpful. And episode two is available right now. Your parents still love you. Get attacked by an angry shark. Stuck up a mountain in the dark. Pushed up the top of a big landmark. Hit by lightning in your local park. Gordon a downpour of acid rain

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