Worst Case Scenario with Abi Clarke and Julia Stenton - Day 2 - The Robertson Family - Part 2

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

The Robertson Family story continues as Abi Clarke and Julia Stenton rejoin the story ten days after the initial orca attack. With stormy weather inbound and turtle supplies being pushed to their extremes, how will they get out of this Worst Case Scenario? Come to find out what makes it into the first ever survival kit and stay for our first ever listener/Abi's social media followers stories.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 meteorora train A proton beam passing through your brain Attacked by that angry shark again

Hear how they survive Trappled by a herd of buffalo Chaste with an axe by your new friend Joe Buried alive in a pile of snow It's the worst case scenario. Welcome back. Hello again. How have you been?

Yeah, from 30 seconds ago, not bad. Just slightly more tired. A little bit more drunk. A little bit more drunk. We're fun. We're at the fun stage. If you haven't listened to it, episode one this is a two-parter so go have a little listen if you want the full experience but

if you can't bother julia what have they missed well you're test yeah have i been listening you're telling the story of the robertson family yes who have picked their on a they decided to go on a um uh around the world sailing trip uh on at the behest of their nine year old son Neal, which is how all great stories should start. And they are, things have gone tits up for details, see the previous episode. They're drinking, they're resorting to drinking turtle blood very quickly before it turns to Blamange, because that will happen with turtle blood. Marmline is, is kicking ass and taking names.

She's doing so well. She just knows what to do instinctively, it would seem. She's making some marinades with some lemon juice. They're drying out fish. She's doing amazingly well. And the rest of the family are taking it in terms to blow up the life raft, which they are currently in, which is punctured and rapidly deflating. Always the best way to keep something afloat.

Just by mouth. Yeah. Okay. Can I actually give you some facts that I've learned? Oh, please. Okay. So actually this morning, my algorithm is getting on board with the podcast because I saw on the puberty

Instagram it says scientists believe orcas have taught each other how to sink boats

and their boat got sunk so apparently scientists said they believe that back in 2020 oh that was

before this story never mind after this story it says since 2020 they've been

learning but I'm sorry we're here to tell you the Robertson family yeah disagree but apparently

an orca began acting out against a boat in retaliation after a critical moment of agony and now other whales are mimicking this dangerous behaviour. And also, I remembered

I have a great turtle fact. Okay. Giant turtle, to be specific. Right. So I went on a date once with a biology teacher. Oh. That's how all fun stories start. What a mismatch.

You've gone like a house on fire. No, I always really fancied my biology teacher at school, so I think it was just like from some fantasy I wanted to finish. Oh, okay. Um, so basically, I was actually talking to him about, um, survival, because as this podcast can attest, I've always been obsessed. Um, and I mentioned the whole like turtle blood, blood hydration thing. Yeah. And he was like, uh, yeah, I know. I was like, that's a weird thing to just know. And then he's like, I know loads about turtles. I'm a biology teacher. Yeah. And apparently, um, the giant turtle from the Glappagos. Yeah. Um, um, was like one of the last animals to get named because they had to take it back to the like National History Museum.

I might be butchering this like the turtles. But they had to take them back to get named. Yeah. And they never got it back because it was just so tasty. Yeah. And so every time they tried to take the giant turtle back to the museum,

they like would take more turtles every time. But every time. I don't know who it was that was taking the first bite. Just like this time, guys, please just don't eat the... We've got 12, like, come on. And then he's like, we've got 12, I'll have just one. And every time they always ate it. And then they finally get it back.

And they just call it giant turtle. Yeah. After all that. And so at first, I was like, this date's going fantastically. This is my kind of person. But then he turned out to be really posh and boring and... Oh, it didn't go well. Lame.

Oh, no. Well, no, I'm still single, Julia's there. Clearly, the date didn't go well. He asked me to guess where he was from and I just said privilege. Very good. Thank you. Very good. Yes, perhaps too honest. Oh, definitely. We need to work on putting a filter on you. Oh, I do all the time. Valencia used to be my favourite. This is you with a... Oh, here we go. Here we go.

What's your current favourite? This is not what the podcast is about. Just perfect 365, you just get to just soften your skin a little bit. What is that? It's an app, you can just Photoshop your face a little bit. My flatmate the other day, so she had to take a portrait of herself for her job. Right. And everyone had like professional, like, you know, spotlight in a field photos or like against a brick wall kind of like outdoor professional photo.

And she was like, Abby, you need to take one of me. So we like rushed out. and just, like, took it against the wall of our house. Yeah. And then she was like, I hate myself. And, like, I look horrible. And I hate this about myself. I hate this myself.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I was like, do you want me to Photoshop it? Because I'm a really supportive friend. No, no, Abby. This sounds so much of what I'm saying. A supportive friend would go, no, you don't. You look great. Your instinct.

I can fix that. But the honest responses She did not look great So something had to be done No, we were rushing it We were rushing it Do you want to stay in this house Is that, um

No, she's beautiful I do, like she is beautiful Good Can I just clip that up So that Abby's got it is proof She is beautiful But it was a bad photo Okay

We didn't have much time She was rushing into a Zoom meeting We had to take it quickly No actually I'm lying It was fine But she, she's the kind of person If she thinks this is a bad picture She's not going to be told

and like the thing is she wanted to change were minimal you know like yeah there were a few shadows under her eyes because of the lighting you can get the ring light out no we didn't have time like this was like this was a rush job she was like I need to be a meeting in one minute but I need to get this photo while you're at home let's go yeah so I took them I was I was hyping her up right I was like oh my god she's so beautiful she's so happy I want her to make her me candles because that's her job of course it's North London um and then yeah she didn't like it

Anyway, I was like, well, I do have this app. Do you want me to just like fix the things your feelings? Do you want your co-workers to not recognize the picture of you? But this was the thing. So she sent me the picture and she was like, yes. And then I was like, oh no, now I'm in the really difficult situation. Where I have to decide what is wrong with her face. And send that back to her.

Great. And what if I edit something that she was not insecure about? Yeah. Right? Because it can, it's quite, it is quite fun. Mm. It's like, it appeals to my crafty side, right? I love a craft.

Yeah. And then, you should do this as a side hustle. It was, I actually really enjoyed it. It really passed a tube journey. Yeah. But yeah, and then I was like, I'm now at a point like, do I change anything else? Do I give any new insecurities? Like, I was like, do I touch the nose?

Like, she hasn't mentioned the nose. And then. Don't, then don't. Well, I didn't. Her nose is fine. I was just using it. It's an example. I did dye her hair a little bit, though.

I took her brunette a little bit deeper. Okay. Gave it a little, you know, Tony and Guy treatment. Like a little shine. What else? And then I sent it to her. I was like, I think I've smashed that. I've kept that really realistic.

I haven't like made her look like a different person. Okay. I've just taken away the things she was insecure about. And then she added a few. Made her insecure about a few more things. Yeah. And she replied just, chin. And I was like, what do you mean chin?

Too many. And she just wanted like to remove the chin altogether. Just lips and then the neck. I can't do that for you. How did she want more like a buzz lighty? To this day, I still don't know what she meant by chin because I was like what? And then she was like, never mind, actually, it's fine.

Oh, deal with the chin. But it felt risky. I was like, at this moment here, I could either make this. girl, because I'm new to this flat as well. I haven't mentioned that. I'm the new kid. I can make this girl love me with my Photoshop skills. I've got something to offer here. Where have I gone with this? What I'm saying, she was pleased with the outcome. Luckily, it went well. But I was in a situation where I was like, this could go terribly wrong. Yeah. Has your other housemate been like, please assess my faults, Abby? No, she's, she's secure. Oh, that's nice. That's good. Um,

Worn out of three isn't bad. Yeah, us two are, we're having a mare. It's weird the one in the relationships, the really secure one. She's doing really well in her, in her healthy relationship with another woman as well. I think that helps. Oh, okay. Actually, that's a lie. She's insecure, too.

We're a mess. Yeah. Do you want to psych them off anymore? Yeah, they're the worst. They suck. They're so ugly. Wow, okay. And you'll be moving out as soon as this goes out.

This is a terrible start. I like them a lot and we really get on. Day 10, they all have salt water boils. So there was only one dry seat in the boat and the six of them took turns sitting on it. That's so bleak. Lynn, the mum, would often tell her children to take her turn and she sat in the water for another hour.

And like Douglas after was like, and I was a selfish young man so I did but now I realise how much my mum sacrificed such a mum move sleep was impossible because as soon as they nodded off

their heads would hit the water and they'd jump awake Lynn was terrified that the nine-year-old twins would drown in their sleep but guess what's good for salt water boils turtle

more turtles so a thing that really helped this family was, like I said at the start, you may have missed it. Their mum, Lynn, was a trained nurse. Yes. Ooh, see, I'll just left that in there for you. She knew about the healing properties of turtle oil, which turtle flesh is rich in,

and she rubbed it into the painful saltwater boils. They also drunk it as a warming tonic, mixed it with fish and turtle meat to make a stew, to see, always, always chasing after that flavor, Lynn. and they also realised that turtle fat when heated in the sun made a good salve which kept them waterproof and stopped the sores. Wow.

So turtles are really showing up here. Lynn is really saving the day. Lynn is pretty epic. Dougal's still in a corner like, we're all going to die. Dougal's really dropped the ball and Lynn has picked it up. Master Marin are over there. Yeah.

No, he's quite busy just keeping the raft blown up. Oh, okay. He's in charge of blowing into the hole, is it? Yeah, he doesn't have many of it. opportunities to speak so on day 13 they're still in desperate need of water day 13 and the sharks are stealing fish from their fishing lines the raft is still flooding and it is in constant need of bailing bailing water round yeah on day 15 the rain finally comes oh hallelujah but it is too heavy oh come on so although they needed rain for drinking water they are thrown around

by storms and have to constantly bail out the dinghy, taking shifts at night and eventually collapsing from exhaustion. Their backup dingy, then breaks away from the raft and Dougal, he gets involved. Finally. I really

feel like I've understated how much Dougal did it. Yeah, I'll be honest. I'm not impressed with Dougal. He's doing a lot of the manual labour while they're painting pictures on the set of class. He he somehow finds the energy to dive in

and swim to retrieve it all while escaping the sharks. Oh shit, he's swimming in shark-infested waters. The sharks are stalking their boat. Okay, fair play, Dougal. I take it back. And he has not eaten or drunk. Yeah. And he managed to swim and retrieve this boat. I'm back on the Dougal train. Okay.

Um, Google has even more epic shark moments coming up. Oh, God. Just to keep you all listening. Um, so it's at this stage that more of Lynn's nurse knowledge comes in. to play. Come on, Lynne. They're all very dehydrated, we know this, and there is fluid that has collected

at the bottom of the dinghy they just saved. Ooh. Crucially, though, Lynn is aware of the danger of drinking that fluid at the bottom of the dinghy. When you say fluid, do you mean rainwater? The fluid is a polluted combination of blood, turtle offal and rainwater.

Not the turtles! Doesn't turtle awful just sounds so much better than poop? Like, It sounds like you could, I don't know, mix it with a... Hmm. I know nothing about cooking. Could be an ingredient. But if someone was like, you eat awful, I'd be like, yeah.

If it's turtle, sure. Throw it in. So she knows this would be poisonous if taken it orally. You know what? Lynn shits all over bear grills right now. She's incredible. I'm such a big fan... Oh, God.

Oh, no. So it would be poisonous if taken orally. But she knows that if taken rectally... Okay, here we go. An enema, it would not impair the digestive system, crucially, so it wouldn't go into the digestive system, and their bodies could absorb the water, keeping them hydrated, and then expel. Lynn, Lynn. Lynn, Lynn. We're putting Lynn in the tool to do we just want to take Lynn. Yeah. She was also worried about the family's lack of extricion, obviously, because they were so dehydrated, they weren't urinating, and Douglas says that actually, over the entire thing, he only went to the bathroom once. Stop it. During the entire.

How many days is it? 38 in total. He only went once. Obviously, I went and did a bit of enema research. Bit of game show music. I thought you were going to say, I went 38 days without. Just to see. This is a new diet trend I'm trying. No.

So obviously, yeah, I did a bit of enema research. I'm not happy about my push darts since. But basically, I still couldn't really work out the exact definition of an enema because I feel like it can be used for different things. Luckily, my friend, her dad is a consultant, gastroenterologist. Okay. Managed it. Yeah.

And so I asked her to ask him for a definition. Right. His first response was most people know what an enema is. Tell your friend, she's an idiot. Which I took passive aggressive. I found that quite passive aggressive. But then he did give me a great definition. He said, a tube is put in.

to your bottom. Liquid is gently squeezed into your lower bowel. You hold it in for as long as possible. Then you go to the lab and do a cracking, top quality, little loose shit. That's a professional consultant. Little loose shit. That's great. He also called it the poo expel. And said that it's often used as a prep to clear the lower bowel or for bad constipation to clear the log jam or used to deliver drugs or both. bonus answer in porn for anal sex to avoid poop on pean. We then had a whole discussion about the difference between anal duching and an enema and then my friend no longer wanted to talk to her dad about it.

So, yeah, like fair play to your friend for even approaching that with her dad. And fair play to her dad for saying poop on peevee. He's good fun, right? Yeah, that's great. So we'll be turning to him for any more rectal-based questions. Yeah. Hashtag poop on pean. Hey.

Okay, I, I, poop on peep on peon, I did flourish. I did have, I added a flourish of poop on peon, but little loose shit was his. So, Douglas. Loudrop's just coming. He heard poop on peon, he was like, what? Where's everyone being? Let me get involved. Hi.

Lowdrop's our mascot. He's a lovely labruder. He's currently dressed as a cowboy. Here's the fake little arms. He's on board. Okay. Back to Douglas. So Douglas the 16-year-old

crafts a homemade enema system from the rungs of a metal boat ladder and everyone except Robin Williams except the Sierra Blay He had too many doubts firing She's done it again Would have been a fright at the perineum Get it?

Fight at the panion Night at the museum, okay One of his less names I couldn't make a Jumanji one work Oh no I stared at Jomangi for a while if you can do it let us know please write in

help at wcspod dot com it was a two man job three men if you consider the person receiving it Douglas said a thirsty man will do anything Robin had clearly just got laid before and that's a lovely moment for a break

oh my god we're okay we're nearly there so their sunburn covered in so it's still raining they're in poor physical health they're drinking turtle blood and receiving regular enemas from lynn can it get any worse yes day 17 the life raft deflates completely stop so they now have to transfer to the even smaller dingy the ednamere okay and it was just

three metres long and the other one was nine meters No. Oh, sorry. So three metres, nine foot. I think that's the same measurement. Oh, sorry, sorry. Okay. They salvage what they can from the raft,

including flotation pieces to be secured to the bow of the Edomir and the canopy to give them shelter. Although the dingy is drier than the raft, it is not at all stable and could easily capsize at any time if hit by a big wave. Oh, God. No one knew they had gone adrift and sharks stalked out. their dangerously overcrowded vessel, prompting Mr. Robertson's senior, Doogel, don't know why I wrote it like that, or why Wikipedia did, to take matters into his own hands. Okay, step up, Dougal, come on, this is your time. This is my favourite book.

Great. Okay, this is my favourite quote from the entire article with Douglas, the son. Okay. He said about his dad, he was only five foot, five inches. Hmm. But when sharks circled our boat waiting for us to die, he'd punch them with his bare hands Yes, Dugal

He never stopped protecting his family Short King behaviour Wack a shark Oh good Good on Dugal Day 20 was Lynn's birthday Aw Did they do something nice?

They did so they had a feast Of fresh turtle meat Lovely As well as the fresh turtle No save it Save it for best They had fresh turtle meat and dried turtle meat and dried Dorado

which is just big fish with water to drink and sang happy birthday so honestly better than some birthdays I've had Day 21 the sea anchor and float breaks away and Douglas the sun now has to row after it in a feat of sheer endurance taking 35 minutes

he then sees a green flare often used by submarines and there's once again hope, but it comes to nothing. No. The next seven days are the worst. Oh God. There is lightning and torrential rain requiring them to constantly bail for their lies. Douglas

recalled that on the 23rd day it rained so heavily that they thought they lost the dingy. That day was their lowest because they'd already had a particularly angry turtle come to avenge his family. Oh, Jesus Christ. This is how I've written it.

The turtles get their event. I like to look at this entire story from the perspective of the turtles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the turtle finding Nemo. This is when squirrels, dad. Is it Squirrel? That's a Pokemon. That is a Pokemon, yeah.

What's the one in Finding Nemo? I don't know, I'm 33. I don't know. Anyone? Pause to find my place. Basically, they'd tied the entirety of their water store, their water tanks, together and hung them off the side of the boat. the raging turtle

slashed the rope with its claws and all they could do was watch their entire water supply sail off into the ocean No, on Lynn's birthday No, this is this is two days after Lynn's birthday

The turtle waited, the turtle's not complete it Let them have hold on place, hold on Let them have their birthday water Yeah We'll get up tomorrow At that point Dougal was ready to give up I'm sorry

Dougal was giving up day one Dugal gave up day one I did not He had a moment where he swam out to get the dingy He's been punching sharks barehanded Yeah true he was punching sharks I'll give him that He's going a real high score

On that fair gram game Wack a shock So Dougal's ready to give up But Lynn won't let him They sang to keep warm And then amazingly The wind fell silent

The rain stopped and the wind changed direction and they knew they had survived the worst night yet yes among the desolation that's not a word

I was going to say someone did an excellent job on Wikipedia I actually cross-referenced a lot of articles they learned to treasure each day watching the sun come up

watching the sun come up and go down became incredible as they were so delighted just to be alive for another day. Day 29. Oh my God. In the big brother house. Dougal caught a five-foot Miko shark. Ooh.

Dougal's doing a lot of the heavy lifting little sharks. Yeah, he's got sharks covered, yeah. It is shark week. Every week. Every week. Yeah. The Maco shark closed its mouth on Douglas's hand and drew blood, so we kept the teeth. I seem to make a cute little necklace later. Sure. They found a whole flying fish

inside some of the sharks they caught and they said it would taste as if they had just been cooked on a grill. Wow. So apparently shark's stomach does grill fish as good as a George Foreman. You know what? That's good to know. Right. Cut open a shark. Like don't bother packing a George Foreman. Just find sharks. Take it straight from the shark's stomach. By now they are quite the setup. Yeah. They had like, so I have a dive. diagram that maybe we can put on Instagram. Okay, good idea. But it's kind of like they have like ropes kind of hanging from the ship, the dingy,

and like fish hanging off them drying in the sun. Like it looks like almost like a market stall. Like they've got a full set up now of like fish drying out. Now day 30, things start to turn around. Douglas spots the pole star. So they know they're back in the northern hemisphere. I don't know I just write it down

Oh yeah Yeah yeah The Paul star The North Pole star Sure Maybe northern hemisphere Yeah north pole star Oh this

It's a star Oh okay Great, lovely He spots it We're on track He spots it I'm realising a lot of this I'll tell you about it later

Okay It's just a lot of it Says Douglas gets to do a lot Do you know I think Lynn has done the most If I was to have anyone In my corner I'd want Lynn Yeah

We'll hit it later it's coming up okay so they continue to deal with rain enemas enormous sharks bumping their tiny boat which can caps their size any time their clothes have disintegrated following constant immersion in saltwater and their threadbare but lynn still washes and mends them um she also uses her sewing kit to sew together parts of the abandoned life raft to make protective capes oh to like because obviously their clothes just a rubbish um they got no fast fashion just didn't hold up um the nine year old twins are very thin Neil poor Neil is emmanciated emaciated emaciated yeah I shouldn't have looked away as I said it I was like I don't know how this word is spelt but I'm gonna have a go

but I've turned away from the document anyway um do you know what though it was this is all Neil's fault anyway so yeah it's true he has what Well, look, he believed in his dad, all right? Yeah, he had too much trust in Dougal. Don't we all have too much trust in our dads, though? Yeah. Yeah. And Sandy, the other twin, has a cough, possibly pneumonia.

Oh, no. So, if he doesn't improve, they know they're going to have to start rowing without reserves of water. Seven days later, the dinghy almost capsizes when they're trying to drag a turtle on board. They didn't take the last turtles warning. and Sandy's cough has got a lot worse. So the Robertsons and their guest, Robin Williams, have travelled over 750 miles by raft and dinghy and had about 290 miles left until they would reach land.

On the 38th day adrift, they spot a second ship. Yes. Dougal lights their final single flare and holds it above his head until it burns his hand. Oh, Dougal. On July 23rd, 1972, a ship finally turns in their direction.

So it was the Japanese fishing trip, fishing boat. And the family's setup was so impressive the crew actually asked if they wanted to be rescued. Really? They were like, you seem to have your own thing going on here. This is a little holiday, here you guys. Beautiful.

So a rope was sent down once they realized they did want to be saved. And it was the first realization that they were actually safe. This has happened. The first thing Douglas does is ask for coffee. The idea was fantastic, but they couldn't drink it because of the state of their bodies. Oh, God, yeah. They were in much worse shape than they thought, and they all needed blood transfusions. Oh, shit.

They were so dehydrated. that they hadn't peed for 20 days and their tongues were so swollen with thirst they could hardly speak. The Japanese fishing boat brought them back to Panama where the British embassy put them in a hotel. Douglas could fully experience the joy of what he'd always wanted

to order the food he wanted from the hotel restaurant. Can you guess what he ordered? Turtle soup. No, chips? Three servings of steak and eggs. Really? wasn't sick of it. I feel a little Stockholm syndrome.

Stick with what you know, I guess. It's nice to be familiar, yeah. But I get, maybe at least it wasn't tall this time. True. But the guy, he knew what he liked. Yeah. But it made him violently ill. Oh, no.

Well, he did have three. That's true. That's too many. He went hard. But no, they weren't ready for food yet. But he did say it was like having their lives given back to them, a pinnacle of contentment never reached again. Oh.

A bit sad, actually. that's a bit of a low point um he's never felt the contentment again but i guess that is you know what though he spent 38 days it's the most epic yeah moment of like oh my god that'd be the best steak you've ever eaten we made well no he threw it up oh yeah i think he meant just more being rescued sure yeah like that's gonna feel pretty good you definitely would have like lenny hemorrhied onto that bed oh yeah yeah they're safe but the family's life was changed forever unfortunately after the rescue dougal and lynn divorced yeah no shit lynch had a left him way before this.

I'm sorry, Lynn, Lynn, babes, you could do so much better than Dougal. I hope Lynn went on to marry Bear Grills. I hope that's... Bear Grills does come into it. Does it? Yeah, okay. So the family, surprisingly, real shocking this bit,

had argued a lot being trapped on a nine foot bow. And unfortunately, the fights Lynn and Dougal had on the dinghy broke their marriage. Yeah, fair. He kept leaving his pants out. Um, The parents also felt a tremendous amount of guilt for putting their children in danger.

Dougal had always wanted his family to have more than the poor life on the dairy farm but wish he'd done something simpler. Yeah, probably. He said... But don't listen to Neil. Yeah, maybe don't take advice from the nine-year-old. I think he appealed to the ego though,

do you know what I mean? Yeah, he was like, you're a sailor, let's do that. Yeah, let's sail around the world and he's like, yeah, let's. I guess if you are the adventurous type, there's something to it to be like, we sailed around the world. but he did say, I don't know why I did it.

I could have taken you to the Mediterranean. That would have done. You know who... I didn't have to take you around the world. You know who's won in this story? It's the 18-year-old sister who got off at the Caribbean. She smashed this. She was like, oh, you did what?

She must have been very worried, though. No, actually, would she have expected to hear from them? No, she's living up. She doesn't even know it's happening. She is out, out. She is out, okay. Yes. But his children would say, dad, we survived.

You helped her. You helped her. we did it. In fact, their lives on the farm had helped them as they were used to living and surviving with the bare minimum and without electricity. Dougal wrote a book about the ordeal called Survive the Savage Sea, which came out in 1973 and was later turned into a movie. And both Dougal and Lynn used the money from it to move on.

So Dougal, surprisingly, bought another yacht. And he went to go live in the Mediterranean. Good for him. He really wished it'd gone there. And Lynn decided to go back to farming and bought a farm for £20,000 with the sales. The information he wrote about how they survived was also then used by another survivor. I've got a little mini survival story here. Stephen Callaghan, who took part in a race from England to Antigua, collided with a whale.

These whales. I didn't know Wales was such a risk. Neither did I. So he lost his boat. He got into an unfatible raft and grabbed a moment. emergency supplies, including Dougal Robertson's Sea Survival Manual, with the help of Dougal's book, he survived 76 days adrift on the ocean until a fisherman rescued him. Lynn also left a survival legacy as her improvised Enema method found its way into the SAS training

manual. Whoa. Bear Grills also tried out the approach on TV and explained that the SAS had adopted it as an important survival method. Although they divorced, son Douglas believes his parents never stopped loving each other, and when Dougal died from cancer age 67, Lynn nursed him

Loudrop, this is a really emotional bad. Loudrop was just going to town on, I don't know, some animal's body part. He's surviving, let him be. It's inappropriate. We're talking about cancer, Loudrop. Dougal died from cancer

age 67, Lynn nursed him at their daughter's house for the last three years of his life, and then she died aged 75, also from cancer. Oh. This is when it gets a little tricky, complicated. Like I said, a lot of the story has been from son Douglas's point of view. So although originally Dad Dougal wrote the book covering their survival, Douglas felt that that book didn't actually give sufficient credit to the contribution made by his selfless mother, himself, or the rest of the family.

So he said although his dad was the brains, Douglas, the 16-year-old or 18 in some articles, was the muscle and that Dougal couldn't have done it without the rest of them. So he then wrote his own book called The Last Voyage of the Luset, which also covered the issues the family had experienced before the accident due to Dougal having a very short temper and disciplining his children by hitting them. So this wasn't their 70s, but Dougal, I don't think, was the nicest father. though Douglas does say he never hated or held a grudge against his dad as he admired his sense of adventure and courage and said they would have never gotten home without him okay and it was definitely a group effort yeah a hundred percent like you said Lynn star of this story but the conclusion is still the same

Google never stopped protecting his family till the very end and then Douglas later joined the Navy himself oh nice the Robertsons weren't the only one saved by the Japanese sailors that day they also managed to retrieve the dingy and you can and we will actually go visit it stop the family donated the Ednamar to the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth Cornwall

and it's on permanent display telling the extraordinary tale in full the surviving members of the family don't often talk about what happened but every now and then they do go to the National Maritime Museum where their small lifeboat is kept and remember life is precious. Got a bit emotional that.

They and the museum mark three dates each year. The date they left Falmouth on January 27th, sinking day, as the family call it, on June 13th, and Rescue Day on July 23rd. Although it is a reminder of a harrowing experience, it is an inspiration for survival. And that is the epic tale of the Robertson's 38 days of survival.

Wow. In the Pacific. Very good. Ocean. Thank you very much. I feel like I should. Take a little bow. Wow.

What a story. Four applause. What are we putting in the kit? So many options. I mean, Lynn, we can't, presumably we can't put people in the kit. No, I think the rules should be not people. I think you can put a sewing kit in there. I think it's sewing kit.

I think we could put a turtle in there. A turtle, yeah. I back myself. I think I could put a turtle in the kit. Well, the turtle did cover most of their needs. Or an enema. I'd say those are are. Okay.

Top three. I'm leaning towards sewing kit, but a turtle... Really? I think sewing kits are no. I think it's between turtle and enema. I think turtle. I think a sea turtle. Okay, I'm going...

Okay. Yeah, because didn't they use the ladder for the enema? Yeah. Yeah, so I'm sure we'll be able... Yeah, an enema is a process, it's not actually an object. Yeah, so whatever scenario we're in, we could just hollow out a turtle's arm, you know? Sure, if we've got the turtle, yeah, okay, let's go turtle. A singular seed, well, you actually need kind of more than one sea turtle, a single vial of turtle's blood.

What's a, what's multiple turtles? Well, they caught 13. Oh, what's it called? Okay, let's Google that. A bale. A bale. A bale. A bale of turtles.

I like it. And you could say they've been, they really. bailed them out. There we go. She doesn't stop. So we're putting a sea turtle. The first item. In the toolkit.

In the toolkit of our worst case scenario is a Vival toolkit is a singular sea turtle. Love it. You know what? I didn't think it would be a turtle. I didn't either, but I'm really glad it is. Yeah, me too. Lovely, beautiful story. Very good.

Well told. Lovely little jokes. Thank you. Love that there was a celebrity in there. Robin, like, you could not make that up. Great stuff. Brilliant. It had everything.

It did. It did. But we are not finished yet. No. We still have the listener tales to come. So these, as we are merely podcast babies, this is the first thing to go out. Podcast babies sounds kingy. Doesn't it?

It feels like we should have an only fan. Oh, maybe that's the next step. I don't like it. I don't like it. we as this is i'll rephrase it as this is the second podcast child oh no i was going to move away from the offspring podcast infant yeah we're new we're a new podcast hot young podcast wow okay uh as we are doing the first round first round first episodes first two episodes sorry i made it too sorry yes you've made it too episodes long. So now is the time for our listener stories. Hooray! Yay! But as we haven't put

anything out yet, people don't know to get in touch. So what we've done is these stories have come from Abbey's DMs. So thank you so much. There's a few dick pics in there too. Just threw them in there for you. Thank you. People don't actually send me dick pics. They just send me pictures of them with their dog. Oh, way better. Oh, it's still tense though because it still comes through being like this picture is like guarded. Are you sure you want to see it? But, like, I always do. I'm always like... Always when it's a...

And then it's just, like, a man with his dog. Aw. It's kind of like a cool, sick brand I've set up. Yeah, they know exactly what you want. Oh, Nick. I'm going to get so many DMs now that are just penises with dogs, though. Yeah. But as long as there's a dog in it.

That's fine, right? No. There's a lot of dog can fix. Yeah, true. That's not one. Carry on. This first one, I feel like... It's especially tailored to you.

Oh, okay, fun. Um, okay. I love anything about it. me. It's not strictly about you as how I survived Abby Clark. Fuck it, I'm out. Okay, right.

When I was in sixth form, I helped backstage with the school musicals. Yeah. And I was stage managing Bugsy Malone, which, by the way, I'm not a huge musical fan,

but Bugsy Malone has got to be up there. It's so good. Really? Oh, my God, I love Bugsy Malone. Oh, it's too many children for me. Oh, okay, yeah, fine. But the songs...

I'd love Bugsy Malone if everyone was played by adults. Okay. I think you're fun out of it. I think it'd be a much stronger musical. Okay, sure. Stop playing Justin Bieber dance with the mop, you know? Oh my God, but that's the best. No, the mop is the best one.

That is actually the only bit I will allow. Yeah. Okay, so stage managing, Bugs Malone. Very happy being backstage. Shout out to the techies. Have you ever techied? No. Have you not?

Not really, no. Are you above that? I'm just more like a front-facing kind of performer. Like, I need an audience. and this person says and I don't have performer jeans but you know what? I stage managed once

because I auditioned for Dorothy in the list of ours and a TA strongly hinted that I'd got the part but it cast us up haven't have I I have got the part of stage I can't remember what it's good no it's like this little creature that just dances

in the woods what's it what's it called real niche character that is just like not in the movie is only in the stage show so obviously not the part I wanted so I refuse to be in the musical Wow

I took a stand I was actually also really annoyed because this actually is like just serious and not fun but I think it's weird in a school show to not allow some students to be in it at all

right my drama teacher had really taken on like she was cast in the West End Okay. And she was like, some students are not even making ensemble. Standards were high. Which I think is mental, right? And my friend was actually like a good singer, which is rare to come by in a secondary school in the middle of the countryside.

And she, drama was her passion. Yeah. Right? It was like all she did. She was like drama, GCC, A level. They wouldn't even give her a part in the ensemble, which just made no sense. So I took a stamp and I put on a play. however a rival play

because scream musicals she thought the only way she knew how that's for cheap audiences I did some serious drama okay um I actually did a comedy and then my drama teacher hated me um anyway it got to showtime all my friends were in the musical so I did volunteer to be backstage and got to hang out with everyone backstage so I was a stage manager yeah so I'd say your drama teacher won in that scenario yeah and also like some really hot girls from like year 11 ended up playing

the part i was going to pay and they were some like really sexy jumpsuit so i've made a mistake yeah you really but my play was really good oh did you write the play no i just i just directed it what was the play it was daisy pulls it off oh don't know it well okay if you'd see my production you would i'm sure it was very memorable okay so a few weeks before the show my drama teacher still There's nightmares about it. We're still on you. Good. Okay.

Can we get back to the next one? Okay, good. Just big up backstage. Yes. Well, that's what she was trying to do when you... Those who didn't get the parts. Okay. A few weeks before the show...

And still what to be involved. We were short, a performer. If only Abby had been there. Long story short, I was now stage managing in costume, entering stage left, singing there's no business like show business. Exit stage right and finishing stage managing the show. This is my dream. Right.

come show week three weeks down uh sorry three shows down uh and everything is going okay okay just okay okay you're gonna be like everything's going great okay everything is going okay we're surviving final show uh it's a packed saturday night the bugsy malone cast are rather giddy uh especially those who are throwing custard pies and firing splurge guns for the last time oh it's a sad day i make my entrance remember my lines and proceed to slip down a flight of stairs into the middle of the stage tights ripped feathers flying i get up and carry on singing wow yeah fair play there's no business like show business and exit i came off to find the director

and head of costume and a chaperone all waiting to patch me up i hadn't realized i was grazed and bleeding down my leg but i couldn't be annoyed without the men but I couldn't be annoyed about the mess I was stage manager gave my family a heart attack but the best part was a lot of audience had commented they thought it was really inspired that I played the part

drunk yes that is a very mature performance decision from a child it is isn't it right yeah I blame any time I fall over on being drunk because why not sure you said that like you fall over often

I don't think I've ever seen you fall over I do fall over quite a lot but I am drunk quite a lot but you're also quite small so you're quite close to the ground yeah people don't is it doesn't you know what you don't notice that story was from Melanie Watts

thank you very much Melanie I hope you've continued with your stage managing career yep let us know tell us did you carry on that is i always thought that though whenever i worked like backstage or like when i used to assistant direct i always thought the moment was this really shows that like i always actually

just wanted to be a performer yeah someone was going to get sick and they'd be like we need somebody i always tricked myself being like no no no i'm happy working backstage on like the artistic side of it like i don't need to be on stage and then like i remember a show i worked on and the lead character went off and i was the perfect replacement everybody was saying it I knew the whole show like the back of my hand and what did they do

get a professional actor and to learn the show in a day oh what cheating I was like this was my guaranteed moment to get a professional acting credit on the CV didn't get it that's not fair

how did that original actor go off ill she broke a leg I don't need to say anything more slippery stage was it She was playing it drunk Okay Right this one's from Molly

Molly Molly says hi Abby and Julia Hi Molly About six years ago I went solo wild camping Oh no good story starts that way That was your first mistake Around the North Coast

500 in Scotland I've no idea what the North Coast 500 is No neither I have no interest in finding out Right So one evening I drove up a narrow dead-end lane. This story just gets worse.

In the middle of nowhere. She's making zero good decisions. Yeah. Packed up. Sorry, this is very victim-blamey. You know what? She was asking for it. It's a level.

So, parked up and walked only about 10 metres off the path and just out of sight of my car. Good choices. Mommy, good choices. My hands are getting so sweaty. Good choices. After supper. I put most of my stuff back in the car

and settled in my tent for the night. Great. My tent is bright blue polka dots. That reminds me of your V-Festable bit. Yeah. So not the most subtle. At about 10.30pm, I hear another car very close. No.

I panic as this is not a through road and no reason for anyone to be up here at this time of night. other than to murder right i have no phone signal great and my kitchen knife is in the car who needs it my only weapon is a torch yes that's a good one that's top five weapons yeah i hear of a lot of torch murders okay good i'm being sarcastic julia this woman's making terrible decisions i actually think a torch is a good thing torches are heavy if it's a big torch well yeah it depends It might not be there. It might just be one of those...

I hope it is. Those mini little... Oh, God, I hope that. Okay. One that goes purple for fun. I hear the car doors open and close and then open and close again. I just know I'm about to be murdered

and my family won't know until I don't show for work in two weeks. Oh, God. Two weeks are such a long time. That's a long time. Do you ever think about if you lived alone and you died how long would it take for people to notice? Yeah.

How long do you think it would take for you? Like quite a long time I don't really talk to people regularly enough No you never talk to me Right I had to get a podcast with you To get you to talk to me I'd start drinking margaritis

Like I don't talk to my family regularly enough For them to be like Oh weird Julia hasn't phoned Yeah actually I was really offended When I first moved to London I tried to play like really hard to get With my parents

And they're like This is nice Because like they thought I was gonna have An immediate breakdown So I was like okay How long was it Before your birthday I don't even need you

played real hard to get they did not care I rang them after like two weeks to be like they're gonna think I'm dead and they were like oh hi why are you ringing I think the problem is I update my Instagram story every day so they kind of knew what I'd been up to yeah you're hardly an enigma are you yeah okay

so where are we at two weeks it's been two week it could be potentially two weeks before anybody knows that she said but then I hear the car start to squeak. Mm-hmm. It dawns on me what is actually happening. Sex.

Yes. Lots of sex. For 30 minutes Oh, the car squeaked. Okay, queen. Fair play. I can't pull off queen.

Okay. I tried. Yeah, good effort. I'm trying to build to the younger audience. I'm here to bring the Gen Z Z-Z in. That's all on you, I'm afraid. Do they still say queen?

Is queen cool, is that what they're saying? I still thought, I still thought I was going to be murdered once the couple realized I was around the corner just out for your embarrassment they were like we can't have you living to witnesses

she's like outside the car door with a little glass to the window and witness to their liaison yeah because to be fair that's not like that's not a couple that's not a couple that's happy for people to know that they're shagging

if you're shagging in the middle of the dark no that could be a long time relationship couple trying to reintroduce some magic back in that's got a fair written all over it to me. Fair. But okay. Also, murder isn't out of the question yet. Certainly not, no. But they drove off. Okay. None the wiser. And I survived.

Oh, congratulations, Wally. The next night, I paid to stay in a proper campsite. Good. Good choices. Yes. See, this is how we learn. We grow. We pay for campsites. Yes. Good for you. Oh, you know, just stay in an Airbnb. Yeah, to be fair, campsite. That's my personal choice.

Yeah. Um, okay, last one, are you ready? I'm so ready. This one's from Samantha. Hi, guys. Hi, Samantha. These all sound like characters from sex and the city. Yeah.

Um, I was a wedding cake designer. That's really, sorry, it's really telling of my following. Yeah, it really is. Every single one of these are white women names. For sure. Yeah. Basic white women. All right, let's hear it.

I'm impressed at how adventurous they are. Okay. I was a wedding cake designer slash maker for 20 years, and as time went on, I got better and my prices went up. I was in demand. Ooh. Good for you, Samantha. So my customers became clients and were more affluent.

Okay. I think I am socially awkward, but mask fairly well. This is a perfect example of my follower. Yeah. I would put on a performance when it came to design consultations. I had to act confident. and professional. As I was seeing a client out of my door

alongside her wedding planner, she unexpectedly leaned in and said her thank you and went to kiss me on the cheek. Oh no. I wasn't expecting this. I panicked. Why do people kiss you on cheeks?

Oh my God. Why is that thing? Every gig I go to, I'm getting hugged slash kissed on the cheek by all the men at the gig. I think you should report that. And they're all handshaking. Yeah, that doesn't happen to me.

I don't get a handshake. Anyway, I was moaning about this to Jess the other day. Like, this is so unfair. It's also, that doesn't happen. It doesn't happen to you. No. Hmm. If anything, people give me a wide berth.

That's a conversation for another day. Okay, I panicked. Kissing her full on the lips. I don't know how. Well, it says her right. I don't know how I suppose. survived this, it was horrible. I just pretended it didn't happen. That's the best way to survive. The shock on the wedding planner's face is seared into my brain. I relived this pretty much on a

daily basis. It happened six years ago. Yeah, that sounds about right. I'd add that to the survival kit, just pretend it's not happening. I'd say that's a solid survival technique. I think, yeah, I think so too. I've used that many, many times. Pretend it doesn't happen and just dwell on it for the next six years. Yeah. Good. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. That was great. Please send us more. Yes. At WCS.

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