Doug, would you like me to call Ric and ask him when the next trip is going to be? Perhaps you would like to be one of the volunteers.
LOL, not as a lab rat, but thanks for asking. I'm sure the trips are tough, but rewarding. The one thing I was wondering about the trips was how the Mother Ship anchored when the seafloor drops away so fast?
I was primarily curious how long it would take a castaway, possibly injured, sleep/water/food deprived, maybe suffering from seafood poisoning/dysentery/dehydration/sunburn, yet incredibly motivated, to get from a well protected area to the shore after hearing search planes. 15 minutes is faster than I expected. There's been a lot of discussion about why AE/FN weren't seen. I was interested in a quantitative estimate from someone rested and fed (or maybe not!) who has actually tried to move through the vegetation on that specific island. The time to get into a position to be seen would reduce the window and probability of detection. I don't know how the standard tables for probability of detection were estimated, but would presume they don't account for extended periods of time for the searchee to get to an area where they might be seen.
The West/lee side of the island would have been unbearable. It would seem that a castaway would want to move well away from the direct sun, glaring white sand/coral, and reflections off the water to a protected spot as much as possible, yet remain close to the aircraft and easily seen shipwreck. Moving inland would of course have to be balanced against the discomfort of even more stagnant breezes and longer time to get back to the shore.
The one thing I haven't read in the forum, but is a real issue, is sunburn from both direct and reflected light. Even here in San Diego (32.7N lat) both can be intense. I've seen people on the water terribly burnt just by reflected light while under sun shades. I've seen people turn lobster red from sunburn in the tropics. It's a secondary issue for sure, but if you've ever had a bad sunburn it's
very painful to move (been there, done that). It could have affected the castaways, particularly those not acclimated to the intense equatorial sun.