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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Lots of widowmakers there judging by the pictures, better be careful. One thing you learn quickly when you live remote is that the nearest hospital is very far away both in space and in time and stuff that is routine in a city can get serious (or even kill you) when you're living remote.

Still, congratulations, I can really relate to how you guys feel.

In case there are more island enthousiasts here:

http://www.privateislandsonline.com/regions/canada

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For people who are confused:

A widowmaker is a dead tree that could fall, and kill somebody [in the namesake a probably-male logger]; thereby creating a widow.

Ah - living in the UK I thought that would be some kind of weird spider or snake or something. Thanks for that.

We don't have weird dangerous stuff here except for the politicians and bankers.

Apologies, I spent too much time around loggers. I'd hate to be under a tree that sheds politicians and bankers :)

We still have trees, here...

In Australia, and I had the same thought, that 'widowmaker' referred to a spider.

Or any number of dangerous mammals. ;)

In Australia here, and I knew exactly what he meant.

I guess it just depends on whether you've done much tree-work. (I'm ex-SES in an area with lots of National Parks/State Recreation Areas)

Widowmaker was also the name used for the hammer drills used in the Australian goldfields. The dust from the drilled rock got into the miners lungs and killed them prematurely.

When talking about watercooled VWs, it refers to this jack: http://www.quickcashauto.com/How-To-Articles/images/Jack.jpg

The term seems to be used for all sorts of things.

I was rather confused since I know more about finance than logging.

In finance, "Widowmaker" means one thing: Shorting Japanese Government Bonds (JGB) and inevitably losing money. Because of Japan’s gigantic national debt, and because the Japanese bond rally has gone on so long, investors have called the top in the Japanese bond market for years, only to get impaled.

thanks for clearing it up.

Now I've learned two things.

A widowmaker, in the medical sense, is a highly stenotic left main coronary artery. In other words, a heart attack by clogging the arteries that feed the heart blood (not the main pump supply).

That's how my dad died last year.

We're actually pretty close to a hospital. Five minutes to shore by boat and maybe 20 minutes to a hospital. Didn't see any scary spiders, but will keep an eye out next time I'm up there!

Widowmaker, not widow spider. See, what you don't know could kill you ;) Spend some time in an unmaintained bit of forest and you'll get to know plenty of these things.

Five minutes to shore when the weather is good and your engine starts. Really, please heed my advice and make sure each and every one of you knows how to do basic first aid, I hope you're never going to be in a position to use it but when you do you'll be happy you took the time and trouble. First purchase: a very good first aid kit.

This is all not to piss on your parade but because I lived in a pretty remote area for 2 years and have a little bit of experience that might be relevant to your situation.

Thanks for the heads up! We'll def be sure to get on that and get some basic first aid training across the board + med kit on site. Any other advice/tips we should be aware of?

You're welcome.

Basic engine repair skills, something to patch up your boat in case you spring a leak, a basic comms kit+genny so you can call up the coast guard or a passing boat if you should need them (assuming your island is out of cell phone reach), cache of freshwater, fuel, waterproofed matches and a couple of days worth of tin cans in case you ever get cut off. Halifax coast in winter can be, how to phrase this, impressive, to say the least.

Mind you, the real kick is when you are isolated but there is an additional degree of risk there. No need to get your appendix out as a precaution just yet ;)

All of this is assuming you're on the salty side of things, if you're in a lake it's a lot more relaxed but you will still need to take basic precautions and you'll need to be extremely careful with what you do with your wastes (you'd need to be just as careful in the ocean with that for ethical reasons but there will be fewer watching eyes so you can drop the 'extremely').

As a SAR guy, I can say the big big thing is the first aid (plus CPR). It sounds like you're relatively close to civilization, but realize that if someone has to come to help you, they're likely not going to be there within the Golden Hour (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_%28medicine%29). That, and just being prepared in general (ten essentials: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Essentials and knowing how to use them), having skills, and being wary. I've seen even well-seasoned people end up in bad situations; the best way to survive seems to be to avoid the bad situations. Also, never go alone.

Good stuff second all of it, the last one you can't emphasize enough. 'SAR guy' -> Search And Rescue guy.

Although that area is typically serviced by hovercraft and close to civilization, having first aid skills are certainly essential.

And gear. Setting up a supply of basic medical stuff isn't that expensive if you do it right and it could be very handy. A few key drugs, a few laminated sets of instructions on how to give them and you'll potentially be much better off. Allergic reactions etc can be ugly.

Reading all the advice that is being given in comments around this thread, it would seem the best advice would be: get someone who knows what they're talking about in the local area and get their advice; like the parent poster SAR but that also knows about dangers closer to home.

Maybe you could make a weekend of it for your families or something.

My SAR group actually teaches a class where one of our stated upfront goals is to prevent people from having to be rescued. Depending on the area, the local SAR group might be too busy putting out fires to do similar (it takes a lot of planning and prep).

Yep. Life is fragile. One subtle mistake can be game over (McCandless)

Non-nonsense survival guide:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0762448180

Also: man vs wild (television)

> Also: man vs wild (television)

I would very strongly advise AGAINST emulating Bear Grylls' antics in 'Man vs Wild'. He often does things that are the complete and total opposite of what you should do. One example that stuck in my mind was when he (supposedly) needed to cross a mountain and decided, instead, to go through the mountain via a cave, which is possibly the most stupid idea I've ever heard. He arguably puts young people at risk by encouraging such dangerous behaviour. Lofty Wiseman (author of the SAS Survival Guide) has described him as an "idiot".

Also, while the TV show portrays him as roughing it in the wild, the truth is somewhat different: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-470155/How-Bear-Gryl...

If their boat is more of a skiff, a couple paddles and a milk jug cut in half for bailing might be sufficient.

In terms of winter storms, this is approximately as bad as it gets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Juan .

Funny you should post that. I was travelling by car near Cap Chat when that hit and it wasn't amusing at all.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=cap+chat+quebec&oe=utf-8&aq=t...

The st. Lawrence river might just as well be ocean for the purpose of driving along the shore road in winter, in the middle of a snowstorm like that it really makes you wonder what the hell you were thinking of driving there in winter.

I went there to visit a huge VAT ('eggbeater' or Darrieus rotor windmill), I should have kept a better eye out for the weather reports rather than to keep on driving, and I only caught the tail end of it. Live & learn...

(someone else's picture of the windmill: http://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryman_76021/555075211/ )

It's an interesting experience to try to dig out your car before the next snowplow comes along.

Completely unrelated: I zoomed out on your Google Maps link and saw a suspiciously circular lake formation:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=cap+chat+quebec&hl=en&ie=UTF8...

Yep, it's the 4th most powerful known meteor impact: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9-Levasseur_Island

I love Wikipedia.

Go to Sudbury, Ontario for an even larger one! (they're still mining that one today).

That storm was unusual but we do often get a few Nor' Easter storms in the winter and at -20C and 100km/h to 120km/h it can be a bit rough.

Calling -20@100 km/h winds 'a bit rough' should qualify for the understatement of the decade if there is such a thing. I've been out in weather like that and it cured me of a desire to see snow and ice for a very long time. I've seen it be below -40 on St. Josephs Island a couple of nights every year and that was definitely quite strange. As long as the wind wasn't up it was doable, even the slightest breeze and you'd be crazy to go out (or you'd have to feed the stove...).

That's what I was thinking, about the paddles. Five minutes by motorboat in clear weather ought to be at least manageable even if the motor's out and the weather's terrible, so long as you've got paddles.

A wildnerness first aid kit and training:

http://www.outdoored.com/community/risk_management/b/wildmed...

And an AED

Ahh, I misunderstood.

We're actually pretty close to the shore on one side, in cell phone coverage, and have the phone number of our closest neighbor. There's definitely danger there, and we're big on safety, but it's not as remote as it probably seems.

Thanks for the advice and thoughts!

I think “widowmakers” doesn't refer to spiders, but things to watch out for, like falling trees, slippery ledges, sharp rocks, and so on.

They're one of the “five Ws”—a mnemonic list of things you need (or need to keep away from) to survive in the wilderness: water, weather, wigglies (which would include spiders), widowmakers, and wood.

I suspect he meant "widowmakers" in the "bits of tree that can suddenly fall and kill you" sense, not spider sense: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widowmaker_(forestry)

Yep. And suddenly fall they do (gust of wind, guy playing around with a chainsaw at the base, random chance).

it's a miracle humans managed to survive the first few million years...

Most of them didn't.

Literally survivor bias

> it's a miracle humans managed to survive the first few million years...

They haven't, yet; humans (H. sapiens) have only been around for ~200k years.

That's a matter of numbers. Lots of people die in unfortunate ways. I'd just rather not be one of them.

20 minutes at what speed? How long to row if you engine doesn't start?

...and you've accidentally cut off one of your hands building your cabin?

> Didn't see any scary spiders, but will keep an eye out next time I'm up there!

One of the nice things about here in NS is that there are no native spiders or snakes that are dangerous to humans.

The trees can kill you though. My father was almost killed by one back in his short lived forestry career.

On the lake, and surrounding lakes where we own a cabin, there are hundreds of lakes on private islands, some of which are a considerable distance by boat. This has been going on for the better part of the last century, and people don't seem to be having issues in general.

I would put "clearing a space or even making a concrete pad for a helicopter to land" and "checking cell phone coverage, if any" high on the list of first things to do.

I believe he already said there was cell coverage. As someone who can only dream about owning a private island, how big would a helipad have to be? And how much concrete would it take to make that sort of thing?

From http://www.txairlife.com/calling_airlife/call_build.htm for example:

"* How large of a landing area is required for the helipad and where should it be located?

The size of the helicopter’s primary approach area, departure area, landing area, and the obstructions must be taken into consideration before determining the location. The AirLIFE helicopter must have a landing area of 100’ x 100’. The takeoff and approach areas should also be 100’ x 100’ and clear of all obstructions.

* What should the size of the helipad surface be, and how much weight should it support?

The ideal size of the helipad surface should be 50’ x 50’, but can be as small as 40’ x 40’. The landing surface should be able to support the helicopter at it’s maximum gross weight of 9,300 lbs."

Or take a look at http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/f..., "CHAPTER 13 - DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF HELIPORTS AND HELIPADS"

Fascinating, thanks :)

This island for sale in Scotland appears to have a helipad next to the house (you can see it on one of the pics):

http://www.privateislandsonline.com/islands/eilean-righ

I've thought the same: no hospitals near = serious problem.

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