Reality TV - The Raft

I am a scaredy cat adventurer! I would never do anything adventurous but I admire those that can. I suppose I am a kind of camp follower from a distance, a great distance. I’m really fascinated in extreme rowing and often daydream about say rowing around the world so much I have actually planned it in my mind.

Over the years, I have followed the rowing race around the UK and across Atlantic, Pacific Oceans, and that the moment I am following a group of four woman crossing the Pacific. The team plan to row 8,446 miles from America to Australia with a couple of stops during the trip to re-stock and make any repairs. See Website

The reason for this blog is simply that I came across what I thought was a really unusual television show called The Raft’. The reality show is one of the craziest I have come across but although in theory they are not alone in the middle of the ocean, they have a support boat with them. There is a production crewmember/cameraman is on the raft who is not allowed to interact with the contestants. I am not sure if he were on the raft during dinnertime with two starving people, it would be a tad awkward.

The programme broadcasted by National Geographic Channel and I am unsure if it has made its UK debut on the channel I watched via the internet.

The premise of the show is that two pairs of strangers are dumped into the ocean released a hundred miles or more apart in the midst of the mysterious Bermuda Triangle. They then have to clamber into a life raft. They then have six days to try to reach land with their meagre supplies trying to find a way to make a lure and catch a meal.

I watched the first episode and on one raft (yellow), a lobster fisherman and a travel writer faced off an aggressive shark attack and a lack of food and water. They did manage to catch a few tiny fish and that was about it. However, when one of them fell ill they were forced to call in the mothership for a rescue. On the other raft, a scoutmaster and a cruise ship singer had the same kind of problems food wise and they discovered their water pump is missing a crucial valve. With the hunger biting, they made two attempts to salvage debris from the sea. First some coconuts that were uneatable and later a black bag that was full with rubbish but they did make it to landfall.

Interesting as it was they would be no cannibalism has we watched them all roll around in hunger that cameraman must have been looking tasty. Also, I was disappointment there was no mysterious fog leading to a hidden island full of pirates or a gateway to another time or universe.