A personal watercraft may be one of the most useful survival items in a nation with the most navigable waterways in the world. Add to that the fact that pack rafts and light weight canoes and kayaks can be portaged between waterways or dragged over shallow spots in streams that are not technically navigable and you have a transportation method that helped primitive humans survive and civilizations develop. So whatever wind or human powered watercraft suits your local wilderness areas the best, if you are able to camp and/or find/make shelter near a body of water: ocean, lake or stream you will more likely be able to find food there.
Also if flooding like after recent heavy snow fall near Buffalo NY, melts and floods in your area you may just need it to travel by boat down the local roadways to buy food and fuel. Small plastic kayaks also make fairly decent toboggans over snow and ice.
This article in the Washington Post got me thinking that among all the other skills and survival items, a boat in many parts of the USA is very useful:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...ab6_story.html
"Peter Zeihan’s “The Accidental Superpower” begins with geography, pointing out that the United States is the world’s largest consumer market for a reason: its rivers. Transporting goods by water is 12 times cheaper than by land (which is why civilizations have always flourished around rivers). And the United States, Zeihan calculates, has more navigable waterways — 17,600 miles’ worth — than the rest of the world. By comparison, he notes, China and Germany each have about 2,000 miles. And all of the Arab world has 120 miles."
BTW I have noticed over the years that this journalist, Fareed Zakaria, like many others often gets his numbers wrong but the general gist seems to be correct that the USA is economically strong partially because of its coastal and river systems that reduce the cost of transportation of goods. Also river flood plains are generally good farmland with plentiful wildlife and/or livestock grazing land.
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