魯濱遜式的另類假期
What's life like on a deserted island? Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona decided to find out.
The adventurous senator took a vacation from Capitol Hill and went on a four-day Robinson Crusoe style holiday with his two teenage sons to a remote, uninhabited island in the North Pacific Ocean.
The senator and his sons, 15-year-old Tanner and 13-year-old Dallin, traveled 5,200 miles from Phoenix, Arizona to the island of Biggarenn. They didn’t carry any food or water.
The island is part of the Marshall Islands . It offered no basic facilities, so the Flakes had to catch and cook their own food and purify their water. Their diet was made up of coconuts, crab and fish. They captured the crab and fish themselves and cooked the food over an open fire started with a magnifying glass.
The Flakes brought along a lobster trapin hopes of having some delicious treats, but lost it within the first few hours after it was attacked by a shark. They also carried two pumps to remove salt from ocean water. It took them hours each night pumping for just a few gallons of fresh water.
One of the most memorable moments of the trip, the father said, was when he and his 15-year-old were chased by sharks after spearing a fish in the ocean.
Still, it was quite an enjoyable holiday for the senator. “For a dad it was a wonderful thing. No video games around, no television, no distractions, no texting,” Flake recalled.
荒島上的生活會是什么樣?亞利桑那州的參議員杰夫?弗萊克決定一探究竟。
這位充滿冒險精神的參議員從工作中抽身，和他的兩個十幾歲的兒子去北太平洋上一座遙遠而又荒無人煙的孤島上體驗了一次為期四天的魯濱遜式假期。
參議員帶著他的兩個兒子——15歲的泰納和13歲的達林——來到了距離亞利桑那州的鳳凰城5,200英里的比蓋瑞恩島。他們沒帶任何食物和水。
這座小島隸屬于馬紹爾群島。島上沒有任何基礎設施，所以弗萊克一家只能自己找吃的做飯和凈化海水。這四天里，他們的食物包括椰子、螃蟹和魚。他們自己動手捕魚和螃蟹，然后用放大鏡生火煮食這些東西。
父子三人帶去了一個龍蝦籠，想著要是捕到龍蝦就能大吃一頓了，怎料一條鯊魚對龍蝦籠發起攻擊，沒過幾個小時，那玩意兒就丟了。他們還帶了兩個抽水機，用來除去海水中的鹽。每天晚上，他們都得折騰好幾個小時才能凈化出幾加侖的淡水。
父親說，此行最難忘的就是他和自己15歲大的兒子在海里叉到一條魚后被幾條鯊魚窮追不舍的那段經歷。
這位參議員覺得總的來說這次假期還是很愉快的。他回憶道：“沒有電子游戲和電視，也沒有分心的事以及短信的打擾，這對一位父親來說真的很美妙。”
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