The Pacific Ocean is big, it's really big! The ocean covers one third of the entire planet, and it's bigger than all of the land on Earth combined! Except for a few small scattered islands, it is practically empty. So if you're ever unfortunate enough to be lost at sea, the chances of you being found are extremely small.
One such person was Jose Salvador Alvarenga.
Back in 2012, Jose was an experienced fisherman living in Mexico. On November 17th he and a colleague that he had never worked with before named Ezekiel Cordoba, set out from the small fishing village of Costa Azul on a fishing trip.
The plan was to work a 30 hour fishing shift, so their boat was pretty small, and not equipped at all for anything longer than that. It was basically a large canoe with no roof or cabin, only seven meters long, and only had one small motor and a refrigerator for storing their fish.
They knew that a storm was coming, but decided to go out anyway. Fishermen in these parts of Mexico can earn enough money in one day to support themselves for an entire week! So they left the town and traveled about 120 kilometers away from the coast to start working.
Of course while they were working the storm came, and at 1:00 a.m. it got so bad that the men were afraid that it might sink their boat. In a panic they cut their fishing lines and dumped everything they had caught and most of their gear overboard to make the boat more maneuverable.
At this point they were six hours away from the coast, so they traveled through the storm in a desperate attempt to get back home. By 7:00 a.m. they were only 24 kilometers away from the coast and could finally see the mountains on the horizon! But then their luck ran out and their motor died. Without any paddles or sails, the strong wind began pushing the boat back out towards the ocean. Their onboard radio luckily still worked, so they contacted their boss and relayed their position. He responded that he was coming, but while they were talking with him the battery died.
All they could do now was sit and wait for their boss to come rescue them. But as time passed they slowly watched the mountains on the horizon disappear, as their boat was gradually pushed back out into the ocean.
Their boss did organize a search party and looked for them for days, but as their boat drifted further in the Pacific it got harder and harder, and eventually he was forced to give up.
Just five days after they went missing, the wind had already blown them 450 kilometers off the coast before finally settling down. They were now surrounded by nothing but the ocean in every direction, and knew that they would probably never be found. They had no flare gun or any other way to signal for help other than waving. They also had no supplies at all, so they were forced to catch tiny fish or birds with their bare hands for food.
They grabbed plastic bottles that they found floating in the ocean, and used them to collect rain for drinking water. But during long periods of no rain, they were forced to mostly drink the blood of turtles or even their own urine!
Imagine the stress that these men must have been under. Month after month they were stuck together in this tiny boat with no shelter or privacy, with only each other for entertainment, and barely surviving on the food and water they caught. It's easy to understand if someone would break in these conditions, and that is exactly what happened to Ezekiel according to Jose.
About four months into their journey, Ezekiel gave up hope and became suicidal. He got sick from all of the raw food they were eating and refused to eat anything else. He eventually starved to death, and Jose was now all alone in the middle of the ocean.
Jose claims that at one point in his journey he actually encountered a large cargo ship. Apparently they passed right by him and four men aboard even spotted him, but they just waved at him and didn't bother to stop.
Eleven months into his ordeal he had traveled about 8000 kilometers across the ocean. His clothes were now shredded and he only had a sweatshirt to protect himself against the sun. But finally on the 30th of January 2014, he spotted coconuts floating in the water, and birds landing around him. He knew that land must be close and after drifting a little bit more, he finally spotted an island!
He jumped out of his boat for the first time in a year and swam ashore. He discovered a house on the island and when he knocked on the door he made contact with the first other humans since he had left Mexico 438 days ago.
He had washed ashore on the Ebon Atoll, on the southern tip of the Marshall Islands, 11.000 kilometers away from Mexico! He had gotten incredibly lucky and his suffering was finally over. The locals brought him to a doctor and helped him regain his strength. Not long after he was flown back to his family in El Salvador, where he was originally from. He was finally home!
After he had returned home, he wrote a book about everything that had happened, and actually got sued by Ezekiel's family! They claimed that he must have eaten his body after he died and demanded $1 million. Jose denied doing this, and without any evidence the case went nowhere.
This just goes to show that people will still come after you for money, even after you endured being lost at sea for over a year! But what an amazing story of hope and survival this is!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this story!