Salvador Alvarenga: 438 Ocean Days

Two fishermen. One perfect storm. An incredible story of human survival on the open seas was about to begin. This is the longest survival at sea! Salvador Alvarenga is an experienced sailor and fisherman, set out from the fishing village of Costa Azul, Mexico on November 17, 2012, accompanied by a 23 y.o. co-worker whom he knew only as "Ezequiel". He (Alvarenga) was intent on a 30-hour shift of deep-sea fishing during he hoped to catch sharks, marlins and sailfish, but his usual fishing mate was enable to join him. He arranged instead to bring along the inexperienced, Ezequiel Cordoba. Shortly after embarking their seven-meter fiberglass skiff equipped with a single outboard motor and a refrigerator-sized icebox for storing fish, was blown off course by a storm that lasted five days, during which the motor and most of the portable electronics were damaged. Though they had caught nearly 500 kilograms of fresh fish, the pair were forced to dump it overboard to make the boat maneuverable in the bad weather. Alvarenga managed to call his boss on a two-way radio and ask for help before the radio's battery died. Having neither sails nor oars, no anchor, no running lights and no other way to contact shore, the boat began to drift across the open ocean. Much of the fishing gear was also lost or damaged in the storm, leaving Alvarenga and Cordoba with only a handful of basic supplies and little food. The search party organized by Alvarenga's boss failed to find any trace of the missing men and gave up after two days because visibility was poor. As days became weeks, Alvarenga and Cordoba learned to scavenge their food from whatever sources presented themselves. Alvarenga managed to catch fish, turtles, jellyfish, and seabirds with his bare hands, and the pair occasionally salvaged bits of food and plastic refuse floating in the water. They collected drinking water from rainfall when possible, but more frequently were forced to drink turtle blood of their own urine. According to Alvarenga, Cordoba lost all hope around four months into the voyage after becoming sick form the raw food and eventually died by refusing to eat. Alvarenga has said that he contemplated suicide for four days after Cordoba died, but that it was his strong religious faith that ultimately prevented him from doing so. However he declared......he had always been an atheist and never entered a church. Alvarenga claims that Cordoba made him promise not to eat his corpse when he died, so Alvarenga kept Cordoba's corpse on the boat, and even spoke to it. After six days, he realized his own insanity and threw the corpse overboard. Alvarenga also stated that, while at sea, he frequently dreamed about his favorite foods, as well as his parents. Alvarenga claimed to have seen numerous transoceanic container ships while drifting alone but was unable to solicit help. He kept track of time by counting the phases of the moon. After counting his 15th lunar cycle, he spotted land: a tiny, desolate islet, which turned out to be a remote corner of the Marshall Islands. On a 30 January 2014, he abandoned his boat and swam to shore, where he stumbled upon a beach house owned by a local couple. Alvarenga's journey had lasted 438 days! After 11 days in a hospital, Alvarenga was deemed healthy enough to return to El Salvador. However, he was diagnosed with anemia, had trouble sleeping and developed a fear of water. In 2015, he gave a series of interviews about his ordeal to the journalist Jonathan Franklin, who published his story as the book 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea. Shortly after the release of Alvarenga's book, the family of Ezequiel Córdoba sued Alvarenga for $1,000,000, accusing him of cannibalizing their relative in order to survive, despite their pact that Córdoba would not be eaten after death. Alvarenga's lawyer has denied this accusation

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0:00 The beginning of the story
1:33 How do sailors got lost at sea?
2:22 Daily diet
2:55 Why has one of them died?
3:52 Salvador Alvarenga speaks
4:29 Amazing salvation
5:25 Survival expert interview
5:59 After survival
6:58 Survival secret of Pacific