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lure the Pacific Ocean is
mind-bogglingly big if you started here
off the coast of northern Chile and dug
a hole straight through the earth and
came out on the other side you discover
that you'd still be in the Pacific Ocean
in the South China Sea
the Pacific covers about one-third of
Earth's entire surface and it's bigger
than all of the land on earth combined
except for a few scattered islands
that's also mostly empty which means
that if you're ever unfortunate enough
to get lost here there's a very good
chance that nobody will ever find you
which makes the story of Jose Salvador
Alvarenga and his rescue all the more
fascinating he currently holds a world
record that he achieved on accident and
that probably nobody wants to beat the
longest time spent being lost at sea
against all odds he somehow survived
being lost for 438 days in the Pacific
so his record probably won't be beaten
anytime soon but how did he do it
the answers lie in how his misadventure
began in 2012 alvarenga was an
experienced fisherman in Mexico on
November 17th he and another guy named
Ezekiel Cordoba departed together on
their small fishing boat from the tiny
fishing village of Costa Azul on the
Mexican Pacific coast they planned to
only work for a 30 hour fishing shift so
their boat was pretty small and not at
all equipped for the nightmare that
would come it was basically a canoe with
no roof or cabin was only seven meters
long and only had one small motor and a
refrigerator for storing their fish they
knew that a storm was coming near the
area but fishermen in these parts of
Mexico can earn enough money in a day to
support themselves for an entire week so
they decided to take their chances and
traveled 120 kilometers away from the
coast to work at 1:00 a.m. the storm hit
them and was threatening to sink their
boats in a panic that the two men cut
their fishing lines and dropped
everything they catch and most of their
gear overboard to make themselves more
maneuverable they were 6 hours away from
the coast
so they traveled through the storm and
the night in a desperate attempt to get
back by 7:00 a.m. there were only 24
kilometers away from the coast and could
see mountains on the horizon but then
awful luck struck them and their motor
died without any paddles oars or sails
the unusually strong wind began pushing
their boat back out towards the ocean
they're on board radio still thankfully
worked however so they frantically
reported their position to their boss
who responded saying that he was coming
but their battery died and all they
heard afterwards was silence imagine the
frustration that they must have both
felt in that moment as their radio died
in all contact with the outside world
with it and as they watched the
mountains in the horizon that they were
so close to slowly disappear as their
boat that they were trapped on gradually
was pushed back out into the vast abyss
their boss did organize a search party
to look for them for days but as their
boat drifted further out into the
vastness of the Pacific it got harder
and harder so they eventually were
forced to give up just five days later
the winds had already blown them 450
kilometers off the coast before finally
settling down they were surrounded by
nothing but ocean in every direction and
their boat was so small they knew that
they probably would never be spotted
from the air they had no flare gun or
any other way to signal for help other
than by waving so they knew that their
chances of survival were going to be
slim they had no supplies left on board
so they were forced to catch tiny fish
or birds that landed on their boat with
their bare hands for food they grabbed
plastic bottles that they found floating
nearby them and used them to collect
rainwater for drinking water but during
long periods of no rain they were forced
to mostly drink the blood of turtles
that they caught with their hands or
their own urine
imagine going day after day month after
month in a tiny box with only one other
person to talk to and the only other
ways to entertain yourselves being
catching fish or napping it's easy to
understand how somebody could go insane
under these conditions
which according to Alvarenga story his
friend did the other guy Cordoba gave up
hope about four months
into their isolation and became suicidal
he got sick from all of the raw food
that they were eating and refused to eat
and eventually starve to death
alvarenga was then all alone in the
middle of nowhere with no other human in
sight as far as the horizon could see a
tiny speck inside of the enormous
Pacific and as you can see from this
shipping map the Central Pacific where
he was somewhere at is a very quiet part
of the world
ships rarely come through this area but
even still he claims to have encountered
one when he was alone a cargo ship
apparently passed right by him and four
men on board spotted him and waved but
they just kept moving past him and never
even bothered to stop imagine how
frustrated he would have been again if
you were lost for months you were all
alone and you finally spotted rescue but
they just ignored you and kept on moving
11 months in and Alvarenga had traveled
about 8,000 kilometers across the ocean
in his tiny little boat his clothes were
shredded and he only had a sweatshirt to
protect himself against the Sun but
finally on the 30th of January 2014 he
spotted coconuts bobbing around his boat
and Birds landing around him he knew
that land was near and after drifting
some more he discovered an island that
appeared to be uninhabited it took him
half a day just adrift near the shore
when he finally jumped out of his boat
and left its safety for the first time
in over a year
he swam ashore and discovered a house
and when he knocked he made contact with
the first other humans since he left his
village in Mexico 438 days ago and after
traveling nearly 11,000 kilometers to
put into perspective just how far away
that is imagine starting in a tiny boat
in Lisbon Portugal and traveling less
than one mile per hour until you drifted
across the land to her Oshima Japan
Alvarenga ended up washing ashore on the
ebon atoll which is the southern tip of
the Marshall Islands and one of the most
remote spots on the planet had he missed
this spot the next likely stop for him
would have been the Philippines nearly
5000 more kilometers away and since it
took him 438 days to travel roughly
11,000 kilometers it probably would have
taken him about
240 more days to hit the Philippines
fortunately for him though he somehow
landed on this tiny tiny speck in the
middle of the biggest ocean on earth and
got himself rescued because of it later
he was flown back to his home in El
Salvador where he published a book and
got himself sued by the family of his
friend who died on the boat because they
claimed that he probably ate him so the
lesson is even if you survive more than
a year stranded at sea
you could still end up getting sued over
something that you may or may not have
actually done while you were out there
but if you're like me and the ocean
terrifies you so much that you'll never
actually go but you want to learn more
about the terrifying scale and the weird
creatures that live there anyway you can
learn more from the comfort of your
phone or PC in your own home by checking
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