A castaway who spent more than a year at sea before landing on a remote Pacific island has recounted his “incredible” voyage as he drifted for thousands of miles surviving on turtles, birds and hand-caught sharks.
Time World spoke with Jose Salvador Albarengo:
Albarengo, 37, a fisherman from El Salvador, told officials that he survived more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean, drinking turtle blood and catching fish with his bare hands.
Albarengo said he went on what was supposed to be a one-day fishing trip more than a year ago from Mexico, but was blown out to sea.
He was found in a disoriented state on a remote coral atoll, Reuters reported.
This case is reminiscent of a similar story of an American schooner that set sale for New Zealand last May but is still missing.
People Magazine had this insight on the ill-fated trip.
When the seven-member crew of the American schooner Ni?a set sail for Australia from New Zealand last May, they knew they might hit some rocky weather.
“The Tasman Sea is shooting gales out like a machine gun, living up to its reputation,” David Dyche, 58, the schooner’s owner and one of six Americans onboard, wrote on his Facebook page on May 26. “No doubt we will be dancing with one or two of them.”
Confident the 70-foot-deep hull on his wooden schooner could handle the rough seas, the veteran sailor still charted a course to avoid the worst of it. But on June 2 he found himself battling a series of unexpected storms with 29-foot-high waves and wind gusts up to 86 mph.
“The weather’s turned nasty. How do we get away from it?” crew member and retired University of Colorado computer science professor Evi Nemeth, using a satellite phone, asked New Zealand meteorologist Bob McDavitt, who helps cruising sailors plot their routes around the Pacific.