Fisherman Adrift In The Pacific Ocean, But Where They Found Him 14 Months Later…
Fisherman
Adrift In The Pacific Ocean, But Where They Found Him 14 Months
Later…Alhough the human body can only endure so much, there are
some people who, upon finding themselves in desperate or extreme
situations, can find the strength to push beyond their normal
means. That much is indeed true for Salvador Alvarenga…The
36-year-old fisherman from El Salvador was just trying to make a
living, but his life would ultimately change forever on the day he
decided to ship out with fellow fisherman Ezequiel Cordoba. Two days
into the journey, disaster struck, and the two men would begin the
greatest challenge of their lives…Salvador Alvarenga was a
36-year-old fisherman from El Salvador with the simple desire to do
an honest day’s work fishing off the coast of Mexico with his a
friend, Ray Perez. Unfortunately, something came up and Ray dropped
out a few days before the two buddies were about to set sail.
Instead, Salvador arranged to head out with 22-year-old Ezequiel
Cordoba, nicknamed Piñata, instead.
The
boat was loaded with tons of provisions, including 70 gallons of
gasoline, 16 gallons of water, 50 lbs of sardines for bait, as well
as hooks, harpoons, knives, and buckets. They also had a mobile
phone, kept safe in a plastic bag, a GPS, and a two-way radio. The
two had never spoken before or worked together, but they liked
fishing and both of them seemed to know what they were doing…
Two
days later, Salvador tensely negotiated their slow advance toward the
coast. He managed to maneuver around a fair amount of choppy waves.
It wasn’t enough to raise any alarms at first, but the weather was
getting worse and worse as the time dragged on. Salvador was trying
to remain calm, but Piñata, on the other hand, was not prepared.
Piñata
was getting nervous and moody as the storm raged on. He had signed on
to make $50 and had often worked 12 hour days without any complaints,
but the storm was doing him in. He held onto the rail for dear life
as the waves crashed around them, vomiting and crying despite
himself. Soon he even took to screaming about their imminent demise…
Meanwhile,
as Piñata’s resolve crumbled, Salvador stayed at the wheel,
gripping it tightly and now trying his best to navigate the swirling,
stormy sea around him. When the storm finally lifted, and he could
finally see in front of him, he noticed that they had drifted about
two hours from land. To make matters worse, the motor had stopped
working.
Salvador
called his boss on the radio, warning him that they motor had stopped
working and that they were now miles out at sea. But there was no
response. Even worse was the fact that the GPS they had brought with
them had stopped working. They called for the coast guard, who told
them to anchor so they could come and rescue them. Unfortunately, the
boat wasn’t equipped with an anchor and the two drifted further out
to sea…
Waves
began to crash against the boat as the two men tried their best to
unload the buckets of water that had started to pile up on deck. They
looked into the distance and saw that more waves were on the way,
waves that were far larger than their tiny fishing boat. The waves
were unpredictable, and the men could do little more than trying to
steady themselves with each swell.
Hours
of the ship being tossed up and down and the two men slipping and
sliding across the deck had taken their toll. But as the sun sank
past the horizon and the storm raged on, the cold began to become
unbearable. The two huddled together under their refrigerator-sized
icebox hoping to insulate themselves but took turns bailing water out
of the boat…
By
the next day, Salvador and Piñata were trying their best to ignore
the growing pond of seawater that had been dumped onto the boat over
the course of the storm. Instead, Salvador, who was a seasoned
captain, knew that he had to align the boat with the waves. That way,
they could find a way to navigate the 50 miles back to land.
After
unloading as much water as they possibly could, the experienced
sailor and his first mate took stock of all the things they still had
to worry about. The 25-foot boat was only about as wide as a pickup
truck and had no raised structure, no glass, and no running lights,
and so it was nearly invisible at sea. The biggest problem, as it
turned out, was the catch they had come to collect…
Dump the
Catch
Their
lucky catch, which weighed an incredible 1,100 lbs. Was making their
boat too heavy now and they knew that if they didn’t dump it soon,
the ship could capsize and would be even more of a problem for them
in the long run. One by one, the two fishermen dumped their catch
over the side. It was an act that would haunt them for weeks to come.
As
the days wore on, hunger and thirst began to take hold of the two
men. They now had no food, no means to catch fish, and no way to
collect fresh water. To fix at least half of this problem, they took
to trying to catch turtles, jellyfish, and seabirds in order to have
something to eat. Finally, 14 days into their journey, it started to
rain…
The two men had been at sea
for two months, and while Salvador had become accustomed to catching
and eating the animals available to them, Piñata’s mental health,
physical health, and spirit had begun to decline. Once he got sick
from eating raw seabirds, he refused to eat at all. His own
depression and fear were killing him.
Salvador told his dying friend that if he died, he’d go back to Chiapas, Mexico to tell his devout mother that he regretted not being able to say goodbye to her. Not long after that fateful conversation, Ezequiel Cordoba succumbed to malnutrition and exposure and died. Salvador screamed at his friend, “Don’t leave me alone! You have to fight for life! What am I going to do here alone?”
Burial at Sea
At first, Salvador just
pretended that his friend hadn’t died. For days after, he propped
Cordoba up and spoke to him, but six days later, he finally accepted
the truth. He stripped off his friend’s clothes, washed his body,
and dropped him overboard. Now he was truly alone.
Perhaps it was his own will to live that kept Salvador Alvarenga alive. Or perhaps it was the fear of suicide he had been instilled with my his mother. Either way, he kept on going, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of a ship. But even as hundreds of shipping boats crawled across the horizon, there was no way that Salvador could reach them…
An Island
One day, after a particularly nasty storm, Salvador found himself whizzing along on a smooth current. The sky was suddenly filled with shorebirds. Salvador knew that he was headed for land at last. He must have been close. There, in the distance was a green Pacific atoll. It looked small and wild, but it was dry land and would likely have food and shelter.
After crawling naked onto the beach, he laid on the sand for a while, absorbing the reality of the situation. He was thin beyond recognition and weaker than he’d ever been. The island, as it turned out, he was on Tile Islet, a small island that was part of the Ebon Atoll. What’s more, the island had people on it…
People?
The skinny fisherman stumbled his way through the undergrowth until he reached a small canal across from what appeared to be a beach house. This was the home Emi Libokmeto and her husband, Russel Laikidrik. They rushed out to him and welcomed them into their home. He managed to draw a boat and ask for a doctor before passing out.
Despite suffering unimaginable physical and psychological trauma, Salvador had survived his journey and been rescued. He had spent 438 days lost at sea. Soon enough, he was back on his way home to El Salvador, where he was finally reunited with his family. Of course, he made time to reach out to Cordoba’s mother, to give her his last words.
