Survival---16 MONTHS adrift

[Capthead]

I do agree that any floating object attracts fish and being an open 24' boat makes it much easier to reach overboard and grab fish or turtles. I'm thinking on my GB it would be a daunting task grabbing a heavy turtle from the water and bringing it aboard giving my freeboard.

 

[CPseudonym]

Greetings,
Pacific castaway Jose Alvarenga 'trained guerrilla who wanted to die at sea' | Mail Online

I gotta admit to a healthy dose of skepticism initially but after reading the above article he was one tough hombre before that motor quit. My SAR experience would not fill the bottom of a thimble but I do know, in the right environment 90% of survival is attitude and will. Some folks will perish in a week or less when in similar conditions that others will survive for years if it came to that.

Sounds like this old boy had a lot of grit before he ever set foot in the boat. We laugh all the time at the medias poor reporting of marine events, especially initially.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. psneeld. "write a book, make a movie...etc..etc... " I can see the movie now. They'll call it "All is Lost".....No, wait...what?

 

[psneeld]

The opening story at High Altitude/Polar Survival School that I attended involved an F-86 plot that crashed in Alaska on the polar ice cap. He knew helo rescue and long distance SAR was not well equipped back in the day…but this time he was wrong. There was a capable helo not too far away and they found him shortly after crashing, either later that day or the next (I forget), sitting and leaning back against the nose of the F-86. He sat down, looked around, took out his 38sp survival pistol and shot himself in the head.
Yep…will to survive is the name of the game….short and long term.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
I read an interesting stat'. During WWII, after a ship sinking, older seamen appeared to have a greater survival rate than younger men. Will to survive indeed.

 

[psneeld]

Greetings,
I read an interesting stat'. During WWII, after a ship sinking, older seamen appeared to have a greater survival rate than younger men. Will to survive indeed.

Musta' been the "greatest generation" stuff.....

....by the time I was in Antarctica in the 80's...I as a young, gung-ho Lieutenant used to run to the helo and grab a liferaft and survival gear till I couldn't walk when reporting to abandon ship stations.

I would look over at the older, salty cooks in my station...they would be leaning over the rail in their short sleeve, cook whites smoking a cigarette...calm as can be. Standing their in my snorkel parka over my mustang survival suit and resting my foot on a canopied liferaft...I would say "how long do you think you'll survive dressed like that?"...the talkative one would reply after looking down into the ice filled water then stare into the howling sub-zero wind and respond......"not much less than you and with a whole lot less suffering"

 

[Off Duty]

[QUOTE =psneeld;211613]Absolutely...adrift objects including liferafts DO become their own ecosystem which attract all kinds of marine life...dolphin fish often are found under even relatively fresh open ocean debris...and are usually pretty easy to catch. Turtles are often curious....so why wouldn't they come see??? Flying fish will sometimes land in the boat/raft....

Not saying survival at sea is either easy or fun...but it can and has been done. Like all records...they seem to keep being broken as time goes on.

While this story might have holes in it...well...most reported events do because of the relaying media as much as anything else.

Someone will certainly document the crap out of this for any one of many reasons....science, military use, write a book, make a movie...etc..etc...

So when a lot more pieces and confirmation come together....I'll take a more in depth look as I do teach Safety/Survival at Sea classes and the truth might add quite a few interesting tidbits to survival publications...[/QUOTE]

Absolutely sir! You beat me to it lol.
Absolutely great points you made, and I agree with you 100 percent.

My company also teaches a variety of austere medical and survival programs, alongside and apart from, basic Marine safety. I am always looking for new, better, or updated information to better serve our clients and hopefully save some lives.

What you are saying is what i mentioned at the outset. If it is legitimate, it can be a huge benefit to future sailors and mariners.
knowledge is seldom a bad thing

OD

 

[ronlord]

Was there any mention of a tiger aboard with him?

 

[RickB]

[QUOTE =psneeld;211613]Absolutely...adrift objects including liferafts DO become their own ecosystem which attract all kinds of marine life...dolphin fish often are found under even relatively fresh open ocean debris...and are usually pretty easy to catch.

That is a common method of attacting and concentrating tuna for commercial catch. They use a floating device called a FAD, or Fish Aggregating Device.

 

[Capthead]

And I thought it was just a fad.

 

[psneeld]

That is a common method of attacting and concentrating tuna for commercial catch. They use a floating device called a FAD, or Fish Aggregating Device.

Man...if you could hear all the illegal ideas the fishermen of southern New Jersey come up with to use FADs...wow...

Guys are so hyped by them...one group was trying to engineer a slightly submerged one that they could release to the surface on weekends and fish it...then reset it deeper when done......bet they got set back to reality after talking with some experienced marine engineers....

Where I am...floating debris holding fish can become a battleground for some of the weekend warriors who either feel they own the ocean or feel that courtesy is for sissies.

 

[psneeld]

Need any more instructors???? Got a pretty good resume' with both classroom and practical experience...

 

[Off Duty]

Need any more instructors???? Got a pretty good resume' with both classroom and practical experience...

so as not to derail a good thread, I will shoot you my contact info by PM. When I return to the office this evening.

OD

 

[Edelweiss]

When he left on his adventure, they were setting off to go "shark fishing." In all the articles and pictures, I don't see any fishing gear. Just the empty boat and the fish box. Did he have hook and line gear or nets on board?? Would have certainly come in handy for survival purposes!!

Someone else mentioned it, but the boat is a Mexican Panga, While crudely fabricated and not very pretty, they have good lines and are built like a brick s**thouse. Takes a team of men to get one launched off a beach if hard aground. Too bad the motor wasn't as strong as the boat.

 

[Capthead]

I also wondered how the fishing gear disappeared. I've been to Mexico and seen the pangas way out in the ocean with just an outboard whining away. But I've never seen one without fishing gear. They always have fishing gear.

 

[hfoster]

I have read every part of this story that RTF posted (Good post by the way RTF Thank you) and in the end I found myself having more questions than getting more answers to back up his claim.

I found many odd things in this story, like the first 2 Doctors that checked him out comments. It is clear they have their doubts on his claim due to his status of being in pretty good health.

Also the part about him eating small raw fish I find odd. Yes you can eat raw fish however when you eat raw fish from the sea, they are salty and it takes 3 times the amount of water intake to help one’s body to processes the high salt content through the body’s system. Bite into something salty and the first thing you do, is reach for something to drink. In many cases eating salty fish while trying to survive the open sea does more harm than good due to the lack of water one has.

Plus the fact of being in the salty air for 13 or 14 months would have some kind of effect on someone's skin.

As I said, I have do have some respect for this fellow for surviving in the way he did. The guy is one tough nut that is for sure. But I simply cannot by his claim of a being adrift for 13 to 14 months in the open sea. 3 or 4 months YES I could by that.

The only way I could see him surviving that long is if he had a supply of water and food aboard his boat during most of the 13 or 14 months adrift. I do not care how tough or strong willed or how well trained someone is, that length of time in the open sea will put a serious hurting on anyone. There are too many factors to overcome. Just look at all those survivors that have been found drifting out in the open sea for just a few months. These people were whipped and in many cases broken.

In any case, I do hope they can prove 100% that this guy’s claim is true. He will become a case study for the whole world on surviving the open sea, but until that time comes, I will have my doubts!

Happy cruising

H. Foster.