438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea

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Declared “the best survival book in a decade” by Outside Magazine, 438 Days is the true story of the man who survived fourteen months in a small boat drifting seven thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean.

438 DAYS | Kirkus Reviews

The search party organized by Alvarenga's employer failed to find any trace of the missing men and gave up after two days because visibility was poor. [15] As days turned to weeks, they 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 or their own urine. Alvarenga frequently dreamed about his favorite foods, as well as his parents. [5] This is an Amazing story of survival. One November 17, 2012 Salvador Alvarenga age 36 and Ezequiel Cordoba age 22 left Costa Azul Mexico in a 25 foot small boat to fish. A storm blew in and pushed the small boat out into the Pacific Ocean. On January 29, 2014 Alvarenga drifted ashore on Ebon, the southern tip of the Marshall Island chain, almost 7000 miles from where he started. Salvador drifted on the ocean current for 438 days. Garbage drifted by some of which he ate and other he found use for such as bottles and barrels to catch water in. a b "Jose Salvador Alvarenga's family had given him up for dead". CBC.ca. February 4, 2014 . Retrieved February 4, 2014. If you do the audiobook thing, the reader for this one is excellent. His voice kept me immersed in the details and drama with very little opportunity for my mind to lose focus and wander. This is a gripping tale of extreme human survival that left me exhausted, humbled, and inspired. This biography was amazing. It is the type of non fiction that makes me feel good about being alive. In 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea, we meet a man named Salvador Alvarenga and see his unbelievable will to live against all odds.

A word from Jonathan

We cut their throats and drank their blood. It made us feel better.” Desperately hungry, they tried to eat every part of the thin birds, right down to their feathers. The only part they discarded were the contents of the birds’ stomachs, which were often filled with plastic and garbage. Everything in the ocean became a possible food source – sea turtles, small sharks, and seaweed. But the ocean and the skies rarely provided for them consistently. The men counted the days in between food. Three days, catch one fish. Another three days, catch two birds. A Salvadoran fisherman named, appropriately enough, Salvador Alvarenga, set out on a fishing expedition from Costa Azul, Mexico. A bad storm moved in, boat blew off course, and 438 days later he washed up on Ebon Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 6,700 kilometers from the place he had set out from. That’s pretty far away, but during that time Alvarenga's boat was reportedly moving at an average speed slower than that of a crawling baby (that’s the most interesting factoid I took away from this whole thing). On November 17, 2012, Alvarenga set out from the fishing village of Costa Azul, near Pijijiapan, off the coast of Chiapas, Mexico. [1] An experienced sailor and fisherman, he was intent on a 30-hour shift of deep-sea fishing, during which he hoped to catch sharks, marlins, and sailfish. His usual fishing mate was unable to join him, so he arranged instead to bring along the inexperienced 23-year-old Ezequiel Córdoba, with whom he had not previously spoken, and whose surname he did not know. [12] We didn’t think about hunger at first,” Alvarenga said. “It was the thirst. We had to drink our own urine after the storm. It wasn’t until a month later that we finally got some rain water.” Jealousy over Córdoba’s death overwhelmed Alvarenga. He contemplated suicide in the days after dropping his friend’s body in the ocean. Only the fear that God would condemn his soul to hell stopped him from killing himself.

438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of [PDF] [EPUB] 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of

Alvarenga didn’t care that journalists didn’t believe his story. The University of Hawaii and a number of independent oceanographers would later say his improbable survival was entirely possible. Buoys and weather models show an ocean drift matched his 6,000-mile journey west. He’s collaborated with journalist Jonathan Franklin in a book about his remarkable survival, called “438 Days.” So there you have it – a survival story about some guy who drifted an awfully long way in a boat and had to eat a lot of birds to survive. Ezequiel believed he would die. He had received a prophecy about dying at sea, and it made him very pessimistic. Ezequiel frequently wailed that he was going to die, and even attempted suicide at one point. Alvarenga may have killed Ezequiel after the suicide attempt, thinking it was a waste. Alvarenga, then 35, planned a two-day fishing trip with Córdoba, an inexperienced 22-year-old. Alvarenga knew a storm was coming, but he’d weathered many before. Even now when Alvarenga speaks aloud the number of days he spent on the Pacific Ocean floating in a 25-foot fishing boat without a sail or motor, the number seems too large to comprehend. But he lived through every day of it.Days is the miraculous account of the man who survived alone and adrift at sea longer than anyone in recorded history—as told to journalist Jonathan Franklin in dozens of exclusive interviews. Ezequiel continually burned more calories than he ate, by bailing water and hauling fish into the boat. I love a book that leaves me shaking, feeling what the characters felt, and sensing the mental battles that all had to endure. Most of all, I love the books that make profound changes upon my mental composition. This book left me confessing that I would never again turn away from a hungry hand nor complain about my own personal sufferings. I am ever so thankful Jonathan Franklin was able to spend time with Salvador Alvarenga to convey a properly detailed and respected story.

438 Days Quotes by Jonathan Franklin - Goodreads 438 Days Quotes by Jonathan Franklin - Goodreads

With his knife, he cut away the ragged line of buoys. It was a drastic move. In the open ocean, with no sea anchor, he could readily flip during even a moderate tropical storm. But Alvarenga could see the shoreline clearly and he gambled that speed was of greater importance than stability. Alvarenga perfectly describes a process known as "self-mummification" when talking about Ezequiel's death. It's a process that Alvarenga (who could barely read and write) probably didn't have any education on. protagonist,alvarenga,resides in. I can see why it’s of use to the story but I found it quite tedious. I knew I had to push through it though to get to the near fatal fishing trip.Poladian, Charles (February 3, 2014). "Meet Jose Salvador Alvarenga: Castaway Spent 13 Months Lost At Sea, Survived On Birds And Turtles". International Business Times . Retrieved February 5, 2014. I propped him up to keep him out of the water. I was afraid a wave might wash him out of the boat,” Alvarenga told me. “I cried for hours.” I’d heard about Mexicans who’d done this before,” Alvarenga said. “How did they do it? How come they were spared? ‘I shouldn’t be a coward,’ I told myself. I prayed a lot. And I asked God for patience.”

438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea

He is admittedly a different man. He may be a better man. And Salvador Alvarenga says he is absolutely a grateful man. “I’m happy to be alive. I’m happy to be with my family. I’m proud to be what I am. I am simply glad I’m here.” This does what it says on the tin. You want a survival story, the typical “guy succeeds against death-defying odds” account? Here it is. I slept good, and you? Have you had breakfast?” Alvarenga answered his own questions aloud, as if he were Córdoba speaking from the afterlife. The easiest way to deal with losing his only companion was simply to pretend he hadn’t died. Withnall, Adam (February 4, 2014). "Castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga's 'incredible story': Official says fishy tale may be too good to be true". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022 . Retrieved February 4, 2014.

Customer reviews

When he awoke just minutes later, Alvarenga was terrified. “What could I do alone? Without anyone to speak with?” he told me. “Why had he died and not me? I had invited him to fish. I blamed myself for his death.” Book Genre: Adventure, Autobiography, Biography, Biography Memoir, Environment, ers, History, Memoir, Nature, Nonfiction, sers, Survival, Travel Fourteen months later, on January 30, 2014, Alvarenga, now a hairy, wild-bearded and half-mad castaway, washed ashore on a nearly deserted island on the far side of the Pacific. He could barely speak and was unable to walk. He claimed to have drifted from Mexico, a journey of some seven thousand miles. I not only appreciate the incredible story told, a story that has much to tell anyone who has ever felt themselves facing seemingly insurmountable odds (which is pretty much everyone), but also the tremendous research which creates the basis for the tale, and the heartfelt sympathy and respect that Mr. Franklin gave to Salvador Alvarenga, our protagonist. This story is a feast for the mind as well as the heart. This wind tunnel is so notorious and well marked on nautical charts that sailboats often chart a detour hundreds of miles out to sea to avoid the dreaded Gulf winds. “During the winter months . . . you can expect gales almost every day . . . winds of fifty to sixty knots [70–80 mph] are not uncommon,” reads a description in Roads Less Traveled, a respected online travel guide. “Every year, hapless vessels both large and small get caught out in the 200-mile-wide gulf when it shows its malicious side. Even large ships are unable to resist the storm force winds and fast building and breaking seas. Vessels have no option but to turn downwind and brace themselves for a long and frightening ride south and out to sea for 200 to 300 miles, at which point the effects of the Tehuantepec winds begin to fade.”