Man washes up in Marshall Islands ‘after 16 months adrift’

[kristopher]

Source: AFP-Jiji

An emaciated man whose boat washed up on a remote Pacific atoll this week claims he survived 16 months adrift on the Pacific, floating more than 12,500 km from Mexico, a researcher said Friday.

The man, with long hair and beard, was discovered Thursday when his 24-foot fiberglass boat with propellerless engines floated onto the reef at Ebon Atoll and he was spotted by two locals.

“His condition isn’t good, but he’s getting better,” Ola Fjeldstad, a Norwegian anthropology student doing research on Ebon, the southern most outpost of the Marshalls, said by telephone.

Fjeldstad said the man, dressed only in a pair of ragged underpants, claims he left Mexico for El Salvador in September 2012 with a companion who died at sea several months ago.

Details ...

Read more: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/31/asia-pacific/man-washes-up-in-marshall-islands-after-16-months-adrift/

---

At least Thor Heyerdahl had supplies...

[rug]

1. His companion was named Wilson.

[Fumesucker]

7. Timothy Wilson?

[byronius]

11. That was both funny and informative. Thank you.

[uppityperson]

2. Rec for wow

[Squinch]

3. Oh, crap! He survived 16 months at sea with no food and water, and his companion died....

(...do we need a cannibal smilie?...)

[jakeXT]

4. Turtle blood and birds /nt

[Squinch]

5. I so hope so!

[Owl]

12. I wonder how he caught birds?

[Bombero1956]

18. he took down his shorts

and showed them his worm.

[Art_from_Ark]

13. When Thor Heyerdahl traveled across the Pacific in the Kon Tiki,

he was amazed at the ease with which he and his crew were able to catch fish:

"Even if our predecessors had started from land with inadequate supplies, they would have managed well enough as long as they drifted across the sea with the current, in which fish abounded. There was not a day on our whole voyage on which fish were not swimming round the raft and could not easily be caught. Scarcely a day passed without flying fish, at any rate, coming on board of their own accord. It even happened that large bonitos, delicious eating, swam on board with the masses of water that came from astern and lay kicking on the raft when the water had vanished down between the logs as a sieve. To starve to death was impossible."

http://www.litro.co.uk/tag/thor-heyerdahl/

[longship]

6. I don't suppose he had a tiger with him.

But this story is incredible on its own.

[Capt.Rocky300]

10. Maybe he had pie.

[Squinch]

14. LOL!

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. Has Royal Caribbean offered him a trip home?

Wow. What a story.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

24. I'd rather take my chances adrift again.

[Sweet Freedom]

9. ...

The government airline’s only plane that can land at Ebon is currently down for maintenance and is not expected to return to service until Tuesday at the earliest, with officials considering sending a boat to pick up the castaway.

I think I'd pass on the boat if I were him...

[malthaussen]

15. Especially if she is named "Minnow."

Unless Ginger and Maryann are on board.

-- Mal

[truthisfreedom]

16. Movie rights.

[brett_jv]

17. Wow ... what a badass this dude is ...

I would die ... no question about it.

What was the nature of the boat, I wonder? 24 feet is pretty good size, that could mean it was a proper sailboat with a cabin and all that. I just really can't even imagine how someone could made it that long w/o a cabin to take shelter in ... if this thing was just an open-bottom boat like a rowboat, then one really big rain storm could fill your boat w/water and sink you I would think. Not to mention the exposure to the elements all day and all night.

To survive it even with a cabin for shelter would be superhuman, but to survive it w/no cabin at all would border on supernatural.

[XemaSab]

19. You should check out the book "Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea"

It's about a guy who crossed the Atlantic in a life raft after his boat sank, and it's an incredible story.

[Frank Cannon]

21. Poon Lim: 133 days on a life raft.

Another incredible story about a true badass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poon_Lim

[WilliamPitt]

20. Carnival Cruise lines really needs to up their game.

[BlueCollar]

22. It was just a matter of time ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8sljSf7KVlQ

[jpak]

23. The Custom of the Sea

Amazing.

[jakeXT]

25. His first drink is a coke

Majuro (Marshall Islands) (AFP) - Sporting a bushy beard and clutching a can of Coke, a castaway who says he survived more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean arrived in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro on Monday.

A male nurse had to help the man previously identified as Jose Ivan down the gangplank of a police patrol boat after a 22-hour trip from the remote coral atoll where he washed ashore last week after apparently setting sail from Mexico on December 24, 2012.

About 1,000 curious onlookers crowded the dock for a glimpse of the long-haired fisherman, who smiled and waved briefly before he was whisked away for a medical check-up at Majuro Hospital.

The castaway told US ambassador Thomas Armbruster, who was acting as an interpreter for Marshall Islands authorities, that he was originally from El Salvador but had been living in Mexico for 15 years before his epic voyage.

http://news.yahoo.com/pacific-castaway-lands-back-civilisation-060613735.html