Man Survives ‘16 Months’ At Sea

Man Survives ‘16 Months’ At Sea

In a remarkable story straight out of Castaway, a shipwrecked sailor and his 24-foot boat washed ashore a remote island in the Pacific this week, telling locals he’d been lost at sea for 16 months. The Spanish-speaking Jose Ivan claims he survived on fish, birds and turtles while floating for more than 8,000 miles off the coast of Mexico, having set sail for El Salvador in September 2012 with a companion who didn’t survive the journey. Details of his survival story are sketchy, though locals say Ivan certainly looked in rough shape when he was found, emaciated and wearing nothing but tattered underpants.

Castaway Called Into Doubt   More details have emerged about Jose Salvador Alvarenga's alleged 13 months adrift in the Pacific. After leaving for a shark-catching trip on Dec. 21, 2012, Alvarenga, a fisherman, said the motor of his boat died, and he spent some days drifting until he realized he was lost in the Pacific Ocean. He said he survived by catching turtles, birds, and fish, but as harrowing as Alvarenga's tale of survival is, some experts are skeptical. "It's hard for me to imagine someone surviving 13 months at sea," said Tom Armbruster, U.S. ambassador to the Marshall Islands. "But it's also hard to imagine how someone might arrive on Ebon out of the blue."