Featured Image Credit: AFP/Stringer / JOSE CABEZAS/Stringer / Getty
In 2012, José Salvador Alvarenga was lost at sea for 438 days after his boat got caught up in a storm.
His means for staying sane during the ordeal included eating turtles and a rather active imagination.
Alvarenga, a fisherman from Mexico, set out on a two-day trip with fellow fisherman Ezequiel Córdoba, who was 22 at the time, in November of 2012.
They see a storm beginning to set in but decide to stay out in the open waters because they're catching tons of fish.
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This ended up being a fatal decision.
The pair's boat gets caught in the vicious storm, flooding the engine and destroying the motor.
While they were just 15 miles from the shore when the storm began, strong winds push them further into the Pacific Ocean leaving them completely stranded.
The fishermen survived by eating turtles, bird blood and fish while lost at sea. But after 10 weeks, Córdoba became unwell and passed away, leaving Alvarenga alone.
He then continued to live on his own at sea for 438 days until he eventually washed up on a tiny island called Ebon Atoll, around 6,700 miles from Mexico, where he was able to get help.
After he was rescued, the fisherman's ordeal was in a book called 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea.
Its author, journalist Jonathan Franklin, shared details about Alvarenga's experience on Slate's How To Survive in the Wild podcast, including how he stayed sane.
Being lost at sea for so long meant the pair had a lot of times on their hands.
"They would just lay on their backs," Franklin said. "[Córdoba] was a fantastic singer, so he would sing. And Alvarenga, who was not a great singer, would also sing.
"They would play lots of games with the stars and look at constellations.
"When they saw airplanes go by, they would imagine out loud, 'What do you think they’re having?' They would create these amazing feasts imagining what the people in the airplanes were eating."
And Alvarenga, who Franklin described as a 'badass fisherman who partied his brains out' and 'had three girlfriends,' would imagine walking down the beach and flirting with girls.
"It's this alternative reality that keeps him alive. And he said, 'Jonathan, the best meals of my life were those imaginary meals I had at sea. The best sex I had in my life was the imaginary sex.'"
