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Man who survived 76 days adrift at sea after ferocious storm explains how he stayed alive

Home> News

Published 17:28 4 Sep 2024 GMT+1

Man who survived 76 days adrift at sea after ferocious storm explains how he stayed alive

He was trapped in the Atlantic with very limited water

Rebekah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan

Featured Image Credit: @steven._.callahan/Instagram
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YouTube channel I Shouldn't Be Alive explores people's crazy near-death experiences.

One of their episodes features Steven Callahan and his jaw-dropping tale of being trapped in the Atlantic for 76 days.

Steven set off on a solo voyage across the Atlantic in a boat he had designed and built himself.

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Everything was going well until a fierce storm hit.

'I'd seen a lot worse weather before and so I figured it would be probably a day or two this will scoot by and I wasn't worried. Everything was fine,' Steven said.

As Steve was an experienced sailor, it was nothing he hadn't faced before.

But when Steven went below deck to sleep, he left the boat on autopilot. That's when disaster struck.

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'All of a sudden, there was this big bag on the side of the boat,' he described.

'There was this huge flood of water, immediately.'

The boat's hull had been torn apart.

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Within seconds, water flooded in and the boat was sinking. Steven had just seconds to get to his lifeboat.

When he did, he quickly realised everything he needed to keep him alive was on the sinking boat.

'With the equipment that's in the raft, I will not last very long at all,' Steven added.

He had no option but to dive back down to the sinking boat.

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The captain managed to cut away his supplies before the hatch slammed shut. But by sheer luck, a huge wave burst the hatch open, and he was able to escape and make it back to his raft.

'I was shivering a lot and I was worried about dying of hypothermia. I might not make it until morning,' he recalled. He did, but his ordeal was far from over.

'I am just this teeny teeny thing surrounded by the immensity of sea,' Steven continued.

With no communication and approximately 1,000 miles from land, Steven was trapped.

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@steven._.callahan/Instagram
@steven._.callahan/Instagram

His 8 pints of water would only last 8 days theoretically. Then, he searched his supplies to find a harpoon and three water purification kits, known as solar stills.

Using the solar stills for the first time, and after a couple of attempts, he learned to separate salt from seawater using the sun's heat, providing him with drinkable water.

Although this was some relief, as the days went on, things got harder. There was no food and no sign of rescue.

'I was desperately lonesome, there was no part of this that wasn't a hellish experience,' he described.

On day 14, Steven tried all his efforts to catch fish with his harpoon, and things were looking up, until nightfall. Steven's encounter with a shark almost cost him his life as he was tossed around in his raft fearing for his life.

By day 74, Steve's mind and body were shutting down, with no sign of rescue or land in sight.

'It was over. I was just done. I had nothing left to give,' he described.

However, on day 76, everything changed.

Steven spotted floating plastic bottles and crates, realising he was near land.

Local fishermen found him and brought him to safety, weighing only 100 pounds.

After 76 gruelling days at sea, Steven survived and lived to tell the tale.

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