Man washes up in Marshall Islands 'after 16 months adrift'

afp ^ | 1/30/14 | afp

[Justice]

Majuro (Marshall Islands) (AFP) - 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 kilometres (8,000 miles) from Mexico, a researcher said Friday.

[Travis McGee]

I can see finding enough to eat in some places, but overall I don’t buy it. From Panama to Hawaii, I didn’t have enough rain to wet the decks a single time. Anybody in a liferaft in that region without a R/O water maker would die of thirst in any given month, much less 16 months. Only one dry month would kill a person adrift there, and out of 16 months, you would get a lot of totally dry months. Flat calm, and not a rain cloud to be seen for weeks.

[GreenAccord]

I agree with you completely. This was the first thing I thought, that a 10 day run of dry weather would have killed him. Did he have a desalinization kit? And even if he did, did he have multiple kits, because they only last for a little while.

I recall a story on a show called I should have died on Animal Planet, where a fellow, a single sailor, lost his boat early in a Spain-to-Caribbean voyage and floated in a life raft for 3 months, but he had 3 desalinization kits - and exhausted all three of them.

[Travis McGee]

That would be Steve Callahan, who wrote a superb book about it called “Adrift.”

http://www.amazon.com/Adrift-Seventy-six-Days-Lost-Sea-ebook/dp/B0042JSNQI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391176188&sr=1-1&keywords=adrift

[Scoutmaster]

My first experience with the story of the whaleship Essex was an excellent book titled In the Heart of the Sea.

[GreenAccord]

Yeah, that’s the one. Oh man, I was worked up from the 60 minute episode. I might imagine the book would exasperate me all the more.

[elcid1970]

With all the whaling that went on in the 19th Century, it’s strange that there is only one recorded incident of a whale ramming & sinking a whaling ship.

Truth is stranger than fiction; what made Moby Dick an allegorical tale was the fanaticism of Captain Ahab; when the white whale rammed & sank the Pequod, or when the same actually happened to the Essex, in both instances it was simply cetacean logic: eliminate the threat.

[Jack Hydrazine]

WILLLLLLLSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[varyouga]

Modern life rafts come with solar desalinators. Basically a floating plastic greenhouse with a black pan that distills ocean water. They can theoretically work forever if not physically broken.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I have a signed copy. Nathan Philbrick gave a talk at a bookstore on the Cape, and signed copies afterwards. He was the curator of the Nantucket Whaling Museum at the time. If you ever find yourself stranded on Nantucko, pay a visit.

[dfwgator]

“Ewwww, with a gammy leg?”

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

[S.O.S121.500]

Amazing.

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Why do I see the beginnings of an illegal immigration wave ?

[Scoutmaster]

Thank you for the offer of hospitality. I’d find the whaling museum fascinating, as well as anything having to do with vintage Nantucket Lightship Baskets.

[M Kehoe]

Wilson with an Afro?

5.56mm