Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months • Hacker News Board

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#21

Post by gaius » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 9:01 AM UTC

grecy wrote: post #11

If you enjoy tales of survival against the odds, I highly recommend Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales [1] It recounts multiple amazing tales of survival against the odds, then goes into the psychology of what's needed to survive such a situation. Finally, it lists the top 10 traits exhibited by survivors of these kinds of situations. [1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393326152/?tag=roadchoseme-20

Not just psychology but neurochemistry as well, some really deep nature-vs-nurture stuff in there. Great book, as a technical diver and divemaster I got a lot from it.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#22

Post by lordnacho » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 9:14 AM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #10

mgalka wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"shoved his arms into the water up to his shoulders. With his chest tightly pressed to the side of the boat, he kept his hands steady, a few inches apart. When a fish swam between his hands, he smashed them shut, digging his fingernails into the rough scales" Can't imagine how long this took. In the middle of the ocean, most of the time you don't even see any fish at the surface. How long do you have to wait for one…

Dangling things attract fish. If he was wiggling his fingers, fish might well come to investigate. Tickling trout is a well-established (though generally highly illegal) freshwater fishing method. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trout_tickling

Why would that be illegal? You'd think it's the taking that's illegal, not the method?

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#23

Post by mojuba » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 9:49 AM UTC

akshatpradhan wrote: post #20

How would you find others still out there living in similar precarious situations?

Some sort of automatic scanners on all cargo and cruise ships.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#24

Post by mojuba » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 9:53 AM UTC

One of the absolutely necessary things you should have on board is solar panels, to keep your radio alive.

Also, the movie All Is Lost comes to mind.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#25

Post by madeofpalk » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 9:57 AM UTC

pcunite wrote: post #13

"Occasionally, the turtles are very tame. I was lying down and thinking about things and then a turtle would hit my boat and attach itself to it and start chewing at my boat," Alvarenga recounted, according to Reuters. "And since turtles are tame I would pick them up and put them in my boat, this is how I quenched my thirst, from their blood, and it did me good as it was a sort of water and I normally ate the turtle'…

Life of Pi, chapter 70 http://www.litcharts.com/lit/life-of-pi/chapter-70

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#26

Post by normac » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 9:59 AM UTC

This kind of thing makes me wonder if there are dozens or hundreds of other cases where people were lost at sea and survived for many months and thousands of miles, but never made it to land so we'll never know.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#27

Post by startling » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 10:04 AM UTC

Magi604 wrote: post #7

I am curious as to how he caught these turtles and birds in the open sea while in his no doubt famished shape. "shoved his arms into the water up to his shoulders . . . When a fish swam between his hands, he smashed them shut" Seriously, this needs some mythbusters-style testing.

If I were adrift at sea, I'd spend all that time doing something. Might as well be figuring out how to catch fish.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#28

Post by PhasmaFelis » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 10:22 AM UTC

qume wrote: post #8

Magi604 wrote: post #7

I am curious as to how he caught these turtles and birds in the open sea while in his no doubt famished shape. "shoved his arms into the water up to his shoulders . . . When a fish swam between his hands, he smashed them shut" Seriously, this needs some mythbusters-style testing.

Birds and turtles are curious about drifting things, like boats. And both are easy to catch (well, relatively). I haven't caught fish with my hands but at sea been in situations where it didn't seem impossible. And the fishermen I know in the area (I live there on a boat) are magicians. So sure, everything needs testing but I have a bit of a frame of reference around this one and it raises no red flags for me at all.…

I once put my hand around an urban squirrel's tail. Could have held it if I'd squeezed a bit. It was sitting on a wall munching some garbage, and I just walked straight up to it. Have you ever seen a squirrel do a double-take?

I guess my point is that even slippery little animals aren't as uncatchable as one would expect, if you can take them by surprise.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#29

Post by jychang » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 11:35 AM UTC

bootload wrote: post #6

"They ate fish after fish. Alvarenga stuffed raw meat and dried meat into his mouth, hardly noticing or caring about the difference." Fine detail born out of other survivors of long sea voyages, when eating fish don't skip they "eyes" . "Another unlikely luxury are fish eyes, which are a useful source of liquid and of another vital nutrient. Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, a British couple who survived 117 days on a rubb…

Interesting how cultural perspectives differ on this.

As a Chinese American, I wouldn't think twice about eating the eyes of a fish. They're tasty!

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#30

Post by Cthulhu_ » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 11:51 AM UTC

mojuba wrote: post #24

One of the absolutely necessary things you should have on board is solar panels, to keep your radio alive. Also, the movie All Is Lost comes to mind.

Or some other kind of backup radio or emergency signaling device; solar panels sound awfully expensive / fragile, instead you could have a self-contained wind-up system, bolted onto the ship somewhere secure.