Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
theguardian.com
Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
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Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
#2"23kg (50lb) of sardines for bait, 700 hooks, miles of line"
"Without bait or fish hooks, Alvarenga invented a daring strategy to catch fish. "
I am confused these statements are contradictory, did I miss something.
Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
#3"23kg (50lb) of sardines for bait, 700 hooks, miles of line" "Without bait or fish hooks, Alvarenga invented a daring strategy to catch fish. " I am confused these statements are contradictory, did I miss something.
As mentioned in the article, he tossed almost everything overboard to make the boat more stable in the waves.
Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
#4"23kg (50lb) of sardines for bait, 700 hooks, miles of line" "Without bait or fish hooks, Alvarenga invented a daring strategy to catch fish. " I am confused these statements are contradictory, did I miss something.
As mentioned in the article, he tossed almost everything overboard to make the boat more stable in the waves.
Yes the article was being specific though in the things they threw overboard, I guess you can just deduce what the author intended. Good story though.
Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
#5"23kg (50lb) of sardines for bait, 700 hooks, miles of line" "Without bait or fish hooks, Alvarenga invented a daring strategy to catch fish. " I am confused these statements are contradictory, did I miss something.
"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 to swim right between your arms?
Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
#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 rubber life raft in the Pacific in 1973, did not initially understand why they sought them, Tipton said: "They found they started to crave fish eyes, which is not something one would normally do. It wasn't until after the voyage they realised these are quite rich in vitamin C, which is something you get depleted in when you're adrift, and can of course cause scurvy." [0]
I remember reading about the how the Baileys who survived 117 days in the pacific in '73. There is a lot more details in Tiptons, "Essentials of Sea Survival". [1] Another detail, was solid boat. Had Alvarenga been in a life raft, he would have been a lot more battered and bruised. The Baileys suffered from sharks regularly bumping the raft throughout their ordeal.
[0] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/04/castaway-jose-s...
[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-Sea-Survival-Frank-Golden...
Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
#7I 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.
Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
#8I 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. Plus it's inline with the other lost-at-sea books I've read.
Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
#9> Although he didn’t know it, Alvarenga had washed ashore on Tile Islet, a small island that is part of the Ebon Atoll, on the southern tip of the 1,156 islands that make up the Republic of the Marshall Islands, one of the most remote spots on Earth.
As it took me a little while to find Tile Islet, here's the link on google maps for others' convenience:
Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months
#10"23kg (50lb) of sardines for bait, 700 hooks, miles of line" "Without bait or fish hooks, Alvarenga invented a daring strategy to catch fish. " I am confused these statements are contradictory, did I miss something.
"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.