Castaway Drifts for 13 Months

In news that might be categorized as ‘miraculous,’ CNN and other news agencies cautiously report that a fisherman washed up on the 2.2-square-mile Ebon Atoll in the Marshall Islands after drifting at sea for 13 months.

Jose Ivan Alvarengo, an El Salvador native, tells authorities that he and a teenage boy left a harbor near the Mexican city of Tapachula, not far from the Guatemalan border, on December 21, 2012, for a day of shark fishing. The two encountered heavy winds which blew them off course and eventually into a heavy storm where their engines became disabled.

Apparently, after a month of refusing to eat raw birds, the teenager died. Alvarengo says he survived on the birds, fish and turtles that he caught. When rainwater wasn’t available, he drank his own urine to stay alive. The Telegraph of London interviewed him and reported that his heavily damaged boat washed onto the island and Alvarengo said, "I cried, ‘Oh, God.’ I got to land and had a mountain of sleep. In the morning, I woke up and heard a rooster and saw chickens and saw a small house. I saw two native women screaming and yelling. I didn’t have any clothes; I was only in my underwear, and they were ripped and torn." 

Alvarengo, who claims to be 37, was taken to a hospital in Majoro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, according to the U.S. Ambassador Tom Armbruster. "He’s in much better shape than one would expect after such an ordeal."

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs states they’ve sent personnel "to learn directly about the case." A similar 5,000-mile journey across the Pacific has been done before. Back in 2006 three Mexican fishermen drifted for nine months surviving on fish and rainwater and read the Bible for support and comfort. A producer for CNN Weather, Judson Jones, relates that currents can transport a vessel approximately 27 miles a day, making Alvarengo’s 13-month drift feasible.