438 Days Adrift: The True Story of Jose Alvarenga's Impossible Survival at Sea

He set out for two days. He came back 438 days later — alone. In November 2012, Mexican fisherman José Salvador Alvarenga and his young deckhand launched from the coast of Chiapas for a routine trip. Then came the storm. Their engine failed. The radio died. The horizon disappeared. What followed was the longest recorded survival at sea in human history — 438 days drifting more than 6,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean. This isn't a tale of adventure. It's a testament to madness, endurance, and faith — the true story of a man who refused to vanish: Catching and eating raw fish, turtles, and seabirds with bare, torn hands Drinking rainwater, turtle blood, and urine to stay alive Speaking to his dead crewmate for days before surrendering him to the waves Marking moon cycles and currents to hold on to sanity Battling hallucinations, starvation, and the ocean's silence From the first shattered wave to the final miraculous landfall in the Marshall Islands, 438 Days Adrift is a haunting real-life odyssey — a journey through despair, faith, and the unbreakable will to live. Scientists doubted him. Reporters investigated. National Geographic confirmed the impossible — and the world finally believed. 438 Days Adrift will grip you from the first page and leave you asking: If one man can survive 14 months lost at sea… what could you survive?