438 days: an extraordinary true story of survival at sea - jonathan franklin

Declared the best survival book in a decade by Outside Magazine , 438 Days is the true story of the man who survived fourteen months in a small boat drifting seven thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean.

On November 17, 2012, two men left the coast of Mexico for a weekend fishing trip in the open Pacific.

That night, a violent storm ambushed them as they were fishing eighty miles offshore.

As gale force winds and ten-foot waves pummeled their small, open boat from all sides and nearly capsized them, captain Salvador Alvarenga and his crewmate cut away a two-mile-long fishing line and began a desperate dash through crashing waves as they sought the safety of port.

Fourteen months later, on January 30, 2014, Alvarenga, now a hairy, wild-bearded and half-mad castaway, washed ashore on a nearly deserted island on the far side of the Pacific.

He could barely speak and was unable to walk.

He claimed to have drifted from Mexico, a journey of some seven thousand miles.

A gripping saga, ( Daily Mail ), 438 Days is the first-ever account of one of the most amazing survival stories in modern times.

Based on dozens of hours of exclusive interviews with Alvarenga, his colleagues, search-and-rescue officials, the remote islanders who found him, and the medical team that saved his life, 438 Days is not only an intense, immensely absorbing read ( Booklist ) but an unforgettable study of the resilience, will, ingenuity and determination required for one man to survive more than a year lost and adrift at sea.