Man Eats Cockroaches, Turtles While Stranded at Sea 95 Days
A real-life Cast Away situation unfolded recently, minus the uninhabited island and volleyball companion, as a Peruvian fisherman found himself stranded at sea for 95 days. Máximo Napa Castro, who goes by Gatón, went for a fishing trip meant to be a month-long; but, when it was time to turn back, his motor wouldn't start. Thus began his transformation into survival mode.
Mainly, his food supplies were dwindling. So, after running out of his rations, Gatón resorted to finding food on the open ocean. 'After January and February, that's when I started eating roaches and birds, various kinds of fish that happened to jump into the boat,' he told CNN. In the middle of the night, he would sneak up behind birds on the boat, then bash them. 'I didn't want to do it but I didn't have a choice,' he said. 'It was my life.'
Eventually, he even resorted to hunting and killing a sea turtle – but not for its meat; instead, he drank the turtle's blood, because he had run out of collected rainwater.
During his time lost at sea, Gatón's will to survive, to maintain hope, was understandably tested. A couple times, he even contemplated taking his own life to end the nightmare. He said:
'I even got a knife three times. Three times I got the knife because I couldn't take it anymore. But I told myself: Calm down, Gatón. You can do it. You can do it.'Sure enough, soon after the turtle incident, help arrived. A helicopter spotted Gatón one night as he was falling asleep on his boat. A short time later, a rescue boat arrived. After 95 days at sea, surviving on a diet of roaches, birds, fish, and turtle blood, he was going home.
As imagined, the experience had a profound impact on Gatón's outlook on life. And he hopes to share what he experienced, what he learned, with the world:
'I will tell my story worldwide, so the world knows that God is everything in this life, that we put our hand on our chest and fill ourselves with love, give love. That is what we need here on Earth.'
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