Surviving for more than a year without food or drink seems impossible, yet one man did it marvelously.

In what was meant to be a two-day fishing trip, José Salvador Alvarenga became lost at sea for 15 months, covering more than 6,500 miles.

Alvarenga was 33 years old at the time of the voyage and an experienced fisherman who had spent decades catching sharks. He had planned the fishing trip with a buddy for a while, but when they weren’t accessible, Alvarenga opted to bring along an inexperienced dayworker, Ezequiel Córdoba, who was just 22 at the time.

The couple departed Mexico in 2012, and things went smoothly at first. Despite the approaching storm, they chose to take the risk and stay on the ocean.

However, the weather signaled the start of major troubles for the marriage.

Massive waves swamped the engine of their boat, forcing them to drift out to sea as the storm deteriorated.

Wind, rain, and waves pelted the damaged craft, leading them to lose the majority of the equipment they had taken with them.

According to The Guardian, he had packed ’70 gallons of gasoline, 16 gallons of water, 23kg (50lb) of sardines for bait, 700 hooks, miles of line, a harpoon, three knives, three buckets for baling, a mobile phone (in a plastic bag to keep it dry), a GPS tracking device (not waterproof), a two-way radio (battery half-charged), several wrenches for the motor, and 91kg (200lb) of ice’.

He used the radio to make contact with dry ground and request assistance. He was supposed to drop an anchor, but it was gone.

His final words to land were, “Come now, I am really getting fucked out here.”

This was no tiny storm, either; it lasted a week, and they were genuinely lost at sea when it eventually passed.

They had neither food nor water, and they quickly realized that if they were to live, they would have to be innovative in their hunting methods.

They drank bird blood and ate turtles and fish, and Alvarenga stated that the two would talk about their moms and ‘how horribly we acted.’

“We asked God for forgiveness for being such awful sons. We imagined we could embrace and kiss them. We vowed to work harder so they wouldn’t have to labor much longer. “But it was too late,” he explained.

Tragically, Córdoba died after 10 weeks at sea after becoming seriously unwell after eating a bird. Following his death, Alvarenga began to have hallucinations in which he saw himself talking to Córdoba.

He began to feel regret and blamed himself for Córdoba’s death.

Alvarenga informed former US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands, Tom Armbruster, that he saw a shipping container and waved to the boat, but he was not rescued.

Armbruster stated, “He saw a container ship pass by and signaled to it. The men on the crew waved before continuing on, and you could see it crushed him.

“That was probably the point when he lost confidence in mankind and wondered if he’d ever get out of this.

He eventually drifted to a little islet, which turned out to be a remote part of the Marshall Islands.

On January 30, 2014, he discovered a beach cottage owned by a local couple, who were able to assist in putting an end to his ordeal.

He was quickly called the real-life Life of Pi because of the similarities in the narrative, which has been adapted into a film and stage play.