00:00The Pacific Ocean is bigger than we can even imagine.
00:03If you were to tunnel straight through it from the coast of Chile, you'd still end
00:08up in the Pacific Ocean on the other side.
00:11In the videos about our birthdates, we see that there are a total of five options in
00:16the world, and the biggest one is called the Pacific Ocean, covering an area of 165 million
00:23square kilometers.
00:25You might be surprised to learn that the total amount of land in our world is just 148 million
00:31square kilometers.
00:34The Pacific Ocean covers a million square kilometers, which means that if we forget about the other
00:40four options and just focus on it, the Pacific is way bigger than all the mountains, deserts,
00:46forests, and even Ireland put together.
00:50In this whole scenario, there are just a few islands, and they're so small that compared
00:55to the vast ocean, they look like mere dots.
00:59To top it off, a lot of these places have never been set foot on by humans.
01:05So in a nutshell, if someone were to get lost in the Pacific, they'd be in a pretty vast
01:11and untouched part of the world.
01:14So the chances of finding him are almost zero, but today you're going to hear the real story
01:20of a guy who got lost on his tiny boat for way longer than just 10 or 15 days.
01:26He was out there for a staggering 438 days.
01:31Yeah, this dude accidentally set a world record that nobody would probably want to break willingly.
01:39It's the record for spending the most time alone at sea.
01:43And it was achieved by a guy who spent all those 438 days on just a 6-foot boat.
01:51But the question is, how did he manage to do that?
01:55For months, how did he survive all alone in the ocean?
01:59But first, we need to know why he went out there in the first place.
02:05It was 12 o'clock when a 36-year-old guy named Josh, who lived in a small village in Mexico
02:12called Costa del Sol and was also an expert fisherman, set out for a fishing trip with
02:18a buddy.
02:20On November 17, 2012, their plan was to spend just 30 hours at sea, which is why they didn't
02:27bring too much gear on their small boat.
02:30There was just an unknown guy and a refrigerator where he kept the fish, taking only a day's
02:36worth of food and drink with him.
02:39Little did he know that the next 438 days would be the worst of his life.
02:45He went 120 kilometers off the coast of Mexico and set his net in the water when suddenly
02:50a fierce sea storm hit.
02:53To save himself, he left the fishing net behind and sprinted back to shore.
02:59For a whole 6 hours, he was battling through the waves, and by morning, he was only 20 feet
03:04from the shore.
03:06They were around a kilometer away, and they could actually see their village.
03:11They had left the storm pretty far behind, but now luck had completely turned its back
03:17on them.
03:18Just 20 kilometers from the shore, their boat's engine broke down.
03:23They had no oars and no way to steer the boat.
03:27The only thing they had was a radio, so they sent their location to their boss and waited
03:33for a response.
03:35But what happened next felt like a cruel joke.
03:39While waiting for their boss's reply, the radio battery died too.
03:44They had gone, and now the connection between these two mosquitoes and the outside world
03:49had completely ended.
03:52The shoulder of one and its buddy were still caught up in their little game, when suddenly
03:57something happened that they had no clue about.
04:01The strong winds began pushing them back toward the sea, and the shore they could see was slowly
04:06drifting away from them.
04:09Their boss even organized a search party and tried to find them with money.
04:13But it was already too late.
04:16As the days passed, it was becoming increasingly difficult to think of any chance of survival
04:22for him and his buddy.
04:24It had been five days since this accident.
04:27They had drifted far away, and the winds had pushed their boat 450 kilometers from the shore.
04:34They had reached a point in the ocean where all they could see in every direction was just
04:39water.
04:40They knew their boat was too small to get support from afar, and they had no way to signal for
04:46help with smoke or anything.
04:48At that moment, it was clear to them that their chances of survival were less than 1%.
04:55The food and water they had brought along had already run out.
04:59So now, they were just trying to figure out how to fill their stomachs.
05:03So they started catching the birds that would come and sit on their boats, and even began
05:09snatching up the fish nearby.
05:11Drinking the salty water from the sea could kill a person, so they began collecting rainwater
05:17in plastic bottles floating in the ocean to drink.
05:21But when it didn't rain for days, they had to quench their thirst by trying to catch fish
05:25and tiles too.
05:27And that was only if they were lucky enough to catch anything.
05:31Days turned into months, and then they were going through mental torture, and it's hard
05:37to even imagine what that was like.
05:40In the end, Shiloringa's companion couldn't bear it anymore, and he committed suicide on
05:46May 4th.
05:48He was alone, with no one to talk to about this on that little board.
05:53And he started spending his life in the vastness of this sea.
05:57From what I gather, this specific area is known to be one of the quietest parts of the
06:02world, and cargo ships pass by here occasionally, having left the shores of Mexico six months
06:09ago.
06:10He had been through a lot, and during this time, Jones had lost his partner, which made
06:16him really frustrated.
06:18One day, he spotted a cargo ship sailing far out at sea.
06:23It was the first ship he had seen in six months, and just seeing it reignited his hope for survival.
06:31He waved his arms and tried to get the ship's attention, but unfortunately, the crew didn't
06:37see his little boat.
06:39Just like that, his hopes of surviving were dashed again.
06:44Even being stuck in the middle of the ocean, facing death one day at a time.
06:50After fighting for survival, when you finally find a chance to save yourself, only to have
06:56it ignored, how would that feel?
07:00After 11 months, Jones had traveled 8,000 kilometers on his tiny raft.
07:06His clothes were torn, and he had just one tattered shirt left to protect him from the sun.
07:12Finally, the moment came when luck was on his side.
07:17In January 2014, after a full 14 months, Jones saw coconuts floating in the water around him.
07:26He realized that land was nearby, where coconuts were falling from trees into the sea.
07:33After a short while, he was indeed on an island, and got worried that it might not be the same
07:38island.
07:39So, he jumped into the water and made his way to the island.
07:44It was the first time in 14 months that he had set foot on solid ground.
07:50When he arrived in Ireland, he spotted a small house where some locals were present.
07:55In the past 438 days, it was the first time he had any contact with another person.
08:02This island was a remote one, in the Marshall Islands called Ebon Atoll, which is about 8,000
08:09kilometers away from his starting point.
08:12You know, it was just his luck that he ended up in the sea, close to a small part of Ireland.
08:18Otherwise, if things had gone differently, he might have been based in Ireland, and the
08:23next gig would have been in the Philippines, which is like 5,000 kilometers away from there.
08:30When he finally got back home, another problem hit him.
08:34Yup, right after he got back, Jones published a book called 438 Countries.
08:41But then he got sued for allegedly killing his buddy.
08:46That same guy had committed suicide earlier.
08:49Thank you so much for your lovely comments.
08:53See you in the next awesome video.
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