Maximo Napa Castro, 61, survived 95 days adrift by subsisting on cockroaches, birds, and turtles. He didn't eat for the final 15 days before his rescue.
The 61-year-old set out on what was meant to be a two-week fishing trip from Marcona, a coastal town roughly 500 km (310 miles) south of Peru's capital Lima, on December 7th.
About 10 days into his journey, a storm damaged his boat and blew him off course, leaving him adrift in the Pacific.
When Napa Castro didn't return after the allotted time, his family reported him missing to authorities. The Peruvian Navy and various maritime patrols began scanning his last known location for weeks without success.
The veteran fisherman tried to ration his two-week food supply and gather rainwater that collected on the boat, he soon ran dry and had to resort to capturing live food to survive.
Napa Castro was eventually rescued by an Ecuadorian patrol vessel named the Don F roughly1094 kilometers (680 miles) from the coast on March 11th.
The vessel's crew said the man was extremely dehydrated and in critical condition.
After begin his recovery aboard the Don F on its journey back to Peru, media awaited Napa Castro as he reunited with his brother in the town of Paita, near the Ecuadorian border, immediately as he stepped back on dry land.
Napa Castro told reporters the details of his saga between sobs while being held by his brother.
Napa Castro told reporters: "It was with Him (God). I did not want to die. It was 95 days. I ate roaches, birds, the last thing I ate was turtles. I didn't want to die. My mother is alive and I said I didn't want to die because of my mother. I have a two-month old granddaughter, I held on to her."
"I thought about my mother everyday. I had no water. I lived on rainwater."
"God is great, that's all I can tell you. God is beautiful, he protected me because sometimes I'd spend 7 days without eating. At the end I spent 15 days (without eating). I thank God, but I'll speak later. Right now I want to be with my family."
As he struggled to survive and the days wore on, Napa Castro's mother Elena admitted to local media that she had begun to lose hope of ever seeing her son again.
“I told the Lord, whether he’s alive or dead, just bring him back to me, even if it’s just to see him,” Elena told national outlet TV Peru.
“But my daughters never lost faith. They kept telling me: mom, he’ll come back, he’ll come back,” she added.
After receiving medical attention, Napa Castro was flown to Lima’s Jorge Chávez International Airport, where he shared an emotional reunion with his daughter, Inés Napa.
Meanwhile, back in his hometown of San Andrés in the Ica region, streets were adorned with decorations in celebration of his return. His reunion with his mother was later shared on social media.
After his reunion, Napa Castro was taken to Hospital Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes in Paita to receive medical evaluations. He was discharged on March 15th, marking nearly 100 days since his ordeal began.
Similar stories of unlikely survival have captivated mariners in recent months. Australian man Timothy Shaddock and his dog Bella survived for 90 days adrift in the Pacific and were found 1900 km (1180 miles) from land. A Dominican man survived 24 days at sea off the coast of St. Marten Island by subsisting on a bottle of ketchup. In one of the most unlikely maritime survival stories in recent memory, three Nigerian migrants survived for 11 days by huddling together on the rudder of an oil tanker.
The longest known cause of survival at sea is an astounding 484 days. Salvadoran fisherman José Salvador Alvarenga drifted from Mexico to the Marshall Islands after his boat was damaged. The book about his ordeal, 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea by Jonathan Franklin, has long been one of the most popular tomes among boaters. #news
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