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Ship Wrecked, A Shark Attack & 76 Days Alone At Sea: The Shocking Steven Callahan Story — Transcript

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0:15Hey, what is up everybody?
0:17And welcome back to another episode of
0:19Mile Higher podcast episode 351.
0:23I'm your host Kendall.
0:25I'm Josh.
0:27Josh.
0:28And of course we are joined by the
0:30lovely Janelle and the magnus
0:32magnificent Oh, thank you.
0:38You certainly are. And today we have a
0:40magnificent episode for you guys. I'm so
0:43pumped. We are doing another survival
0:45story because you guys were so into our
0:48last
0:49survival story about the the brave men
0:53who survived the Andes mountains for
0:56what was it 76 days?
0:5872 for them. 72. Today we have someone
1:02who survived 79? 76. 76. All right, I
1:07got to get my days right. But um we were
1:09talking about the absolutely miraculous
1:13survival
1:15of Steven Callahan who survived at sea
1:17for 76 days. Alone. Alone. On a raft.
1:21That's the big difference. On a [ __ ]
1:23raft.
1:24And
1:25conditions many of us can only
1:28Actually many of us can't comprehend.
1:30No. At all. No.
1:32It's
1:34truly truly horrifying to be out in the
1:35middle. I mean a lot of us have a fear
1:37of the open ocean. Yeah. Yep.
1:39Some of us won't even get in water past
1:42our knees before we start wigging out.
1:45We're like mm. Especially being alone
1:48and just looking out and it's only sea
1:50meets horizon everywhere you look. Yeah.
1:54That to me is terrifying. And you're on
1:55a [ __ ] raft. Yep. The rubber ducky.
2:00Rubber ducky three. Mhm. Rubber ducky
2:02three. Was there rubber ducky one and
2:04two?
2:05I couldn't find I did search that. I was
2:07trying to find any information on those
2:09ones, but I couldn't. I think he just
2:10probably called all of his like
2:13different rafts on the different boats
2:14rubber ducky and so Okay, so this was
2:16the third one probably.
2:18Um but Steven's story is yeah, nothing
2:22short of a miracle. It's fascinating.
2:24It's inspiring. I love these stories
2:26because they just
2:28yeah, again put into perspective. Maybe
2:31I need to do one of these about every
2:32other month or so because it does make
2:35me realize like I have nothing to
2:36complain about in life and I'm just a
2:39big baby all the time.
2:42Yeah, just like with the Andes plane
2:44crash. Yeah. I haven't heard a lot of
2:45complaints about being cold. Well, it is
2:47summer. At home, which is great. Mhm.
2:49Yeah, I got the AC blasting. Mhm. And
2:52you're like, uh
2:53I'll be all right. But it's hot. It's
2:55summer. We'll see if that lasts through
2:56the winter.
2:58We'll go through winter and see how you
2:59do. Yep. Yep. But yeah, this story you
3:02guys is absolutely incredible. If you've
3:03never heard of it, your mind's going to
3:04be blown.
3:05Yeah, it's terrifying
3:07yet inspiring. Yeah, I mean all of there
3:10are so many ways that he could have
3:12died.
3:13should have died at least like 10 times.
3:15something I don't know if you believe in
3:17that. Something was looking out for him
3:18in my opinion, but also just his will to
3:20survive and we were all talking about
3:23you know, would we be able to do that? I
3:26really don't think I could. Um I just
3:29don't think I'd have the willpower
3:31especially alone. I think that's the
3:33biggest difference. At least with the
3:34Andes, they had each other to rely on
3:36and keep each other motivated when they
3:37were starting to lose their [ __ ] but he
3:39was just out there on his own in his
3:41thoughts. Yeah, the isolation is the
3:44whole other component to this. Yeah. Cuz
3:46some people do do fairly well with
3:48isolation. Others do not. Right.
3:50like you are not. Oh, no. I don't think
3:53you could not be an isolationist at all.
3:54No, mhm. Could you talk to yourself for
3:58days on end? No, I think I would
4:00probably have to start, but I just don't
4:02think I'd have the willpower to to do
4:04anything he did to like think through
4:05this the situations he was in and
4:08problem-solve.
4:10I I think I would give up very quickly,
4:11but I don't know, I guess you don't know
4:13until you're actually in that situation.
4:14talked about this last time that a lot
4:16of us think we'd just give up.
4:18You know, in the face of like you know,
4:20sure death, right? But until you're in
4:23that position and your body
4:26is telling you, you know, that fight or
4:27flight kicks on, I think it's a
4:30different story. I think you really do
4:32try to survive as long as you can. Yeah.
4:35But you also have to be quick-witted in
4:37a situation like in an accident like
4:39this with what happened with him and
4:40what happened with the guys in the
4:41ambulance. You have to like be so
4:44um
4:45you know, able to jump into action. I
4:46think I would be the type of person
4:48who's kind of just shuts down and like
4:51couldn't get past the initial incident,
4:54whatever it is that happens.
4:56You know, I don't know. I have no faith
4:58in myself, apparently. Yeah, my god.
5:02That's That doesn't bode well for me.
5:04No, it doesn't. Well, if I was with you,
5:06maybe, but I rely on you for everything,
5:07so Kendall's just like crawls into a
5:10fetal position, just
5:12I'm done. No, that would have been me,
5:13for sure.
5:14Like, well, you're on your own. I'd have
5:15been like, let me just jump in the
5:16water. I think you I think you would be
5:18far stronger than you give yourself
5:20credit for, to be honest. I think I
5:22think especially if we had our child
5:25with us. Mhm, no, that's different.
5:28I don't think I don't think you're going
5:30to just Yeah, I don't think you're going
5:31to be like, "Oh, But if I was alone out
5:33there Sorry, baby. Mommy can't do it.
5:36Yeah. Good luck with Daddy. Yeah.
5:39Plus like even if she was at home and I
5:41was alone, I'd probably want to fight
5:42harder for her. Yeah, she changed
5:44everything. I don't know, it's crazy.
5:46But before you had started, I wanted to
5:48ask everyone
5:50um
5:51if you would rather, if you had to pick
5:55being stranded in the Andes situation
5:58or Steven's situation out on the ocean,
6:01what would you choose?
6:03Um without giving too much away, I think
6:06I would actually rather be in the Andes.
6:10Really?
6:10And the only reason
6:12against that is the cold, but I'd rather
6:15be with people. There was more
6:17resources.
6:18Um and I I think being by your
6:23completely by yourself in what he
6:25described as a desert, the biggest
6:27desert in the world is the ocean. You're
6:28surrounded by water, but there's no
6:30water to drink.
6:32Just really put it into perspective of
6:33me. Like he was
6:35I think in worse conditions, minus the
6:37cold.
6:39But uh other than that
6:41Well, he didn't have to eat human flesh,
6:42although he probably wish he he could
6:44have.
6:45Yeah. I mean
6:47We'll get We'll get into it. He was able
6:49to get food somehow and some little bit
6:51of water, but still like yeah, the human
6:54flesh, obviously that's really terrible
6:56as well. But at least you're with
6:58people. I think if he was not alone,
7:01then I would pick his situation.
7:03Yeah. But because he was alone,
7:05I think mentally that would just be so
7:07difficult to overcome and persevere of
7:10having complete isolation. You haven't
7:13heard another person's voice in 76
7:15[ __ ] days.
7:17Um and also
7:20I'm not a survivalist, if you will. I'm
7:23not a
7:24resourceful human. Like I wouldn't The
7:26[ __ ] he had to overcome and all of the
7:29[ __ ] obstacles that he yeah, figured
7:32out and went through. Like I wouldn't I
7:34wouldn't have done that. And so it would
7:35be nice to have other people there to
7:37bounce ideas off of. When I'm losing my
7:39[ __ ] they can help me. When they're
7:41losing their [ __ ] I can try and help
7:42them. Mhm.
7:43Versus if you're alone, like
7:45it's just you and your thoughts. Yep.
7:48Yeah.
7:49I I think that's the the biggest
7:50difference is being alone versus being
7:53with someone else. What about you, Ian?
7:54I I'd have to go the same. Although I I
7:56prefer the scenery of the ocean. Oh my
8:00god, that sounds nice. But I mean, not
8:03nice in his situation, quite terrible.
8:05But
8:06he described some of it was nice. It's
8:07beautiful.
8:08beautiful. And you know, I I'll I'll
8:11talk more about this at the end
8:12specifically, but like being in these
8:14locations that no one else has ever been
8:16to, there is some kind of
8:19I don't know, like a a very it's unique,
8:21it's personal, only you know it. Um
8:23Yep. But I I really do think the Andes,
8:26like yeah, I don't want to eat human
8:27flesh. Uh that's bad.
8:29Yeah. But I do like friends. Yeah. I
8:33like having buddies around. So I I
8:35really think that would make it And
8:36again, I don't know how to do celestial
8:38navigation or any [ __ ] that Steve had to
8:41do.
8:42And you know, it's almost like something
8:44he would him he himself was uniquely
8:47suited to. Totally. Could some he loved
8:50being out at sea so much, could someone
8:52who just happened to end up there by,
8:55you know, whatever circumstances have
8:57survived the way that he did? I don't
8:58know.
8:59Um I guess when we take the the element
9:03of other people being there out, like
9:05just purely the
9:07sea versus the the mountain. I would
9:10rather be in the ocean, probably. Yeah.
9:11I think. The cold would just [ __ ]
9:13destroy me. I hate being cold as it is.
9:15Yeah. Yeah, I guess probably the ocean.
9:17Although the storms that he endured is
9:20like [ __ ] scary.
9:21till you guys hear this if you've never
9:22heard Steve's story.
9:24Would you say the same, still still
9:25Andes?
9:26I would so say Andes only because, you
9:27know, we're out here. I grew up in
9:29Colorado, you know, I feel like I you
9:31know, I grew up in Colorado. I I feel
9:33like I'm more accustomed to like I know
9:36how to build a fire. I know how to I
9:37know how to do like small things like
9:39that, whereas that's just completely
9:41unavailable to you in in that
9:44sea, yeah.
9:45Yeah.
9:46Okay, yeah. I don't know. I'm still
9:47torn, but I think I got to go ocean.
9:49Just I think I would be much happier
9:51with even though it's [ __ ] hot,
9:54I'd rather be hot than cold, and I'd
9:56rather be surrounded by ocean and have
9:58fish instead of human flesh. So, I got
10:01to go with Steve's situation. What about
10:03you, babe?
10:05Uh I would choose the mountains if I was
10:08alone.
10:11What?
10:13Josh wants to be
10:13alone in the mountains. That sounds
10:15actually pretty nice.
10:17Uh Would you really want to be alone,
10:19though? Yeah, I actually really hope one
10:22day I'll have a chunk of time in my life
10:25where I'm just alone.
10:27Well, your best hope of that is if I'm
10:28dead, so. Oh my god.
10:31Maybe one day.
10:32one day I just need to go on like a
10:357-day retreat by myself, I think. I do
10:38really find I I think I would have done
10:41well in Steven's situation minus the the
10:43heat uh and lack of fresh water.
10:48But, he was distilling water, so big fan
10:50of distillation of water. I'm a big
10:52distilled water fan. I can get get
10:54behind that.
10:56And uh yeah, I could eat fish.
10:58I think uh
11:00Fresh mahi-mahi, sushi. Although, if you
11:03die in the mountains in the cold,
11:05your body's likely going to stay there
11:08forever. Versus if you die in the ocean,
11:11chances are your body's going to
11:13decompose, you know, and completely fall
11:16apart, or something's going to eat you.
11:17a factor? You want to be preserved on
11:19Earth? It'd be cool.
11:21Leave your mark? Yeah, yeah. I'd like to
11:23like make myself a little tombstone and
11:26you know,
11:27kind of have a little spot that
11:28dig your own grave?
11:29people come come it, they're like, "Oh,
11:31a" Oh. You lost here? What's up here?
11:34No, but if you die in your raft, you're
11:36most likely going to decompose while
11:37you're drifting. Eventually, you will
11:39you'll hit land at some point. So,
11:41you're going to wash up your Or a wave
11:44comes over and you sink down. Nobody
11:45ever knows what happens to you.
11:46the reality is I would probably end up
11:48falling out of the raft at some point.
11:51Yeah. Or hitting a coral.
11:53Yeah. That would suck.
11:55Shredding. Oh. That was a thought I kept
11:57having last night when um we were
11:59watching this documentary on Steve Well,
12:02it's an episode of I
12:04be alive.
12:04be alive. Shouts out to that. That show
12:07is [ __ ] crazy. You guys should check
12:09it out. It's kind of old. There's like
12:10six seasons of it. If you ever just
12:13want to feel thankful, watch that show.
12:15I need to watch more of it. We started
12:17one of the other episodes last night.
12:19Looked interesting. I kind of want to
12:20cover some of those stories. It's so
12:21interesting to me. But I was starting to
12:23think about how many people have gone
12:26down these roads to survival and have
12:28lasted 30, 40, 50 days, maybe longer
12:32than Steven, but never actually
12:35survived, that we never heard their
12:36stories. That they were just lost at sea
12:38or lost to the wilderness or whatever it
12:41was and
12:42it's kind of crazy to think about the
12:44the survival stories that we didn't hear
12:47or the almost survival stories. Well,
12:49that's like with with the Andes, right?
12:50Like Numa, the last one of them to die.
12:53I think he died if I remember correctly,
12:55it was like either one or two days
12:56before Nando and
12:59I can't remember the other guy's name,
13:00but before Roberto and Nando before they
13:03went on their journey, he almost
13:04survived.
13:05so close. Yeah. Oh, his that one was a
13:09really rough.
13:09Yeah. Yeah.
13:11Yep. Yep. You wonder how many people's
13:13stories you just never will hear about.
13:15It's kind of sad to think about. But at
13:17least we get to hear about Steven's cuz
13:19this is an incredible story, guys. And
13:20we'll go ahead and jump in since we've
13:22been rambling a lot. But that's
13:24Yeah, well, I came here for Steven's
13:26story, not to hear about your
13:27hypotheticals.
13:29Well, okay. Let us Let us live.
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15:43So, Steven Callahan,
15:45absolute goat, was born on February 6th,
15:481952 and raised in the Northeast, mainly
15:51in Massachusetts. And his family spent
15:53summers along the coast of Maine, where
15:55he first became accustomed to taking
15:58sailboats out on the water. He spent
16:00many of his early years at sea and also
16:02in the woods. And he said that as a kid,
16:05he always felt more comfortable in
16:07nature than in society, which is I I
16:09think is something a lot of people could
16:11relate to.
16:13Um and the vast Atlantic Ocean really
16:15represented for him the purest, most
16:17untamed parts of the world. Steve's
16:21father was an architect, so he grew up
16:22drawing constantly. And he said, "You
16:25develop a sort of three-dimensional
16:27eyeball looking at two-dimensional plan.
16:30You can envision it."
16:32My brain. Yeah, that's that's a skill
16:34that not everybody possesses.
16:36I don't think I could even learn it. But
16:38as early as Steve began sailing on his
16:40own around the time that he was just 13,
16:42he wrote a letter to the greatest
16:44shipbuilder, uh Gary Mull, asking him,
16:47"How do I get into designing boats?" And
16:49Gary was actually friendly enough to
16:51respond to young Steve saying there were
16:53excellent boat-building programs at the
16:54Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology
16:57and MIT. However, Steve didn't end up
17:00going down that path. Instead, he worked
17:02with designers and shipbuilders who were
17:04members of the seasteading community
17:06designing boats in the late '60s and
17:08early '70s that could not only be lived
17:11in, but also complete long journeys. And
17:14by the By the Steve was in high school,
17:16he had taught himself celestial
17:18navigation and was allowed to borrow the
17:21sailboat of one of the shipbuilders that
17:22he had been learning the trade from. And
17:25at this point, he hadn't gone on any
17:27extremely long-distance journeys, but he
17:29spent several days at a time traveling
17:31across the East Coast and he said he
17:34loved the immediacy of sailing that you
17:37could just go out and have an adventure.
17:40When Steve went to college, he studied
17:41philosophy, though he did get an
17:44associate's degree in ship making as
17:45well.
17:46He said that his mother would say things
17:48like, "Don't you wish you had studied
17:49something more specific?" But he said
17:52that ultimately, it had done him really
17:54well because it taught him a more
17:55general approach to life that didn't
17:57require any specification. And he said
17:59this general approach even worked its
18:01way into shipbuilding. Today, everything
18:04is very specialized for shipbuilding,
18:06from interior designers to sail makers,
18:09but when he was learning, he said, "When
18:11I was designing boats, you sat down and
18:14you designed a boat." While in college,
18:16Steve met his first wife and he began
18:18working for several naval architects for
18:20around a decade. And for a while, Steve
18:23assisted celebrated shipmakers in
18:25constructing multi-hulled boats made for
18:27potential speed and professional races.
18:30But Steve had been fascinated by the
18:32ability to not only have a boat that
18:34could go anywhere, but something you
18:36could live in as well. And he always
18:38described this time of his life as,
18:40quote, "Without any money, and the boat
18:42not only represented housing, but it
18:44could become a means of transportation,
18:46something to sell, and of course,
18:49freedom." Cuz yeah, I mean, I get it.
18:52A boat that you can live in and go
18:54basically wherever you want, wherever
18:55there's water
18:56is a cool idea. And I think just the
18:59ocean in general represents kind of
19:00freedom, right? Like when you're out on
19:02the water, if you've ever been on a boat
19:04going fast on some water,
19:06you know, you all want to have that
19:08Titanic moment. You're just up there on
19:10the bow.
19:11You're like, I'm free. You're flying.
19:14It's a great feeling.
19:16Absolutely great feeling.
19:18Steve said that even with a small
19:20sailboat, he said that's your ticket to
19:222/3 of the world.
19:24He and his wife had been living on a
19:2528-ft trimaran he had built, but he
19:28couldn't take it on extended voyages as
19:31it would require more crew than just
19:32himself and his wife. So, Steve was
19:35like, I need to make a smaller boat. 28
19:37ft is a bit much for my wife and I to
19:39handle. So, he's like, let's make a boat
19:41the size
19:42of a small camper van so that we can
19:44live in it, but also something that we
19:46could, you know, go sailing across the
19:48Atlantic with.
19:50At first, Steve wanted to build a 21-ft
19:53proa, a lightweight multihull design he
19:55could pilot himself. And if you've never
19:57seen one of these boats, actually, you
19:59probably if you've ever been to a
20:00marina, you've probably seen these boats
20:02before. Maybe you've been on one before.
20:04They're very cool. They almost look like
20:06canoes, like a bunch of canoes connected
20:09uh together. They're They're actually
20:11They're based off of like ancient
20:13Polynesian like indigenous Polynesian uh
20:16ship designs that they would use to like
20:17hop across huge swaths of the Pacific
20:20with. Like, they're extremely effective
20:22boats. I don't know if I knew
20:23That's a great fun fact.
20:24Yep, fun fact. I love that.
20:25Trivia. Very fun. Did you actually learn
20:28that in trivia?
20:28No. Oh. I wish, man.
20:30Ian's our trivia king here. Yep. We did
20:32really badly last night, though. Oh, no.
20:35It's okay. We did We don't We I don't
20:36need to return there.
20:38You'll go back. I don't know. I don't
20:40know. I will.
20:42But anyways, Steve wanted to build a
20:4421-ft proa, a lightweight multihull
20:46design that he could pilot himself.
20:49However, his friend and ship designer
20:50Dick Newick told him not to as he
20:52wouldn't have enough storage as he would
20:54have on a more traditional single-hull
20:56design. Cuz that's the thing, you
20:58definitely lose some storage space, it
21:00looks like, probably some living space
21:01as well.
21:03But again, very effective design. But
21:05he's like, "Nah, a single hull would
21:06probably be better." So, in 1978, Steve
21:09began designing Napoleon Solo, a 21-ft
21:12single hull design that could fit up to
21:14three people inside the cabin. Although,
21:16he claimed at one point he was hanging
21:18out in port one day and he had 10 people
21:20inside the small cabin. Probably just,
21:22you know, having a good time, few
21:24drinks,
21:25you know, kicking back. Just, you know,
21:28packing them in like sardines.
21:30The ship had been named after a
21:31character from the television show The
21:33Man from
21:34U.N.C.L.E.
21:37Steve was able to design the boat
21:39exactly to his specifications. For
21:41instance, knowing that a transatlantic
21:43voyage would inevitably involve storms,
21:45he designed a hatch that allowed him to
21:47steer the boat while most of his body
21:49was inside the cabin.
21:52How smart.
21:53Minimize, you know, the rain hitting
21:56you. Getting soaked out there.
21:59You know, think of it like a sailboat,
22:00you're like out there on top of the deck
22:02and you're exposed to elements from all
22:04sides. It was like he kind of like be
22:06under there, kind of crouched in his
22:07little cabin, steering the boat. He also
22:10designed it to, quote, handle
22:12beautifully.
22:13His words. Once letting the rudder steer
22:15the boat for itself for 3 days while the
22:17autopilot was out.
22:19It was an excellent experimental boat
22:21and Steve was extremely proud of it. It
22:23was a boat that he had always wanted for
22:25himself. Still, he recognized that there
22:27had been some minor errors he had made
22:28in its design. For one, he had designed
22:31both the bow and the stern with these
22:33airtight compartments protecting the
22:34hull. If he were involved in any front
22:37or back-facing collisions, however,
22:38Steve didn't assume the hull itself
22:41would come into contact with anything.
22:43And at the same time, on the open seas,
22:45he left a large amount of body
22:46completely unprotected. A mistake he
22:49would, quote, beat myself up pretty
22:51badly for later on. And on top of that,
22:54by the time Steve had finished Napoleon
22:55Solo's construction in 1981, his life
22:58had changed entirely. For one, he had
23:01sunk nearly all of his cash into the
23:03boat's construction and for two, his
23:05wife had left him and they had been
23:07living separately while he finished
23:08building it. Which uh
23:10would be a huge bummer.
23:12You build this boat, you know, for for
23:15the two of you to go sailing and then by
23:17the time you finish it and put all this
23:18money into it,
23:20she's not around anymore.
23:22Yeah. I'd be sad. Oh, yeah, for sure.
23:25So now I'm facing the reality that I'm
23:27going to be sailing alone.
23:29I guess he got more space.
23:31That's a great point.
23:33You know, you can kind of make it the
23:35the man cabin.
23:37Mhm.
23:38Yeah. You and me in the man cabin? Just
23:39hanging out. That'd be nice. Yeah, maybe
23:42maybe he was kind of happy about that,
23:43but I'm sure he was also
23:45not looking forward to being alone when
23:47he was originally going to be
23:49with the with his love. But Steve
23:51decided that now was the time, if any,
23:55to finally set forth on his lifelong
23:57dream of sailing across the Atlantic
23:59Ocean in his trusted, but untested,
24:02Napoleon Solo. So, Steve signed himself
24:05and the Napoleon
24:07up for the Mini Transat race that began
24:09in England and ended in the Caribbean.
24:12And although Steve had never intended
24:14the Napoleon to be a racing vessel,
24:16you know, he thought maybe the Mini
24:18Transat would be a good test for his
24:20design since only boats around that size
24:22could register in the first place. So,
24:24in the fall of 1981, Steve set off in
24:27the Napoleon Solo, sailing from Boston
24:30to Bermuda to pick up his close friend
24:32and fellowship designer Chris Latchem.
24:35And Chris introduced Steve to a number
24:37of other small ship designers and aided
24:40him in the early design process for
24:42Napoleon Solo. And from there, Steve and
24:45Chris sailed northeast across the
24:47Atlantic to Cornwall, England, a voyage
24:49that took a little under a month and
24:51Steve said, "Napoleon Solo really lived
24:53up to what I wanted to do. All was
24:56looking good. The small boat had even
24:58endured a number of tough gales, which
25:00are very strong winds often associated
25:03with storms. But Steve and Chris were
25:06able to navigate these intense storms
25:08without incident. They're pumped. And
25:10the ship even flipped to 90° at one
25:12point, pretty crazy. And the green water
25:14had gone over the hatch, but still they
25:16were able to regain control pretty
25:19quickly.
25:20However, even before the race had begun,
25:23many sailors had been through rough seas
25:25on their voyage to England. One American
25:28was actually killed on his voyage, and
25:30another had been thrown around so
25:31intensely on his boat that he had broken
25:34several ribs by the time that he arrived
25:36in England.
25:38Now, the race which began in Penzance,
25:40England, I think we're saying that
25:42right. Penzance, yeah. Penzance. I've
25:44never heard of Penzance, England. That's
25:46fun to say.
25:48But it followed the European coastline
25:51along Spain and Portugal before the
25:53Atlantic crossing into the Caribbean.
25:56And that was incredibly choppy. Steve
25:59had even suffered a cracked hull just
26:01outside of La Coruña, Spain. And not
26:03wanting to risk himself or his newly
26:06constructed boat, of course, he decided
26:08to go ahead and just drop out of the
26:10race, which is a smart idea. So Steve
26:12made some temporary repairs before
26:14crossing the Bay of Biscay. And he got
26:17some glass before taking the scenic
26:19route, stopping in Portugal, and
26:21eventually making his longest stay on
26:24the
26:25land in the Canary Islands, which I've
26:27heard are absolutely gorgeous. And also
26:29Portugal. I mean, just what a cool
26:32experience. Yeah. Yeah.
26:35So Steve recalled how anytime he pulled
26:37into a port and woke up, he would see
26:39all of the local fishermen just staring
26:41back at him. And they were all amazed
26:44that his little boat had made it from
26:46America. And I'm sure he was feeling
26:48pretty proud about that.
26:49Steve spoke about the comfort of the
26:51port and wanting to sleep in a warm,
26:53semi-stable bed. I can imagine. But the
26:56longer he stayed in the Canaries, the
26:58more he wanted to be back out at sea.
27:01That and he was broke. He He couldn't
27:04spend the rest of his life in port and
27:06he knew he needed to make his way back
27:07to the Western Hemisphere eventually.
27:09So, he decided to go on what was called
27:12the milk run, which are calm trade winds
27:15that move the boat across the Atlantic
27:17back to the Caribbean where he thought
27:19he'd get some work with a friend who
27:21lived over there. So, on January 29th,
27:241982, Steve set sail once again bound
27:28for Antigua.
27:32So, as I've said many times on this
27:33show, I hate them all. So, I do most of
27:36my shopping online. But even that can be
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27:42to find something that you like that
27:43actually has your size in stock and then
27:45you're reading reviews for everything
27:47only for it to all come in and nothing
27:50fits or you hate it all and now you have
27:52a bunch of returns to do, which is so
27:53inconvenient because they all need to go
27:55to different places and it's just such a
27:57hassle. But that's where Stitch Fix
27:59comes in, friends. It makes it all so
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28:03at this point that I've been a paid
28:04customer of Stitch Fix for years. I love
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28:08will, too, because it takes the mental
28:10load out of shopping. It takes all the
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29:22And I think this would be a good time to
29:24talk about Ian's
29:26story of survival.
29:28From this past weekend.
29:30On a raft.
29:31On a raft. I was on a raft.
29:32are always commenting like, "Ian's lore
29:34is insane." It is. And no, it really We
29:36learn something new about him in our
29:38company chat like every day. Literally
29:41yesterday he's like, "Yeah, I was
29:42stranded last weekend."
29:45The timing of this is insane since you
29:47had just wrapped up working on Steve's
29:49story.
29:50That uh the whole time I was out there I
29:51was there with my friend Max and I just
29:52kept saying to him like, "Man,
29:54at this [ __ ] empty lake in in on the
29:57plains in Colorado." I was like,
29:59"This is a view of heaven from a seat in
30:00hell, man." This is That will make sense
30:03in a second. That is an amazing Steve
30:05quote. Okay, so what happened?
30:07Well, we So, the day so we were going to
30:09go to this lake. We don't have a boat,
30:11but we were borrowing Darren's gigantic
30:14raft. Yeah.
30:15And he said this can be piloted by just
30:18one person.
30:19But Darren is a much larger man than I.
30:23Yeah. A much stronger man than I. And on
30:26top of that, we bought beer on the way.
30:27I dropped one and it started spraying in
30:29the gas station parking lot, so I had to
30:31shotgun it. Exactly.
30:32So, I had to. And then
30:35I was also I was telling you this, Josh.
30:36I was dealing with a strange skin
30:38infection
30:39that I don't need to go into any further
30:41than that. But, it's handled. Okay.
30:43It's fine. Okay.
30:45I need to hear the details of this off
30:47camera.
30:47right next to you. It's It's fixed.
30:50Don't worry.
30:50It's not contagious.
30:51Don't. It's fine. It's fine. Zocdoc.com.
30:54Hey.
30:55Got a same-day appointment. Uh-huh.
30:57Thank you, guys. Anyhow, but I was
30:59worried about that. I was thinking about
31:00Steve's skin. And I was like, man, he He
31:03knows what it's like. Yeah. Uh and then
31:06we got out and I made I didn't make my
31:08friend Max. He likes to He likes to do
31:10it, so he's like, "Ha."
31:11But, he didn't realize that like the
31:12entire time he was paddling us, we were
31:15with the wind. It was a pretty big
31:17[ __ ] lake, so we got really far out
31:19there. I was drinking beer and laying
31:22and just like sunning. And he's just
31:24paddling you. He was paddling. Dude, it
31:25was kind of romantic. And then Aw. And
31:28then we like we were just chatting and
31:30we realized everyone else was headed
31:32back. So, we were trying to paddle into
31:33But, because this [ __ ] raft was so
31:35big and we were both drunk and weak, we
31:39just couldn't We paddled for 3 hours.
31:42And we just couldn't make any We
31:44couldn't do anything. So, eventually
31:46You're exhausted.
31:47We were exhausted. And the moment it was
31:50offered to us like, "Hey, do you guys
31:51want to get picked up by the park
31:53rangers? Do you want us to send an SOS?"
31:55Which was awesome to say.
31:58Uh we were like, "Yeah, please please do
32:01that." But, it was also funny the moment
32:02we gave up we started We lost our We
32:04became animals. We peed into cans. We
32:08like
32:09It was We drank all the rest of the beer
32:11that wasn't ours. Did you have any water
32:14packed?
32:14No.
32:15Just Oh my god.
32:16drinking a light beer, right? It was
32:18When ours were, but then we we got to
32:21the IPAs and the and the other and the
32:24other beers.
32:25But, a light beer is like water. Yeah,
32:26but the Montauk Again, the Montauk
32:28Staying hydrated, yeah.
32:30We were There were There was liquid
32:31inside of us.
32:33That's good.
32:33That then came out. It went
32:36into the can. And then we got pushed to
32:38the entire other side of the lake and
32:40sat on a log
32:42until we got rescued. And then as we
32:44were getting pulled in, it was a French
32:47park ranger, which was curious.
32:49But he said like
32:50He said Wait, was he on a motorized
32:52boat? Yeah, they came and they picked us
32:54up in a motorized boat and made us like
32:56hold the raft. It flipped over and hit
32:57us in the face at one point cuz it was
32:59so windy. Again, not our fault.
33:01And then
33:03and then right at the end he said, "So
33:04do you guys want to get out and paddle
33:06so it doesn't look like we had to pick
33:07you up cuz this is kind of
33:08embarrassing."
33:10And we said no. Yeah, you're like, "No,
33:11I got a skin infection."
33:13I yeah.
33:14Cuz Tom straight up asked why you didn't
33:15just swim.
33:17Tom was like, "At the risk of not
33:18sounding like an [ __ ] why didn't you
33:20just swim?" It was it was very high
33:23algae and yeah, I had a a strange skin
33:25infection that I will say nothing more
33:27about.
33:28Well, hey, that's fair. So, that's
33:31really convenient that you were able to
33:32pee in the cans cuz if if me and Janelle
33:35were out there, that'd be quite the
33:36struggle for us.
33:38Yeah, that's a problem.
33:39in the nasty algae water and just pee in
33:42there.
33:42my coochie in that. It was nasty, too,
33:45dude. It was You know, you got to do
33:46what you got to do. What else would you
33:47have done? I don't know, man. But yeah,
33:49I guess you can't really like pee off
33:50the side of the raft cuz it's not like
33:52you're in the middle of the ocean.
33:53There's like people.
33:54No, yeah, this was a very busy
33:56And I didn't want anyone to see my my
33:57skin infection out there. So I was kind
33:59of I was kind of worried.
34:02So the whole time you must have been
34:03like, "Fuck, I can't complain about
34:05shit."
34:06Were you guys wearing street clothes?
34:07No, I was wearing Carhartt uh What? What
34:10are you guys doing? shorts and he was
34:12sound unprepared.
34:13to go in. Well, I also, to be fair,
34:16didn't tell my friend Max what we were
34:18doing at all that day. I was just like,
34:20"Hey man, you want to show up?" And he
34:21did. What He's a good sport for that,
34:23but
34:25uh yeah, anyhow. Yeah, we were not
34:26prepared. But that's what you know,
34:29that's what Steve gave us hope in this
34:31moment. I bet he did.
34:33This was the It's kind of crazy that you
34:35worked on that all last week and then
34:37that happens last weekend.
34:38Mhm.
34:39Wild timing. Universe works in
34:41mysterious ways. You had to get some
34:42like perspective before, you know? You
34:44had to You had to have some sort of
34:45Steve experience. Exactly. Now I
34:48I respect I could do it.
34:49Now you get it, right? You've been
34:51through the same.
34:52If I the exact same style
34:56surviving a calm lake in Colorado.
34:59A man-made lake.
35:01And you had cell service? We did have
35:03cell service. We were playing a
35:04Congratulations at one point. Just for
35:07fun.
35:07By Post Malone.
35:08Yeah, just cuz
35:09It's a damn good song.
35:10It is a good song, man. So did you Wait,
35:12how did the rangers come? We just told
35:15them they were like, "Where are you
35:16guys?"
35:17Did you call 911? No, no, no. We called
35:19We called someone on the shore and then
35:21they just told the rangers. Oh, that
35:22we're there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That
35:24would've been great if we Like, "Hey, so
35:26We need that 911 call.
35:29911, what's your emergency? I'm stuck on
35:31a raft. I'm stuck on a raft.
35:33They're like, "Swim, idiot." I got sand.
35:35I got an infection.
35:38That's so funny.
35:39The local reservoir.
35:41Well, I'm so glad you got some footage
35:42of that. So if you're watching this
35:43episode, I'm sure Tom will overlay some
35:45of that or maybe even put in some of the
35:47clips with with audio if they're Did you
35:50have any food? No, man.
35:52Just the beer and vape. Just beer and
35:54vape. It was pretty awes- And then we
35:55got a Chick-fil-A after.
35:57Hey, that's what you deserved. It was
35:59the
35:59It was the best Chick-fil-A you've ever
36:01had in your life.
36:01it felt like I was I came home. That's
36:04what I felt like.
36:06Are you inspired to go do a
36:07transatlantic?
36:09Honestly,
36:11a tad. A tad.
36:13Yeah, just a tad. I I don't know. I
36:16You and Max tackle the trans- Atlantic.
36:18never been in a sailboat ever.
36:22Well, Max seems funny. Shout out to Max.
36:24I love you guys' video clips. Shouts
36:26out, Max.
36:27But let Anyways,
36:29but that side uh
36:32little side stop there. Steve has a
36:35pretty crazy story, too.
36:38If you believe it.
36:39Steve Steve's I think just barely beats
36:43Ian's story there a little tad.
36:45Barely, yeah.
36:47So, Steve, you know, he's on his first
36:50week on his voyage home.
36:53And he said it was one of the most
36:54idyllic weeks of sailing he had ever
36:56experienced. There wasn't a storm in
36:58sight, and he was being picked up by the
37:00strong trade winds that pushed him
37:01towards his final destination of
37:03Antigua. In his first week at sea, he
37:06was able to cover a third of his nearly
37:072,000 mile-long sail. So, he's cruising,
37:10man.
37:11Just just beautiful weather. I mean,
37:13this is what it's all about. And he said
37:16he passed the time by completing
37:17exercises on the ship's bow, reading
37:20books, and journaling about his voyage.
37:22Steve had been an avid sketch artist,
37:24and his notebook was filled with images
37:26of scenes he saw across the Atlantic.
37:28Steve even had a film camera attached to
37:30Napoleon's deck, which he used to
37:32capture some of the beautiful things
37:34that he saw. One of the books he carried
37:36with him was Survive the Savage Seas,
37:38written by Dougal Robertson. And it
37:41documented how he and his family
37:42survived 38 days drifting in the Pacific
37:44Ocean.
37:46And while Steve didn't expect an
37:47emergency situation, which
37:49Ian didn't expect an emergency
37:50situation, either.
37:51not. And uh
37:53Steve actually
37:55unlike Ian, came prepared for the worst.
37:59Uh he had a standard issue ditch kit
38:01prepared with a few liters of water,
38:02flares, and survival essentials,
38:04including solar stills that could purify
38:07salt water. Those would become important
38:08later on. However, Steve didn't feel
38:10like it would be enough if he ran into
38:12any issues while on his transatlantic
38:14sail, so he brought an additional ditch
38:17kit, which he filled with more water,
38:18food, and a spear gun he had picked up
38:20while on shore in
38:22Now, the spear gun, if you ever see
38:24spearfishing, you know, I watch some of
38:26the channels on YouTube that do some
38:27spearfishing that have like the
38:28commercial spear guns that are like real
38:31big, travel real far, and they can spear
38:33basically anything swimming. Steve had a
38:35kind of a smaller, it looked like a
38:38smaller one, like kind of a almost like
38:39a
38:40toy spear gun in a way. I don't think
38:43it's a toy.
38:43Not not quite a toy, but
38:44you mean.
38:45But not as like beefy. Like he's not
38:47taking down a shark probably with this
38:49thing. Well, No. No.
38:52Or does he?
38:52he? Or does he?
38:54But Steve also had a six-person
38:56inflatable raft that we've been talking
38:58about. He called Rubber Duckie 3. I love
39:02that.
39:03And uh it was orange. It's like black
39:05and orange. It's got like an orange kind
39:06of canopy on it. Uh but typically boats
39:09like his would come with a smaller raft,
39:11three people would like fit in it.
39:14But Steve was like,
39:15you know, he was on it one time with uh
39:17two other friends, and he was like,
39:18"Man, this tight in here.
39:20If I ever get Yeah.
39:21shipwrecked, this is too small." Dude,
39:23he was smart to to upgrade the raft.
39:26Yeah.
39:27I'm sure in hindsight he wishes he
39:28bought even a better one, you know? Like
39:31I I hope other
39:33sailors hear
39:35his story and get the [ __ ] best raft
39:37they possibly can. Yeah.
39:39one with the bathroom and the kitchen on
39:41it. Bathroom and kitchen on a raft?
39:43Yeah, man. They got them. Pretty cool.
39:45Temu.
39:48Look it up.
39:50You can get anything there, right? Uh
39:51but in Rubber Duckie 3, he didn't have
39:54enough space to lie down. So, still it's
39:56big, but it's like to sit in. You know,
39:59you could fit five people in it to sit
40:00in it.
40:01But he he it doesn't have the length,
40:04you know? Steve's a you know, fairly
40:06fairly tall guy. So, you kind of have to
40:08like bend the knees, kind of curl up a
40:09little bit uh when sleeping in it. But
40:12he at least had additional room for
40:14supplies. So, he had room for those
40:16ditch kits in there.
40:18So pretty good setup. But still during
40:20Steve's first week of sailing these
40:21concerns were far from his mind and he
40:23had caught a powerful wind and imagine
40:25he'd make it to Antigua in a month at
40:28the latest. However, the winds begin to
40:30change on February 4th and Steve
40:32encountered his first storm of the
40:34voyage back to the Caribbean. And still
40:37at this point he's like ah whatever, you
40:38know, just a storm.
40:40He's pretty unfazed by it. But no, this
40:42storm was serious stuff. It wasn't
40:44anything compared to the gales he and
40:46Kristen encountered on the trip to
40:47England.
40:48And so Steve piloted the ship for most
40:50of the day and then set the autopilot on
40:52his rudder before he retired to his
40:54cabin for the night. Steve often brought
40:57up how people expect spending time at
40:59sea to be this quiet, peaceful, zen
41:01experience. However, it's anything but
41:03that. All night he could hear rain
41:05pattering above and waves crashing over
41:08Napoleon's deck.
41:09Cuz once you're out this is one thing,
41:11once you're out in the open ocean, which
41:12I've been a you know, a few times and
41:14one time on rough seas in a small boat.
41:16Oh god. Uh
41:17and it was horrifying. It was insane cuz
41:21you get swells out there.
41:23It was insane. Cuz you get swells that
41:25are insane. And so a 20-ft boat is just
41:28going to get It almost feels like you're
41:30being thrown up in the air and then
41:32dropped over and over again.
41:34Oh my god.
41:37And he's just like trying to go to
41:38sleep. He's like boom boom boom. Just
41:40like rolling around. Yep.
41:42And that's why hammocks are great cuz
41:44you just kind of like swing with it.
41:47Are they? I feel like that would make
41:48that motion sickness crazy. No, well
41:50babies like swings. Put a baby in a
41:52hammock and they'll go right to sleep.
41:53Well, that's a baby.
41:57But I think naturally we can fall asleep
41:59swinging because of our evolution from
42:02apes. I think you should put um No, I
42:05No, I think it's
42:06Wait, why wouldn't Why would apes have
42:08anything to do with swinging?
42:10Like they're swinging in the branches
42:12while they sleep. Yeah, haven't you ever
42:14seen The Jungle Book?
42:16No, it's because when you're in your
42:18mother's womb, there's a lot of
42:20movement.
42:21Yes. So, you're That's Yeah, and where
42:24do you think that came? No.
42:27Oh my god.
42:28When baby monkeys are in their mama's
42:30tummies and they're swinging in the
42:31trees.
42:31don't think monkeys have anything to I
42:33think you know what? Tonight you should
42:34test it out and put a hammock out in the
42:36yard and you can sleep out there by
42:37yourself. All right, I'll do it. Tom did
42:40that on one of our camping trips.
42:40on there.
42:41Didn't Tom do that on one of our camping
42:42trips?
42:43Yeah, he did. I didn't I don't think he
42:45slept very well.
42:47I don't think he said he was fine. Tom
42:48doesn't like sleeping in
42:50to sleep in the most simple
42:52solution.
42:52He almost went into a [ __ ] cave.
42:54went into a cave with you, yeah.
42:56Until he was like, well, there's a lot
42:57of mosquitoes.
42:58That crossed the line. But still, Steve
43:01was able to get some rest, finally
43:03settling in around 11:00 p.m. Then, out
43:06of nowhere, he hears this loud bang. And
43:09he said, quote, "A deafening explosion
43:12blankets the subtler sounds of torn wood
43:15fiber and rush of sea." And I got to
43:18say, Steve has quite a way with words.
43:21It's very impressive. And he's like
43:23documenting a lot of it while he's out
43:24there. The book, Adrift, that he he he
43:27wrote is excellent. It's a fantastic
43:28book. I know. I really I had
43:31extra recordings this week, but I really
43:34really want to I think I'm going to
43:35listen to that one for a while after cuz
43:37I just love Steve. He's so awesome.
43:39But yeah, somehow in the middle of the
43:41Atlantic Ocean, the Napoleon Solo had
43:43managed to hit something. And to this
43:45day, Steve actually isn't exactly sure
43:48what could have caused the damage. He
43:50thinks that it could possibly be a whale
43:53since he had bumped into a few of them
43:55um on the way in. And obviously, if he
43:57did,
43:59it's a whale, so they're they're a lot
44:01stronger and it wouldn't have like hurt
44:03the whale. He's like, it's kind of like
44:05we sort of bumped heads.
44:07Um and the stronger one of us won. But
44:10this time the harsh storm had sent him
44:12crashing into this object, probably a
44:14whale, and his ship was just filling
44:17with water. Can you imagine what that
44:19panic would be like? In the pitch dark.
44:22Yep.
44:23Really unfortunate timing for that whale
44:25to have rolled up.
44:27And he said, "Already the water is waist
44:29deep and the nose of the boat is dipping
44:32down." And Solo comes to a halt as she
44:35begins a sickening dive. She's going
44:37down, down.
44:39And Steve grabbed a utility knife and
44:42then dove beneath the water to cut his
44:45inflatable raft free from the tie-down
44:47lines. And then he brought it up to the
44:49sinking deck and began pulling on the
44:51inflation rope. And the fact that he can
44:54I just This is what I don't think I have
44:56in me. The ability to think quickly and
44:59act quickly and you know, have to make
45:01decisions.
45:03So, I would just not be able to do that.
45:04I would be one of the people that just
45:05goes like,
45:06"I can't function." So, he said, "I yank
45:10the first pull, then the second,
45:12nothing, nothing. But then finally on
45:14the third pull, the raft inflates
45:16thankfully before Steve floats it out to
45:19sea and climbs aboard, still tied to the
45:22rapidly sinking Napoleon Solo." And as
45:25he looks back at his beloved sinking
45:28ship, he sees that somehow the movie
45:30camera began recording. He said, "Who is
45:33directing this film?
45:36He isn't much on lighting, but he has a
45:38flair for the dramatic that is quite
45:40impressive."
45:41But then Steve realized something. His
45:43emergency supplies were still on
45:45Napoleon Solo, and obviously he needs
45:48his emergency supplies. So, even though
45:50Steve was now safely aboard the rubber
45:52ducky, he didn't have his sleeping bag.
45:54He didn't have his ditch kit. He didn't
45:56have his clothes or any other means of
45:58survival. And Napoleon Solo was sinking
46:02fast. And fighting against every
46:06instinct, Steve pulled the raft back
46:08towards the boat.
46:09While the entire front half had become
46:12submerged, an air pocket had emerged in
46:15the back keeping the opening to the
46:16cabin above water. And so in the middle
46:19of this storm, dude, Steve jumped back
46:22on board of the Olin Solo and went
46:24inside the submerged cabin where his
46:27beloved boat was quickly sinking beneath
46:29the waves.
46:30And he held his breath and swam in the
46:33pitch darkness and was able to locate
46:35his sleeping bag, his mat, and his
46:38emergency kits. And it's just I can't
46:41even think about what that would be
46:42like. He can't see [ __ ] so he's just
46:44feeling around trying to find his stuff.
46:46And obviously he knows his boat super
46:47well, so that probably helped. But just
46:48in that situation, I don't think I could
46:50function.
46:52And plus, keep in mind he's holding his
46:54breath the whole time. So his lungs at
46:56this point are like on [ __ ] fire for
46:58an extended period of time. And he's
47:00like, "Okay, I I finally found
47:01everything. Let me get out of here." And
47:03then he found out that the hatch back to
47:06the outside had been slammed shut. So he
47:08had to
47:09push on it.
47:10Scariest moment, I'm sure. I cannot even
47:13imagine.
47:14Your escape route just closed. Yep. And
47:16you're like out of air. You He had
47:20such little time left until he for sure
47:22would not have survived.
47:24And he's
47:25he's lucky he could he did end up barely
47:27forcing the hatch to open
47:29from the pressure from the water above
47:31it. And finally it did break free and he
47:33was able to get back to the raft, which
47:35it all could have ended right there if
47:37he wasn't able to do that.
47:39But with the only emergency light inside
47:41of his raft, Steve watched the Olin Solo
47:44continue its descent that night.
47:46He thought that the air pocket in the
47:48back would maybe keep the boat up until
47:49morning, so he stayed tied on hoping to
47:52grab some more supplies when the sun
47:53came out. With the the making it feel
47:55like Steve was {quote} in a car accident
47:58every 5 seconds. After all of this, he
48:01decides,
48:03"All right, well, all I can do now is
48:05close up my raft and try to get some
48:07rest in his soaking wet sleeping bag."
48:12Yeah, it's it's just so much to process,
48:14man. Oh my god. Oh my god, after all of
48:16that? Like I guess you need you He's
48:19like, "I've got to get rest." And even
48:21though he was like
48:22in this raft and it feels like he's in a
48:24car accident, he's like, "Let me get in
48:25my wet sleeping bag and go to sleep."
48:28Just so unbelievably tough.
48:30And to know that
48:31I have to get those drift kits or I'm
48:34toast, you know. This is there's no
48:36point even
48:37getting on the raft at this point cuz
48:39it's not going to last long.
48:41And he goes down and gets it. It's just
48:43truly incredible. I mean, And I really
48:45recommend watching that episode of
48:48I shouldn't be alive. It's It's on
48:50YouTube. Well, maybe we'll link it
48:52because it it has really actually
48:54well-done reenactments, in my opinion,
48:56and it's just to get a visual of what
48:59this could have been like, the best
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49:03into perspective.
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49:22It's an awkward moment. Because then
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49:28and they're just looking at you like
49:30you're insane. And they're like, "Dude,
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51:00The next morning, February 5th, was
51:02Steve's first day adrift. The storm
51:05continued to howl and he pulled the line
51:07to the Napoleon solo only to realize it
51:09had been severed during the night. He
51:12could only use the supplies he had on
51:13his raft for survival.
51:16The storm continued and Steve tried to
51:17get his bearings. The raft was only
51:19rated for around 40 days at sea and was
51:22typically reserved for quick rescues.
51:24And while the closest landfall was on
51:26the Cape Verde Islands only 450 mi away,
51:29Steve was still caught in the same trade
51:31wind and couldn't maneuver the raft at
51:32all. On his current course, his closest
51:35landfall was still the Caribbean, some
51:371,800 mi away. For 3 days the storm
51:41howled and in the beginning Steve just
51:42laid around and felt sorry for himself.
51:45On February 6th, which just happened to
51:46be his 30th birthday, he wrote this as
51:49his tombstone. It reads, Steve Callahan,
51:53February 6, 1952
51:55February 6,
51:571982.
51:58Dreamed, drew pictures,
52:00built boats, died.
52:03God, how eerie would it be to be writing
52:06your own tombstone?
52:07Mhm.
52:09Here's a actually clip of Steve talking
52:11about this feeling and what he called
52:14the recoil period.
52:16I think it's really important to
52:17survivors that, you know, you could you
52:20could like I say and it's so especially
52:21the recoil period is really dismal
52:23because you beat yourself up so badly.
52:25It's like every mistake you made in your
52:27life, every failing, every shortcoming,
52:30everything just like plays you like this
52:32really bad B-grade movie over and over
52:35again. That Yeah. And
52:37s- but
52:40it gives you an impetus that
52:43you know, if I get through this, then
52:46maybe I can
52:48become a better person for lack of a
52:50better, you know,
52:51Did you uh
52:52term. That is also a great interview to
52:54check out. Uh it's on YouTube. Ste- It's
52:57called Steve Cal- Callahan Adrift 76
53:00Days Alone at Sea, The Story of
53:01Survival. 4/9/2017.
53:04Yeah, it's an older um interview. This
53:07didn't sound quality is not good, but um
53:10really, really interesting to hear it
53:11all straight from him. If you want to
53:13check that out, we'll have that link
53:14below bef- as well. So, one thing I
53:16didn't even really think about until
53:18Steve mentioned it, but he started
53:20developing saltwater sores across his
53:23body.
53:24Oh, this sounds so awful.
53:25about saltwater.
53:27If you've ever been to the beach and
53:28been in the ocean and you come out and
53:30then you dry off, you know, you bake
53:32underneath the sun,
53:34it's kind of an uncomfortable feeling.
53:36You know, your skin gets all sort of Do
53:38Does yours not do that?
53:39No, but my sister's does. I think it
53:41just depends on your skin type.
53:43don't feel the salt?
53:43No, you definitely feel the salt on your
53:45skin.
53:45doesn't feel painful. No, not painful.
53:48say painful, it just
53:49feel gross to me either. It really
53:50doesn't bother me at all. Like I think I
53:51could go home and feel like I don't even
53:53need to get in the shower.
53:54no. Oh, hell.
53:54It drives me crazy. I feel like I'm
53:56meant to be in the ocean. Same, but
53:58in the ocean, not There's like so much
54:00salt. And then when you even when you
54:02rinse off, I can like feel the salt
54:04coming off of my skin on my face and
54:06stuff. Damn, I've seriously never
54:08noticed that. But Annalee Annalee really
54:10bothers her.
54:12You've never licked your fingers after
54:13coming out of the ocean? No. I'll lick
54:16my fingers. I'll go like
54:17like that.
54:19And it's just
54:19Thanks for showing us that.
54:22Dude, it's so salty. Like when I was
54:24eating chips on the beach, and I'd start
54:25licking my fingers, the amount of salt
54:27that I got with my chips.
54:29I love salt. Maybe I just didn't notice.
54:31It It's gross though. I feel like it's
54:33just all over you.
54:34And so, imagine being in a raft Being
54:37tossed around.
54:38blasted with salt water all day.
54:41Wind, sun. Sun beating down.
54:44I do love the feeling of showering after
54:46being in it. Like you do that feeling of
54:47you're like, "Wow, I'm so clean." All
54:49right, I'm going to make a salt water
54:51bath and put you in it and see how long
54:53you can stay in it, and then we'll take
54:55you out, and then see how long you go
54:56without a shower.
54:57that all the time. Epsom salt. All my
54:59baths have Epsom salt.
55:02And you've seen how long I can take a
55:03bath. It doesn't bother me. My skin
55:05doesn't get really affected by it. But
55:06I'm sure if I was out there, Steam could
55:08never shower with Yeah. I mean, it's so
55:11bad that he's getting actual sores. If
55:13you If you look up salt water sores, you
55:15can see
55:16see what we're talking about.
55:19But it made it nearly impossible for him
55:21to lie down without feeling a burning
55:22pain. Ugh. Yeah, it's that
55:24uncomfortable.
55:26Still later that day, he finally felt
55:27the spirit to go through his survival
55:29supplies and determine what he had. He's
55:31like, "I got to figure out
55:32what's the reality here? Is it grim?"
55:34So, his original survival kit included
55:36six pints of water, two plywood paddles,
55:38two orange flares, three red flares, a
55:40radar reflector, though he felt this was
55:42totally worthless, two solar stills used
55:44for purifying salt water, a first aid
55:46kit, a patch kit, and some fishing gear.
55:49In his personal ditch kit, he had
55:51pencils in his notebook, which he said,
55:53you know, it's one of the important
55:54survival skills, got to get my thoughts
55:55down.
55:56The book Sea Survival, a space blanket,
55:58plastic bags, an additional solar still,
56:01more patching materials, another radar
56:03system,
56:05you know, he could use to get search
56:06teams his location if they were looking
56:08in the area, a flare gun, two more pints
56:10of water, cutting boards, 10 oz of
56:12peanuts,
56:13not good for me, baked beans, corned
56:15beef, and raisin.
56:17And even if I were starving, I would not
56:18eat the peanuts.
56:20Really?
56:20No.
56:22No.
56:22Well, I guess you could possibly die.
56:23could die. Yeah.
56:25If I let it go long enough, I could
56:27And if you had that much of it, yeah.
56:29Yeah.
56:29Be bad. Yeah.
56:31But Steve calculated that he had around
56:3314 days of supplies if he were just to
56:34survive on the items that he packed.
56:36While that's a lot for a typical
56:37survival situation, and more than most
56:39who
56:40you know, what people have lost at sea,
56:42Steve is still out in the middle of the
56:44Atlantic Ocean. There's a chance that by
56:46the end of the 14 days, he would reach
56:47the busy shipping lanes, but still,
56:50you know, he's got to hope that one of
56:51these massive vessels, these shipping
56:53boats are huge, would even be able to
56:55spot his tiny raft floating around,
56:58and then rescue him. Cuz sometimes
57:01they're moving so quickly, and Yeah.
57:03they can't even turn around if they want
57:05to,
57:06because the boats are already moving so
57:07quick.
57:08The chances at that point seem pretty
57:10slim. Steve wrote, "Desperation shakes
57:14me. I want to cry, but I scold myself.
57:16Hold it back. Choke it down. You cannot
57:18afford the luxury of water wept away."
57:23Can't cry. What a thought. Got to retain
57:26all the water.
57:27Yeah.
57:28Steve then spent the rest of his
57:29birthday daydreaming, as it was still
57:31too rough outside to try and fish or
57:33distill clean water.
57:35I wonder what he was daydreaming about.
57:38I wonder, it makes me think about the
57:39Andes guys, like when they would just
57:41start talking about the sweetest food
57:43they could possibly make or the, you
57:45know, just I would just think about
57:47food, honestly.
57:48restaurant, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, screw
57:50family.
57:53He actually said in his interview that
57:54he would dream about fruit. Yeah, he
57:57later on, cuz he was worried that, you
58:00know, he was going to get scurvy. He He
58:02had like no No vitamins.
58:04No vi- no nutrients, so that's like what
58:07would always pop into his head, yeah.
58:09And getting pigs, too.
58:10He thought about guinea pigs?
58:12No, I'm saying guinea pigs get scurvy,
58:13not guinea pig got scurvy. It's It's
58:15common for guinea's.
58:17Anyway.
58:19It's always what comes to mind. But
58:21yeah, he was dreaming about fruit. And
58:22he was talking about in that interview
58:24that we showed from YouTube, how um he's
58:27like, "It wasn't It was never like a
58:28McDonald's Happy Meal or like a chicken
58:31nuggets or
58:33a steak, I guess, would make a little
58:35more sense. It was never things like
58:36that. It was fruit. He was craving fruit
58:39because he his body knew. His body knew
58:42that that's what he needed, the vitamins
58:44and nutrients the most.
58:46water in fruit, it's so fresh and crisp
58:48and refreshing. Yeah, so he would
58:49literally just dream about like
58:51watermelon and strawberries and Mhm.
58:54God.
58:55Give me that Fruit Roll-Up. Ew, Fruit by
58:58the Foot? Fruit by the Foot?
59:00That's how you really get the vitamins.
59:01Yeah. Give me that artificial [ __ ]
59:05No, I I can imagine he'd be want want a
59:08watermelon real bad.
59:10Yeah.
59:10Like, oh, the fruit and the water? We
59:12had a great watermelon the other day. It
59:14was full of water. Yeah, it was
59:16great. We still have more at home.
59:17It was so good.
59:18rubbing it in. We've had the best
59:20watermelon like ever.
59:21is like a deep deep red.
59:23Mhm. Chilled out of your fridge, and it
59:26like
59:27Well, they're especially appreciating
59:28because we got a watermelon last week
59:31that tasted like chemicals. We just
59:33threw it out. I don't know what was
59:34wrong with it. It was like fizzy.
59:36someone put sanitizer on it.
59:38was disgusting. So, the next day Steve
59:40tried to use one of his solar stills to
59:42purify the salt water. However, after
59:44every attempt, the water stung his mouth
59:47and forced him to dry heave. His solar
59:50stills, now, they were from the Second
59:53World War, and out of everyone he knew
59:55who had ever tried to use one, nobody
59:58could figure out how to use these
59:59[ __ ] things.
1:00:01Luckily, he realized that his small raft
1:00:03had become an island and had attracted
1:00:06small a small school of dorados, also
1:00:09known as mahi-mahi.
1:00:11Which is really interesting. He also
1:00:12talks in his interview about how he's
1:00:13seen
1:00:14these like ecosystems form even around
1:00:17things like trash and and light bulbs
1:00:19out in the ocean. So, they all kind of
1:00:21just congregated around him almost for
1:00:24He said for social reasons. Um, but that
1:00:27was another
1:00:29lucky break that he had that that
1:00:31actually happened for him. So, Steve
1:00:33tried to fish for dorados using the
1:00:34packed fishing line, but the fish kept
1:00:37breaking his line until he ran out of
1:00:39wire or anything else that he could use.
1:00:41And he did later reference how a little
1:00:43boy at one point pointed out that he
1:00:45could have used the wire inside the
1:00:48emergency light, and that was a thought
1:00:50that never occurred to him. Smart little
1:00:51dude, destined to be a Steve.
1:00:55Well, he would I think he he brought
1:00:57that up in the interview because the the
1:00:58interviewer asked him like, "Do you ever
1:01:00wish like you had other people out there
1:01:02with you?" Kind of like what we were
1:01:03talking about before. And he was he was
1:01:05saying like ultimately it was good
1:01:07because he only had to provide for
1:01:09himself, but there were things like that
1:01:11where
1:01:12thoughts just didn't even occur to him
1:01:15about the survival scenario. And and
1:01:17perhaps if someone else was there with
1:01:19him, they could have been like, "Oh
1:01:20yeah, man, we can just use the [ __ ]
1:01:21light.
1:01:21Yeah, just another person to brainstorm
1:01:23with and work through problems. That
1:01:25definitely would be helpful. So, he
1:01:27tried to spear the fish, but that didn't
1:01:29work so well because his aim either
1:01:31missed the fish or it was just able to
1:01:33tear away from the spear. So, he
1:01:35survived on only what he packed for
1:01:37several more days and a cup of water
1:01:39daily. And often he wouldn't even
1:01:41swallow the water. He would just let it
1:01:43sit in his mouth until his tongue
1:01:46absorbed the liquid.
1:01:48By the 13th day, he could feel his
1:01:50muscle and fat being broken down for
1:01:52energy. Imagine feeling that.
1:01:56Oh, that I mean, that's something we
1:01:57talked a lot with the um Andy's survival
1:02:00story.
1:02:01I had just never even thought about what
1:02:02that would actually feel like that your
1:02:03body just starts to eat itself. And he
1:02:06had spent the last few days starving
1:02:09staring at the fish, mainly Doritos and
1:02:12trigger fish that had come to his raft
1:02:14as a food source. And eventually, Steve
1:02:17actually said they became his only
1:02:18companions. And he sort of thought of
1:02:20them almost like dogs. At one point in
1:02:22that interview, he said they became sort
1:02:23of like
1:02:25I don't know if he said gods or
1:02:27something. They were
1:02:29He definitely No, he definitely He He
1:02:31spoke about like how spiritual it had
1:02:33become. Like, even to this day, he keeps
1:02:35a Doritos skeleton in his office. Yeah.
1:02:38Just because it was like they were They
1:02:39were everything to him. They were
1:02:41companions. They were food. Yeah.
1:02:43They were also enemies. Like, they they
1:02:45really did encompass the the full world.
1:02:47So, he did feel this kind of
1:02:48spirituality with them. Yeah. Yep.
1:02:52Yeah, it's pretty amazing to I I can see
1:02:54how you would get like that out there.
1:02:56With there there you are
1:02:58they're your only source of companion.
1:03:00However, even though they were
1:03:03you know, like his dogs, he still had
1:03:06only had 3 lb of food for the past week
1:03:08and a half. And just looking at the fish
1:03:10beneath him caused his stomach to twist
1:03:12with hunger.
1:03:14So, as he had previously done, he tried
1:03:15to spear one of the fish, and he
1:03:17expected to fail. However, this time he
1:03:19actually caught a small trigger fish and
1:03:21he was pretty surprised. He wrote, "Its
1:03:24eyes flash. Its fins frantically wave
1:03:27about. Its throat cracks, and it's
1:03:29finally dead. My eyes fill with tears. I
1:03:32weep for my fish, for me, for the state
1:03:35of my desperation. Then, I feed on its
1:03:38bitter meat."
1:03:40He's an incredible writer, too. So, he
1:03:42caught more fish, hanging them on one of
1:03:44his line pieces to cure the meat before
1:03:47eating it. And the other fish bounced at
1:03:49the bottom of his raft as if they were
1:03:51angry at him for catching the others.
1:03:54The next day he wrote, "Today things
1:03:56flow smoothly, but tomorrow's waves may
1:03:58break, crush my spirit, and wash away my
1:04:01dreams." And here's Steve talking about
1:04:04the importance of the dorado and how
1:04:06they came to view his raft. So, when did
1:04:08you start fishing? What did you
1:04:10immediately have access to fish or did
1:04:12it take some time before?
1:04:14It took a while. I mean, the really, you
1:04:16know, the core story of Adrift is is
1:04:18that I'm just kind of this this idiot
1:04:21clumsy human observer of this incredible
1:04:24environment that evolves and of which I
1:04:27am blessed to be a part of. Um and it's
1:04:29about my relationship with this
1:04:31environment and being a part of it, not
1:04:34a dominant part of it for sure, but a a
1:04:37small interactive part. And it's about
1:04:41the magic and the mystery of the of of
1:04:44this environment, which is really mostly
1:04:47symbolized through the dorado, a
1:04:49also called mahi-mahi in places and
1:04:52whatnot. They're fairly large fish
1:04:54that are found in temperate waters
1:04:56around the world. They're incredibly
1:04:58beautiful. Um I found incredibly smart,
1:05:01actually. Um I know that a lot of
1:05:04scientists in recent years have been
1:05:06discovering that fish are smart, and I
1:05:07like, "Well, haven't they talked to any
1:05:09fisherman in the last 2,000 years.
1:05:12Um
1:05:14The anyway, these fish started showing
1:05:15up within I think the third day or so.
1:05:18And eventually the school would form
1:05:21around the raft, follow it. I felt like
1:05:23they used it as a point of, you know,
1:05:25you're in this
1:05:26You're in this this, you know, the
1:05:28world's largest will you know
1:05:30desert, really. That but as far as
1:05:33they're you're all moving with the
1:05:35current, but as far as if you're if
1:05:37you're in that current, you know,
1:05:38everything is moving just like being
1:05:40everything on a moving sidewalk. You're
1:05:43you're kind of all going at the same
1:05:45speed, so it's like everything's sort of
1:05:46sitting still, but there are no
1:05:48signposts or anything out there. And I
1:05:50found that the dorado were social
1:05:52creatures.
1:05:54And I think and so they would come and
1:05:56gather around the raft and there'd
1:05:58become more and more and more of them.
1:06:00There were probably over 50 fish by the
1:06:01time I landed.
1:06:03So one night, just as night was
1:06:05beginning to fall and Steve was getting
1:06:07ready to sleep, he feels a tremendous
1:06:10blow to his back. And you guys will not
1:06:12believe what happened, what this was. He
1:06:15realized that his raft was just attacked
1:06:19by a shark.
1:06:21Just when you think this man can't go
1:06:23through anything worse. So he ran to the
1:06:25entrance of the raft with a spear in his
1:06:27hand and he was of course jabbing at the
1:06:29shark every time it lunged at his raft.
1:06:31And eventually super tired of all the
1:06:34spear hits, the shark did back off. But
1:06:36he really at that moment was like this
1:06:38is maybe maybe this is it. Maybe I'm
1:06:40done. It's It's so crazy to think that
1:06:42like also he just he fought a shark. I
1:06:46know.
1:06:47Just add that to the list. So gnarly. So
1:06:50gnarly. And all he had to do was stab
1:06:51it. I mean like a lot, but But he won.
1:06:54Right, he won. He won. Yeah. And I mean
1:06:57the shark I'm sure was just confused. If
1:07:00I had to guess
1:07:01what type of shark that hit him,
1:07:04I would guess a great white because
1:07:06great whites are attracted to things
1:07:08floating on the surface.
1:07:09And so it would make sense that a great
1:07:12white may have been swimming around it
1:07:14to see what's going on here. Is this
1:07:16potentially food?
1:07:17And started trying to I I'm honestly
1:07:20surprised that
1:07:22this shark didn't completely just shred
1:07:24this thing.
1:07:25Just completely shred it to try to
1:07:27figure out what's what's in it. But I
1:07:29think because Steve leaped into action
1:07:32so quickly
1:07:33and was like this defending his house
1:07:36his floating home
1:07:38and his life of course that that likely
1:07:41saved him not only him but his raft as
1:07:44well at the very you know very least.
1:07:46And
1:07:47but that that is
1:07:49got to be the scariest thing in the
1:07:50middle of the night. Imagine
1:07:52I wonder if there was a lot of moonlight
1:07:53this this night or not or if it was just
1:07:55pitch dark and you're getting walloped
1:07:58around by
1:07:59a big old beast underneath you.
1:08:01That is some scary [ __ ] that is. I
1:08:03wonder if he's got nightmares of that
1:08:05moment.
1:08:06Well yeah and if it's a great white as
1:08:07well like that's jaws man.
1:08:10That's the that's the scariest one.
1:08:11That's a big ass [ __ ] fish.
1:08:13It's a big fish man. Or or maybe it
1:08:16could have been some other type of shark
1:08:17as well. Although bull sharks usually
1:08:19would have started biting. They just
1:08:21bite
1:08:22they're like Pac-Man.
1:08:24Bull sharks are like Pac-Man. They're
1:08:25just
1:08:27they just bite everything cuz they're
1:08:28just amped. I've watched a lot of Shark
1:08:31Week if you haven't noticed but I
1:08:32believe that usually great whites when
1:08:35they find something they want to attack
1:08:36really far deep down and then they like
1:08:39turn around and fly up as quick as they
1:08:41can and like do like a sneak attack
1:08:43versus like kind of circling or like
1:08:46swimming around.
1:08:47That's if they're that's if that's after
1:08:48they check it out though. That's like
1:08:50when they go in for like a kill.
1:08:51Yeah. They'll they'll go deep. But so
1:08:53like I think it was just kind of
1:08:55swimming around it.
1:08:57Oh do they? To like knock the seals out
1:08:59of the water and stuff yeah.
1:09:00Yeah kind of.
1:09:02But like there's I was watching there's
1:09:03some recent videos of people who are,
1:09:06you know, people are just kayaking and
1:09:08they've had great white show up and
1:09:09great whites will just kind of swim
1:09:10around and kind of they will actually
1:09:12attack boats a lot of the time, boats
1:09:14that are floating. They will attack they
1:09:16they won't do the like, you know, they
1:09:18do that when they're going to like go
1:09:19for the kill. They'll go deep and then
1:09:22come upwards and like leap out of the
1:09:24water. But first they check out they
1:09:27make sure that what they're
1:09:29what's in front of them is actually food
1:09:31or or prey. And so they'll actually
1:09:33bite. Like I was just watching
1:09:35a video of somebody's boat fishing boat
1:09:37that was just being munched on by a
1:09:39great white. And just because it was
1:09:42just, you know, checking out what what
1:09:44it was and likely because there was they
1:09:46were fishing. So it was probably
1:09:47attracted to it. So my guess is, you
1:09:50know, if he's got fish, he's got fish
1:09:52parts, and I'm assuming that he's
1:09:55putting fish parts into the water
1:09:57outside when he's skinning you know,
1:09:59gutting the fish, things like that. So
1:10:01he's almost in a way kind of chumming
1:10:03the waters a little bit when he's
1:10:04preparing food. Maybe not the case for
1:10:07this particular incident, but my guess
1:10:09is that
1:10:10also there's all these fish hanging out
1:10:11with him that something came by hunting
1:10:14and was like, "Oh, what's this?" And
1:10:15then decided to make a move. And sharks
1:10:18like to hunt at night and late in the
1:10:20day, so
1:10:22likely was a shark. Absolutely
1:10:24terrifying. Yeah, to say the least. I
1:10:26don't know how you stay calm and whole
1:10:29in that moment. You're not just
1:10:31Oh my god, it's over.
1:10:33out. Let alone like fall out of the
1:10:36raft. How do you not fall out of the
1:10:38raft into the water?
1:10:40As he's trying to like spear this thing.
1:10:42Yeah. It's crazy.
1:10:43I know. That that part of this is just
1:10:46unbelievable. But just then, right after
1:10:49the shark attack incident, Steve looks
1:10:51out into the black water and he realized
1:10:53something else. He had finally slipped
1:10:56into the shipping lane and a massive
1:10:58cargo ship was in sight. Like
1:11:01I mean, of course, he's thinking, "Holy
1:11:03[ __ ] this is a miracle. I just survived
1:11:04a shark attack and now there's a ship
1:11:07right ahead of me." So, he lit one of
1:11:09his flares and shouted up to the vessel.
1:11:11Obviously, it's far away and can't hear
1:11:12him.
1:11:13Um and
1:11:15this massive ship didn't see him in the
1:11:16darkness, but he remembered a quote from
1:11:20Dougal Robertson that says rescue will
1:11:22always come as a welcome interruption of
1:11:25the survival voyage.
1:11:27So, he was really hoping
1:11:29that yeah, they were going to stop for
1:11:31him and I I mean, I've seen in the
1:11:33reenactments he like drank all his water
1:11:35and was celebrating. I don't know if
1:11:37that's actually true.
1:11:38doesn't mention that in the book at
1:11:40least. Um that seemed like a little
1:11:42theatrical.
1:11:42pours it on his face.
1:11:44Yeah, which when I saw that I was like,
1:11:45"No!"
1:11:47Yeah. Yeah, but yeah, they just went
1:11:49right past him. Imagine how that would
1:11:51feel. And that wasn't the only time,
1:11:53dude. This was one of nine ships that
1:11:55Steve would come in contact with dur-
1:11:57during his voyage. And if he was going
1:11:58to survive, he he knew it at this point
1:12:00he was going to have to do it on his
1:12:01own. People were not going to see him.
1:12:03He's too small. It's too dark. For the
1:12:05next few days, Steve cut apart one of
1:12:07his solar stills to figure out how it
1:12:09worked, which is smart. You know, he's
1:12:10like I got the backup, so I might as
1:12:12well I need this to work or I die. So,
1:12:15let me cut it open, kind of figure out
1:12:16how this thing works.
1:12:18And uh you know, he can't he's got fish,
1:12:21but if he doesn't have water, he's not
1:12:22going to live very long.
1:12:24He would later say that the ocean is the
1:12:25world's largest desert with water
1:12:27everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
1:12:29What that's just like so bizarre to
1:12:32think about. Like yeah, that's
1:12:33absolutely true. It is the world's
1:12:34largest desert. Can't drink the damn
1:12:36salt water.
1:12:38However, he soon learned that the secret
1:12:39is keeping the balloon on this solar
1:12:41still inflated just the right pressure
1:12:43to allow water to build up inside. And
1:12:46then I assume the water kind of runs
1:12:48down and like condenses. So, if you're
1:12:49not familiar with the solar still, you
1:12:51put the sea water in and then basically,
1:12:53you put it in the sun, and the sun
1:12:54evaporates the water out of the salt,
1:12:56leaving the salt behind. And then that
1:12:58distilled water kind of flows down the
1:13:00sides of this sort of
1:13:02uh balloon
1:13:04uh type type thing into like a bag where
1:13:06it collects into uh fresh water.
1:13:09Uh and once he had that figured out,
1:13:11Steve could produce a pint of water
1:13:12daily. And with this, Steve finally felt
1:13:14like, "You know what? Maybe I got a
1:13:16chance. Maybe I could be out here for a
1:13:18while and be okay."
1:13:20He even placed a plastic container on
1:13:22the raft to collect rainwater, cuz I
1:13:24think we all would probably do that, try
1:13:25to find something to collect rainwater.
1:13:27Yeah. But Steve still had some
1:13:29challenges. The launching mechanism in
1:13:31his spear gun had broken, and he had to
1:13:34use it like a small pike to collect
1:13:36fish. So he's just kind of like stabbing
1:13:37it down into the water. And sometimes
1:13:39the dried fish would go rancid, and he
1:13:41still ran into numerous storms that
1:13:43toppled the raft, though he remained in
1:13:45sight. So he's getting tossed around.
1:13:47Yeah. Steve said that he had separated
1:13:49his personality into three distinct
1:13:50parts. One being the captain, another
1:13:53one being the crewman,
1:13:55and the third one being his emotional
1:13:57side. Can't even wrap my mind around how
1:13:59you would do that. And you just I guess
1:14:02have to have to do that at some point.
1:14:04Spend enough time alone, and
1:14:05Yeah. Wow. and you got nothing else, you
1:14:07start
1:14:09start separating your personality.
1:14:11parts of yourself to uh
1:14:13It's wild. It's wild to think about. So
1:14:15kind of how this would play out is his
1:14:17emotional side would recognize, you
1:14:19know, the dire situation that he's in,
1:14:21and the fact that he's probably not
1:14:22going to survive, but then the captain
1:14:23would snap him out of it, and the
1:14:25crewman would do what the captain said.
1:14:28Yeah. So interesting. And according to
1:14:31Steve, only 15% of people can split
1:14:33their personalities in a way necessary
1:14:35for an extreme long-term survival
1:14:37scenario. And for the most part, even if
1:14:39people can survive initially, they
1:14:41eventually freeze up. That's me.
1:14:44Okay. He also said that this part of his
1:14:47survival story was learning to live like
1:14:49an aquatic caveman, relying only on his
1:14:52shelter and what he could scavenge for
1:14:54his survival. Yeah.
1:14:56He also noticed a strange yin and yang
1:14:57while out at sea. On days when the winds
1:14:59barely moved him, he could catch fish
1:15:02and purify water. On stormy days he went
1:15:04faster, but he couldn't fish. He also
1:15:07couldn't help but notice the strange
1:15:08connection to the beautiful landscape
1:15:09that was all around him. And after
1:15:11watching the bioluminescence reflect the
1:15:14water around him with the dorados
1:15:16trailing the green light as he circled
1:15:18his raft, he said he had a view of
1:15:20heaven from a seat in hell. That's the
1:15:22best [ __ ] line.
1:15:24such a great quote.
1:15:26And yeah, if you've never I'm sure
1:15:28you've at least seen bioluminescence on
1:15:31online or something or a video of it. If
1:15:32you haven't, definitely look it up. It's
1:15:35it's so cool and he describes kind of
1:15:38putting his hands in the water and
1:15:39creating small galaxies by like swirling
1:15:42the bioluminescence around and it just
1:15:44sounds absolutely beautiful. I'm sure
1:15:45Tom will put in some great
1:15:48overlay footage of it, but
1:15:50I mean, nothing nothing really does it
1:15:52justice as well as it would being out
1:15:55there the way that he was alone with no
1:15:58light to
1:15:59The stars out there would have been
1:16:01insane.
1:16:02Yeah, really a view of heaven from a
1:16:04seat in hell.
1:16:06That's the best line. Again, that's what
1:16:08I kept saying to Max as we were looking
1:16:09at the concrete [ __ ] side of the
1:16:11lake. Yep, you that's exactly where you
1:16:13were.
1:16:14Hell. Well, yes, heaven. But a view of
1:16:16heaven. A view of heaven. That's right.
1:16:18The algae water. The algae waters 15 mi
1:16:21outside of Greeley or something. Yeah.
1:16:23Well, when you got those beers, anything
1:16:25can be heaven. I mean, that I found my
1:16:27beat. That's what I did with those
1:16:28beers. Mhm. That's right. That's right.
1:16:33But still, the next few months went by
1:16:35without incident. Steve's family alerted
1:16:37the American, Caribbean, and English
1:16:39officials that he was missing after day
1:16:4140 since he hadn't returned within his
1:16:43one-month timeframe. But still, Steve
1:16:45had no clue that anybody was looking for
1:16:47him. He's just trying to survive. On day
1:16:5042, a dorado had pulled the spear tip
1:16:53from his gun and swam away. What a
1:16:55moment that must have been.
1:16:57Oh.
1:16:58What a way to fish.
1:16:59is nuts. Gone. So then he's like, well,
1:17:02I've got this utility knife, so let's,
1:17:04you know, I'll put fasten that to the
1:17:06end and use that.
1:17:07And this worked for a few catches, but
1:17:09then the knife got caught in one fish
1:17:11and that fish tore it away. What's even
1:17:13worse is that this knife dorado then
1:17:15swam underneath the raft and punctured a
1:17:18hole through its base layer.
1:17:20God, that was suck.
1:17:21This part is like
1:17:23I think possibly the worst part of the
1:17:24whole thing. I don't know how he kept
1:17:26going after this. Like, what are the
1:17:27chances that happened?
1:17:29Spear gun.
1:17:29Spears the dorado. Puts the knife on.
1:17:31Mhm. Knife taken by the dorado. Then the
1:17:34dorado swims into the raft.
1:17:35he's pissed cuz he's like, oh [ __ ] now
1:17:37I have no way to fish. I haven't no
1:17:39spear gun. But then yeah, it cuts open
1:17:41the bottom and then he he's describing
1:17:43the sound of it, too. Like the the air
1:17:45all leaving and the bubbles in the water
1:17:47and Oh my god.
1:17:49oh my god. Hit after hit. I don't know
1:17:51how he kept going. I think I would just
1:17:54seriously lay down and and just be like,
1:17:56well,
1:17:56for a bit.
1:17:57Yeah, he did talk about how he did at
1:17:59one point, but he had the will to get
1:18:01up.
1:18:02I don't think I would, dude. How about a
1:18:03few sips of water? Yeah, that.
1:18:06Yeah. I bet that got him drunkish
1:18:08feeling.
1:18:10Yeah, my god. Mhm. Just getting a little
1:18:13moisture in there.
1:18:16Well, Steve, he's like, if I don't fix
1:18:18this,
1:18:19I'm just this is the end. Yeah. I'm not
1:18:22I'm not going to come back from this.
1:18:23This is the most critical part of my
1:18:25survival. So he quickly tried to plug
1:18:28the hole, but nothing stopped the air
1:18:29from coming out. And while the raft
1:18:31wasn't fully submerged and the inside
1:18:33remained dry, Steve didn't have any
1:18:35solid ground to spear to still water
1:18:37even move. So, it's like there's this
1:18:40bottom kind of ring underneath the raft
1:18:42and then there's the ring that he
1:18:43actually sits on.
1:18:44Picture like two donuts on each other
1:18:46sort of.
1:18:46Yeah. If you're if you're listening and
1:18:48you can't see a picture.
1:18:49So, imagine kind of having a stable
1:18:51platform and then all of a sudden you're
1:18:52on a water bed. Yeah. In the ocean.
1:18:55He couldn't he couldn't do anything
1:18:56anymore. And if you ever had a water bed
1:18:59Which you have. Which I had a water bed.
1:19:02As a teenager.
1:19:03do much. You can do a lot. Nah. But
1:19:08But
1:19:09fishing
1:19:11and Yeah. you know
1:19:13non-recreational activities that the
1:19:16essential activities are not that fun.
1:19:18Yeah. Because you're just like moving
1:19:19around and then when even when you
1:19:21in a water bed you're in a home. You can
1:19:23fall off and land on the carpet. In his
1:19:25situation like he's screwed if he yeah,
1:19:28it's just bad bad bad bad bad. Yeah.
1:19:31But that would be that would have been
1:19:32wild. Yeah, it's just uneven. You're
1:19:34like
1:19:35can't even like really like
1:19:37you know, use your knees to walk around
1:19:38anymore cuz you're just like
1:19:41No, you can't do [ __ ] Can't fish. And
1:19:44I'm like how did he not just fall out of
1:19:45this thing at this point?
1:19:46know, dude. Steve's just such a G. It's
1:19:49amazing.
1:19:50the best balance. Yeah. His balance is
1:19:52unmatched.
1:19:52Meanwhile though his leg muscles are
1:19:55slowly deteriorating.
1:19:56right.
1:19:57Yep. So, it's not even like
1:19:58He's like worming around.
1:19:59Yeah.
1:20:01It's like special cat
1:20:03crawling? Like
1:20:04Yeah.
1:20:06Yeah, cuz he can't stand up.
1:20:08No.
1:20:09Can't use your legs really.
1:20:12You haven't eaten a proper meal in
1:20:14[ __ ] months.
1:20:16I know. So, for the next 10 days Steve
1:20:19is trying to patch this hole. He
1:20:20absolutely has to get it patched and he
1:20:22tried wire, he tried supplies from his
1:20:25patch kit, even a cork, but nothing
1:20:27would hold. And air would immediately
1:20:30gush out the moment he tried to inflate
1:20:32the the
1:20:33bottom base layer. Steve was completely
1:20:36dejected by the 53rd day. He was unable
1:20:39to fish, he's unable to collect water.
1:20:41He wrote, "The night I lost Solo, and
1:20:43again last evening, there seemed no
1:20:46escape from death." And I can definitely
1:20:49see how he would feel like that.
1:20:51Finally, he remembered another tool that
1:20:53he hadn't used throughout his survival,
1:20:56a fork.
1:20:57You might be wondering, how would you
1:20:58possibly use a fork for this situation?
1:21:01Well, he realized that if he could make
1:21:02the hole slightly larger using a fork,
1:21:05then he would be able to use wire to
1:21:07tighten the fabric around the patch. And
1:21:10finally, this patch actually worked.
1:21:13It's absolutely incredible, and he was
1:21:15able to inflate the raft once again.
1:21:18And while Steve once again felt like he
1:21:20had conquered death, he knew the rest of
1:21:21the voyage would be a struggle. He
1:21:23wrote, "Even if the patch fails, I can
1:21:26make a replacement rapidly. My position
1:21:28is still about 3 weeks away from the
1:21:31islands. My body has reached a new low
1:21:33with no chance to recover and no hope of
1:21:36coping with another major disaster. From
1:21:39here on, it will be a full-time struggle
1:21:41to hang on to, but not break the thread
1:21:44that connects me to my world." And there
1:21:47was another issue. Steve's solar stills
1:21:50had become useless. Basically, the
1:21:52fabric had been all torn apart,
1:21:54disintegrated. I mean, they're only
1:21:55designed to work for a couple of months
1:21:57or something like that, right?
1:21:58I believe um he was saying each of them
1:22:01only were rated for about 10 days or so.
1:22:04His lasted pretty long. His lasted
1:22:06pretty long, all things considered, but
1:22:08you know, still it's like he gets to day
1:22:1060 or wherever he's at now, and it's
1:22:12like, "Fuck, they're done." Dude, it
1:22:13sucks that he cut up I mean, I see why
1:22:16he had to cut it up in the first place
1:22:17to understand how they work to some
1:22:19degree, but
1:22:21damn, I wish he he didn't do that. I'm
1:22:23sure he was really regretting that. And
1:22:24at first, he tried to collect rainwater
1:22:26that had rolled off of the raft's
1:22:28canopy, but he soon learned that the
1:22:30orange dye that was used on the raft
1:22:32tainted the water and it was absolutely
1:22:34disgusting. So, instead, he used
1:22:36inflatable parts um of his still to
1:22:39collect rainwater. Now, while this was
1:22:41effective, he still was collecting far
1:22:44less water than he had been in the past.
1:22:47Plus, his spear had been destroyed again
1:22:49during that fight with the dorado, which
1:22:51had torn his raft. And while he had
1:22:54fashioned a butter knife to the end,
1:22:56getting the speared fish to stay on the
1:22:58knife's edge was
1:22:59obviously far more difficult.
1:23:02So, the trade winds that he had relied
1:23:03on for his slow movement were becoming
1:23:06unreliable. And he had sort of blown in
1:23:09a circle for 24 hours, and he could no
1:23:11longer understand where he was located.
1:23:14So, at this point, he just
1:23:16I mean, is really like starting to give
1:23:18up. This is just he doesn't know if he
1:23:20can he can do it. He actually started
1:23:22feeling like a Flying Dutchman trapped
1:23:24in an endless purgatory. And he was
1:23:26unsure at this point if he had already
1:23:28died and this was the afterlife. I could
1:23:30so see how you would be there. I feel
1:23:32like I would be there on like day
1:23:35one.
1:23:36To be honest, like
1:23:38it's just uh
1:23:40And finally, on the 65th day, Steve saw
1:23:42the webbed feet of a bird resting on his
1:23:44canopy. Not only could this be a new
1:23:46food source, but it also indicated that
1:23:48he was getting close to land. So, Steve,
1:23:52like the badass he is, just shoots his
1:23:54hand out of the raft and [ __ ] catches
1:23:57this bird.
1:23:58Can't even imagine. And then, he ate it
1:24:00as a welcome break from all the fish.
1:24:02And in the following days, he did it
1:24:04again. He'd repeat this process catching
1:24:06and eating another bird. At this point,
1:24:08Steve is running out of survival
1:24:10supplies. He no longer had a back stock
1:24:12of food and water, and he knew that he
1:24:14would not survive more than 20 days more
1:24:16at sea.
1:24:17He began to have barely lucid
1:24:19conversations with himself, yelling,
1:24:21"More water, Captain. We must have
1:24:23more." and shouting back, "No, no. Well,
1:24:25maybe no. You can't have any, not a
1:24:28drop."
1:24:29Steve was losing his mind, and he felt
1:24:31like he was coming to an end.
1:24:33Luckily, there were signs of coming
1:24:35landfall, and on day 70, he began to
1:24:37notice new fish were following the raft,
1:24:39larger ones that live closer to
1:24:40civilization. Then he saw trash that had
1:24:42to be orbiting some kind of land or had
1:24:45been thrown from a nearby fishing boat.
1:24:47Then as he got ready to sleep on the
1:24:4875th night, he saw the unmistakable
1:24:50pulse of a lighthouse in the distance.
1:24:53The next day, April 21st, Steve saw
1:24:55green for the first time in over 2
1:24:56months.
1:24:57He was rapidly approaching an island,
1:24:59one with buildings, trees,
1:25:01and life.
1:25:03But there was another problem. He knew
1:25:05that if he didn't slow down, he's going
1:25:07to crash right into that reef on that
1:25:09island. Without any strength left to
1:25:11swim, he would drown before he made it
1:25:13onto the land, which would be a horrible
1:25:15way to go after surviving on this raft
1:25:18for all these days to then crash into a
1:25:20reef and drown. It'd be terrible.
1:25:23But luckily, just as he tried to slow
1:25:25his approach, two fishermen came up to
1:25:27him.
1:25:28While he did not speak their language of
1:25:29Creole and could not explain a
1:25:31situation, he pointed to the fish that
1:25:33had been circling his raft, and the men
1:25:35caught a few before they brought Steve
1:25:37on board.
1:25:38The men brought him on shore to the
1:25:40island of Marie-Galante, and Steve said,
1:25:42quote, "The perfume of flowers and grass
1:25:44blows off the island and laughs in my
1:25:46nostrils. I feel as if I'm seeing
1:25:48colors, hearing sounds, and smelling
1:25:49land for the very first time."
1:25:52Dude, can you like think about what that
1:25:54would be like? There's part of me that
1:25:56wants to experience that so bad that I'm
1:25:57like, maybe. It's like a psychedelic
1:25:59experience.
1:26:00Yeah. Yeah, but like it has to be so
1:26:02much better than that.
1:26:03Yeah. Cuz you're sober and also
1:26:05experiencing that.
1:26:06God, it's so insane. But after 76
1:26:10days out there on the open ocean all by
1:26:12himself, Steve
1:26:15had finally been rescued.
1:26:17Steven Callahan, what
1:26:19what a guy. I know.
1:26:21Some great picture of
1:26:23him with the fishermen that rescued him.
1:26:25so glad. Yeah, what did he He said
1:26:27actually when they first rolled up on
1:26:29him, they said something along the lines
1:26:31of like, "What are you doing out here,
1:26:32man?" Right. They like they they
1:26:34couldn't understand each other. Like he
1:26:36also didn't recognize He didn't He
1:26:37didn't know what like Creole was. So, he
1:26:39was like, "This kind of sounds French.
1:26:41This like what is this?"
1:26:43Um but the only reason they ultimately
1:26:45let him on the raft was just cuz he was
1:26:47like, "Look at all these fish." And then
1:26:48they fished and then he got on. And then
1:26:50eventually they learned like, "Oh, [ __ ]
1:26:52You were out there for 76 days. That's
1:26:54crazy."
1:26:55he I mean cuz he kind of didn't look
1:26:57like it had been that long. It's
1:26:58honestly really impressive when you I
1:27:00mean he certainly looks
1:27:02like it's been some time, but like what
1:27:04I don't know, 76 days? Yeah, that
1:27:07picture's amazing. Look at that. Wow.
1:27:09Thank god he had you know
1:27:12cover I know from the sun. Dude,
1:27:15seriously. Cuz if he had not had any
1:27:19coverage Yep. how toasted you'd be. He
1:27:23honestly looked better than Tom Hanks
1:27:24did in Cast Away. Yeah. Maybe that was
1:27:26over dramatic. But yeah, miraculously
1:27:29Steve had only lost 1/3 of his body
1:27:31weight, which was very impressive
1:27:34considering he was
1:27:36out there the last 76 days only eating
1:27:38fish and it sounds like two birds maybe,
1:27:41couple birds.
1:27:42So, he was back on his feet after all
1:27:45this, just took a couple weeks to rest
1:27:48and then he was back in action. So
1:27:50impressive. And what's even more
1:27:52impressive is that Steve had only landed
1:27:5510 miles away from his estimated
1:27:57destination, which just shows you what a
1:28:00talented navigator he had been
1:28:03just using a homemade sextant and
1:28:05emergency maps. He's like using a little
1:28:07pencil. It's just
1:28:09I don't know how he did it. I don't know
1:28:10how he did any of this. It's unreal. So,
1:28:13Steve ended up getting remarried, had a
1:28:15nice happy ending. Um he got married to
1:28:17Kathy Massimini, and the two continued
1:28:21to build boats together to live on them,
1:28:23and of course sail them.
1:28:25And he wrote a book, Adrift: 76 Days
1:28:28Lost at Sea. I definitely want to check
1:28:30that one out. And um that was written
1:28:33from his notebook with uh dozens of
1:28:36illustrations from his journey. And the
1:28:39book, obviously,
1:28:41was instantly successful, and
1:28:43immediately shot to the top of the New
1:28:45York Times bestsellers list. And he
1:28:48completed at least four more cross-ocean
1:28:51journeys and became one of the most
1:28:52foremost ship designers in the United
1:28:54States.
1:28:56Just
1:28:56so, so impressive. And he also designed
1:28:59a dynamic rescue raft that would have
1:29:01reduced his 1,800 mile journey to just
1:29:04450.
1:29:06So, maybe pick up his raft if you have a
1:29:07boat.
1:29:08And he also, this is really cool, fun
1:29:10fact here, he also worked on the Ang Lee
1:29:13film Life The Life of Pi, which Josh and
1:29:16I have never seen, surprisingly.
1:29:17No, it won a bunch of awards, too. Yeah,
1:29:19it's I remember when that movie came
1:29:20out. It was a big deal. What was that?
1:29:21That came out in like I think it was
1:29:232010.
1:29:24in high school. I was going to say yeah,
1:29:26I was in high school then.
1:29:26book.
1:29:27And it features scenes that are inspired
1:29:28by Steve's experiences, like the
1:29:30importance of the Dorito and the
1:29:33bioluminescence at sea. But
1:29:35unfortunately, do have a little bit of
1:29:37sad news. In 2012, he was diagnosed with
1:29:40leukemia, um and his sailing has slowed
1:29:43down since his diagnosis, but he still
1:29:45sails whenever he gets the chance, and
1:29:48we certainly wish him the best. Um and
1:29:52speaking to Cruising Cruising World,
1:29:53Steve said, "Anything worth doing is not
1:29:57going to be easy. While we want to have
1:29:59fun in our lives, fulfillment is what we
1:30:01are all really after. I still don't
1:30:04regret my 76 days alone in the raft. To
1:30:07this day, I feel enlightened by what I
1:30:08went through because it changed me for
1:30:11the better." So powerful words. I can
1:30:13see how it would um
1:30:15yeah, completely change your outlook on
1:30:17life and the way you you continue to
1:30:18live and I know the um survivors of the
1:30:22the Andes, the ones that are still
1:30:23alive, had very similar
1:30:25sentiments at the end of of everything
1:30:27and it's
1:30:28Yeah.
1:30:29to this day, all that time later, they
1:30:30still kind of live life differently and
1:30:32see the world differently.
1:30:34Well, they all they all
1:30:36make the similar comments of
1:30:39I had no idea how resilient
1:30:42I really was. You know, and then
1:30:45in those they're just they surprise
1:30:47themselves.
1:30:48Which fills me with a lot of hope. Yeah.
1:30:51That despite whatever challenges we face
1:30:54Mhm. as a species, that we're all
1:30:56capable of this kind of resilience.
1:30:58Whatever whatever complex situations or
1:31:01So you're saying if the apocalypse hits,
1:31:03Yeah.
1:31:03World War III,
1:31:04Yeah, I'm just saying I think you know,
1:31:06I think we'll be okay. I think I think
1:31:08we'll
1:31:08Maybe we will.
1:31:10We we have the ability to
1:31:13survive. And maybe all of us here who
1:31:15keep dogging on ourselves saying we
1:31:17wouldn't be able to other than Josh who
1:31:18thinks he can do anything. And you
1:31:20probably could.
1:31:21But the three of us, maybe we have more
1:31:23in us than we even know.
1:31:25I believe in all of you. Do you
1:31:27you all could do it. Who do you believe
1:31:29in the most? Yeah, out of the three of
1:31:30us, who do you think would survive?
1:31:32Rank us.
1:31:33I was a boy scout and I'll make that
1:31:35just before just to put that into
1:31:37consideration. He's not even mean.
1:31:39He had to get He had to get rescued off
1:31:41the raft.
1:31:41situation,
1:31:44I did have to get Ian definitely has
1:31:46Well, actually, you know what? I'm going
1:31:47to knock him down a few notches after
1:31:49the raft.
1:31:49That's what I'm just That's what I He
1:31:51just got rescued.
1:31:51Actually, Ian Ian Ian goes cuz I feel
1:31:54like Kendall or Janelle would have
1:31:56either swam to shore
1:31:58or figured out how to paddle back.
1:32:02And I'm sorry, Ian. You're at the
1:32:03bottom. Dude, that is so unfair.
1:32:05Actually, I completely disagree with
1:32:07that cuz Janelle and I have learned
1:32:08absolutely zero survival skills.
1:32:11might have swam. Might have swam. See, I
1:32:13would have swam if it wasn't for my
1:32:15unfortunate skin infection. Yeah, he
1:32:17would have. And your Carhartt? Well,
1:32:20yes, I had
1:32:21I was wearing denim shorts, so that
1:32:23would have made a That's wild. If the
1:32:26infection got worse and he died, he made
1:32:27a smart decision. It was not the kind of
1:32:29infection that could have killed you. I
1:32:31will say nothing else about it, but
1:32:34This is a temporary thing? I still I'd
1:32:36put my money on Ian out of the three of
1:32:38us.
1:32:40Yeah, but in like a true survival, I
1:32:42think Ian probably has a leg up on both
1:32:44of
1:32:44You you two don't have a lot of outdoor
1:32:47That's what I'm saying. I was a girl
1:32:48scout for like a moment and I learned
1:32:50nothing. I didn't pay attention to jack
1:32:52[ __ ] I can't even I can't start a fire.
1:32:54The only thing I do know about survival
1:32:56is that aspen trees have like sunscreen
1:32:58on them that you can rub on your face.
1:32:59That's cool. I didn't know that.
1:33:01I love that fact.
1:33:03It's a natural sunscreen.
1:33:06That's awesome. That's all I got though.
1:33:08Hey, I'm a good problem solver. You are
1:33:10You know what, Janelle? Yes. Out of the
1:33:12two of us you're
1:33:13Yeah, you have great problem-solving
1:33:14skills. So, maybe you would maybe you
1:33:17would put that to use and start figuring
1:33:18putting two and two together.
1:33:20Right. Maybe the three of us could
1:33:21survive together if we put our brains
1:33:23together. I I think my biggest skill is
1:33:26that I'm just like is whatever, brother.
1:33:29That's that is You would You would bring
1:33:30the chill. You would be so annoyed with
1:33:32Kenna and I because we are not whatever
1:33:34brother type of people. We are like
1:33:36freak out at all times. Like [ __ ]
1:33:38[ __ ] brother, we're going to die. You'd
1:33:40be like, "Chill." You'd be like, "No,
1:33:42Ian."
1:33:43We Ian, if we were all four of us were
1:33:45in a survival situation, like most of
1:33:47our energy would be spent like just
1:33:49doing therapy for these two. Yeah. And
1:33:51like calming their anxiety down and be
1:33:53like, "It's going to be okay." And
1:33:55they'll going to "No, it's not going to
1:33:57be okay. Tell me why it's going to be
1:33:59okay." And then we And then doesn't
1:34:00matter what we tell them, no logical,
1:34:03rational answer will
1:34:04If I have Xanax with me, I'd be fine.
1:34:07Yeah, but I need my Xanax.
1:34:08Prescribed by a doctor? Yeah, okay,
1:34:10thank you. It's prescribed.
1:34:11medication.
1:34:12We're bringing the prescriptions on the
1:34:14[ __ ] raft.
1:34:15The plane Actually, our ditch kit, yeah,
1:34:17we could put that in our ditch kit.
1:34:19Yeah.
1:34:19We would need that. Yeah.
1:34:21What, a 76-day supply?
1:34:24We'd have to ration.
1:34:253 months? 3 months' worth?
1:34:27them
1:34:28six a day. A weed vape. Okay.
1:34:31that could help.
1:34:32Mhm. Um
1:34:33Beer. Beer.
1:34:35Yeah, got to have the Benjamin Franklin,
1:34:36for sure. Um I'm not a big beer drinker,
1:34:39but you know what? Any fluids. Any
1:34:42you'd be drinking.
1:34:43If it's hot out.
1:34:44Mhm. Mhm.
1:34:45Beer. Honestly,
1:34:46My My air may not taste good.
1:34:47If we add How hot it is. If we add Tom
1:34:50to this group, then I would feel
1:34:52really good.
1:34:53The full mile hike would be worth it. We
1:34:54could survive.
1:34:56indefinitely. Yeah, Tom Tom is a genius.
1:34:58"You idiots. You could do this." Like he
1:35:01would think like Steve.
1:35:02Yeah, Tom I have like 100% confidence in
1:35:05him.
1:35:06say something right now. I'll probably
1:35:07put something on screen, but
1:35:08Yeah, he probably will. He'd be like,
1:35:11"These dummies would die in 2 days."
1:35:15Uh I still feel like if I was Steve
1:35:16though, and like after some of the
1:35:18things he went through, I think I'd just
1:35:19be like, "Well,
1:35:21let me just hop in the water and and
1:35:23just float until I don't float anymore."
1:35:25The but your brain's going to tell you
1:35:27no, because you Your brain's going to be
1:35:29like,
1:35:30"Drowning sucks. Drowning is not fun."
1:35:32Isn't it like impossible to drown?
1:35:33can't. Drowning is probably the horrible
1:35:35way to die.
1:35:36Yeah.
1:35:37Damn. So, you would be forced to
1:35:39survive.
1:35:40Well, on that note, ladies and
1:35:42gentlemen,
1:35:43it's time for us to bounce. You How
1:35:45about out there, you tell us. Yeah.
1:35:48How many days could you survive adrift?
1:35:51And what would your main things that you
1:35:52need be? What would be in your ditch
1:35:54kit?
1:35:55What like what percentage of faith do
1:35:57you have in yourself? And would you
1:35:58rather be out on a raft or
1:36:01out in a
1:36:03What? Half a fuselage in the Andes
1:36:05mountains eating bodies. Which one
1:36:07sounds better to you? And maybe we'll do
1:36:10some more survival stories soon. I love
1:36:11these. They're so it's like so good for
1:36:13my mental health to hear of positive
1:36:16stories. We are getting back into true
1:36:17crime next week which I We cover a lot
1:36:19of of death. Yeah, it's it's tough
1:36:21sometimes. Which is hard so it's
1:36:24Nice to have a little break a little
1:36:25Yeah, balance it out with with
1:36:26surviving. Surviving what seems like
1:36:30sure death. So I can you know for at
1:36:32least a couple weeks tell myself I just
1:36:34need to not complain and then I forget
1:36:35about it and go back to complaining.
1:36:38But if you yeah enjoyed this episode
1:36:40make sure you follow subscribe wherever
1:36:41you listen or watch
1:36:43cuz if you're watching you're on YouTube
1:36:44but we appreciate all of you. We'll see
1:36:45you guys next week. Until then take
1:36:48care.
1:36:48taking on mile higher.
1:36:50Say yeah.
1:36:57Say yeah.

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