Man at sea survived for a month on ketchup and garlic powder
When my dear FavorFlav colleague Sharon wrote an ode to garlic powder, I had no idea it could actually save your life. Better stock up quickly, then, because you never know if it might come in handy someday. Although I do wonder whether 47-year-old Elvis Francois will ever willingly eat it again. He ate nothing else for a month, apart from ketchup, when he was drifting lost at sea.
That really is my biggest nightmare: drifting alone on the open ocean. Absolutely terrifying. Francois was working on his boat when the current suddenly changed and swept him out to sea. He was still able to let his friends know what was happening, but soon he lost reception.
Drifting at sea for 24 days
‘I called my friends, they tried to reach me, but I no longer had reception. All I could do was sit and wait,’ Elvis Francois told The Associated Press. Imagine that happening to you: 24 days without food, not knowing whether you will survive at all. Francois was not prepared for a long journey; after all, he only wanted to do some work on his boat. So his supplies were far from ideal.
After thoroughly searching his boat, he found a bottle of ketchup and some garlic powder. By rationing them very carefully, he avoided starving, and he collected rainwater with a cloth so he could stay hydrated. Remarkably, a pilot eventually spotted his board with ‘help’ written on it and raised the alarm. Apart from his weight loss, he arrived in the port of Cartagena in reasonably good health and was soon allowed to return home to the Dominican Republic. But these two products will probably haunt his nightmares for a long time to come.
This man was lost at sea for 24 days. He survived on ketchup, seasoning, and rainwater. pic.twitter.com/ldGgdD778i
— DW News (@dwnews) January 21, 2023
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Image: The Associated Press
