If you have ever watched the movie, Cast Away, you would know that how Tom Hank spent long time on a deserted island. Here is a similar story about Adam Jones, who spent almost 9 years being trapped on a deserted island, but with the help of Google Earth, he was rescued recently! Here is how he spent 9 years there!
The Voyage
Adam Jones set off for a journey in 2006, along with his 2 friends, starting from Liverpool, their home, to Hawaii. In between they had to cross Atlantic Ocean and the Panama Canal. As they reached in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a monstrous storm struck their boat violently, and damaged it along with their electronic equipment. His friends went overboard while Adam was knocked by the storm unconscious for about 17 days, and he kept drifting in the ocean.
Surviving the days in the beginning!
Adam spent 2 weeks on his boat but he built on his own the water trapping contrivance on it, and this way he saved a lot of water whenever it rained. At first he built a makeshift shelter out of boat debris, but it was collapsed and then he made a solid shelter. Using a clam shell, he brought a tree down in the span of 11 weeks. He somehow learnt how to make fire, and hence light in the dark!
Hunting for food!
Adam obviously had to hunt animals on the island for his survival, and he also found 8 wild goats there, but he couldn’t hunt them without any weapon. He tried to hunt them with his own made bow and arrow, but in vain. Fortunately he found a goat trapped in the bushes. After somehow killing it, he got 50 kg of meat from it.
He worked for his physical fitness!
Adam told that in order to stay fit, he used to do exercise daily on the beach, including push-ups, chin-ups using a tree branch, and he did squats having boulders over his shoulders. Also, he ran every day for about 300 meter on the beach.
The frustration and feeling of being lonely!
Adam said that the most difficult part of his survival was his fight with his brain. The feeling of being lonely, and the depression he felt whenever he thought that nobody would ever come to help, almost made him dead from inside. At first he made an SOS sign about 10 feet high, but no one came there. Then he decided to empty a large area on the beach and wrote there “SOS”. He always hoped that someday, some aircraft would fly form here and will see this sign and he will eventually be rescued. He couldn’t do anything except to have a strong hope and to never give up.
And there came the rescue team! FINALLY!
One day Adam heard loud noise of planes flying over him, he ran in the empty area and waved them, luckily they saw him and dropped a packet for Adam. The packet had a radio, fresh water, food, and some first-aid items in it. As he turned the radio on to talk to the pilot, he felt extremely happy to hear human voice after 9 years. He asked them how they reached there, they told him that a child living in Minnesota found his SOS sign on Google Earth and told the authorities that he was in need of help.
Even after being found, he waited for about 5 days because the boat took time to reach that island. Eventually, the lucky man was rescued from the unknown island on which he lived like a home for 9 years.
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