Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea

Rating 5 of 5

Adrift is the first person account of Steven Callahan surviving on a lift raft in the Atlantic Ocean for 76 days in 1982. I found the story incredibly engrossing. I re-read several sections of the book to make sure I could visualize the experience. It was really an awesome book to read. Steve describes his life aboard the raft very well. From the book I really got a sense of what it was like. How Steve survived is beyond me. I think I would have died. Steve’s patching of the hole in his raft was beyond my comprehension. How he did that to survive was crazy.

The book is more complicated that a mere survival story. I think that’s what makes it more enjoyable to read. As the story unfolds that Steve lets you into his life outside the survival raft. How his sailing was as much about escaping a life on land that involved a failed marriage and personal questions about what he wanted to do with his life. I don’t think “sailor Steve” was a “happy” man. He was someone trying to figure things out.

I thought Steve’s description of his relationship with the fish he killed ate was interesting. He described them in very personal ways. I’m interested if the ending of the book when he is rescued and the fisherman harvest a good deal of the dorados (mahi-mahi) that were his main source of food was a fabrication or a true story. It was an interesting and sad? closure to the story. The fish in a sense had transported Steve across the ocean only to be harvested. But the fish also helped save his life in the end because the fishermen came out to where he was because the fish were there. The fish had to die for him to live. It was a surprisingly complex and touching part of the story for me.

I strongly recommend Adrift to anyone. Read it, you won’t be disappointed.