Man claims he had the 'best sex of his life' while lost at sea for more than a year

A man, who was lost at sea for over a year, said he survived thanks to imaginary sex and food.

In 2012, José Salvador Alvarenga ventured off on a shark fishing trip in Mexico which unexpectedly turned into a rare tale of survival.

He and a friend Ezequiel Córdoba, who was 22 at the time, were fishing when their boat was battered by a storm, making them lose most of their equipment.

The storm didn't pass for an entire week, pushing them further and further out to sea.

Speaking on the How To! podcast, author of 438 Days Jonathan Franklin said: "The first month, they were eating turtles because they were close to shore and there were lots of sea turtles.

"They would grab the sea turtles, kill them, and then collect the blood and drink glass after glass of the blood, which turns out is extremely healthy and gives you energy. And then they would cook the meat.

"There were also little sharks that would follow them, and if the sharks were small enough, less than maybe two or three feet, Alvarenga would wait until they were next to the boat and grab them by the back fin.

"They would eat the shark livers because it turns out that the shark liver is full of all sorts of oils and nutrition. They just had this crazy diet of turtles and shark liver."

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The pair were forced to become inventive to survive. However, one small detail was one of the reasons they made it to tell the tale.

The author and journalist said José had told him he had the best meals and the best sex of his life during those 438 days at sea – all thanks to the power of his imagination.

"It was funny because basically, the guy who has deep faith was seeing all sorts of spiritual images and the other guy who is a party monster was probably seeing tequila bottles," he joked.

"When they saw aeroplanes go by, they would imagine out loud, 'What do you think they're having?' They would create these amazing feasts imagining that the people in the aeroplanes were eating.

"Alvarenga would imagine that he's walking down the beach and seeing some girl he's always been flirting with—it's this alternative reality that keeps him alive.

"Jonathan, the best meals of my life were those imaginary meals I had at sea. The best sex I had in my life was the imaginary sex'."

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