Five Against the Sea

It was January 19, 1988. The waters were calm and the skies cloudless as five fishermen set off on a week-long trip off the Costa Rican coast. Five days later, their twenty-nine-foot wooden craft was foundering against thirty-foot waves as a dreaded north wind — El Norte — struck with full force. Set adrift in a badly leaking vessel, they faced the perils of more storms, shark attacks, near-madness, a mutiny, and bouts of starvation and thirst. Continuously bailing, the five men endured a record 142 days lost at sea — until they were rescued 4,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean.

Author Biography:Ron Arias has also written a novel, The Road to Tamazunchale, which was nominated for a National Book Award; Healing from the Heart, with Dr. Mehmet Oz, and the forthcoming Moving Target: A Memoir of Pursuit. An avid sea kayaker, he is married and living in Hermosa Beach, Calif.