It's been more than four decades since Steve Callahan was stranded at sea – in a life raft – for 76 days after his sailboat collided with a whale in the Atlantic Ocean.
She has regained the extreme weight she lost, remarried and returned to the water after the harrowing and incredible ordeal of survival. But his life has largely been divided between a before and an after.
“Since this happened in 1982, I have never abandoned it,” he told Mail Sport in an exclusive interview.
“Now I'm 72 years old, this is something that represents two and a half months of my life since I was 30. And although I have, I don't know, an affinity for the story and what it means, which is more than just about me, it's actually it's about senses of connection to everything and simply being a small part of the bigger, more incredible universe we live in.'
That story is told in the documentary '76 Days Adrift', which was screened in New York DOC New York festival late last year and shows the mental strength and resourcefulness Callahan needed to survive, as well as his growing connection to the ecosystem that formed around him at sea.
Callahan was 29 years old and recovering from a “lost” marriage when he set sail on his ship, Napoleon Solo, from Newport, Rhode Island, to England with a friend, with Antigua as the final return destination for himself.
Steve Callahan was stranded in a life raft for 76 days after his sailboat crashed
The film explores Callahan's survival but also his connection to the ecosystem that formed around him.
But disaster struck his self-built boat in the Canary Islands, leaving him with a dangerously low food supply, a six-person life raft, several other devices (such as flares and solar stills for distilling seawater), and, above all, everything, the imminent threat. of death.
Callahan eventually plugged enough holes (sometimes literally), taught himself how to use solar stills, and caught enough food to barely survive until he was rescued by fishermen on the island of Marie Galant, southeast of Guadeloupe. In fact, it was the ecosystem of marine life that had formed around their raft that attracted a swarm of birds and attracted the attention of their eventual rescuers, who correctly assumed that there were fish nearby.
“Yes, it was a horrible event, but I saw things, I witnessed things, I learned things about the world and about myself that I could have only achieved by going through it,” he said. “I guess if there's a hopeful message for people it's this: We go through all these things, but hidden within them are opportunities and gifts, and that includes talking to you right now and making the movie.”
A lesson Callahan learned during the two and a half months stranded at sea: how intertwined the physical and the mental are.
He remembers dreaming about a steak as the struggles of his “mind,” “body,” and “spirit” merged into one.
“When I was young, very young, before all this happened, I think I always tried to convince myself that my mind… 'Okay, that's the leg, but the rest of me is fine,' a kind of attitude of mind over matter.” . But what this event taught me… was that it's very much a two-way street.'
It's tempting to compare Callahan's journey to extreme athletic feats, like climbing Mount Everest or an ultramarathon, and he admits there's a kind of “zen” that sailing can share with other sports. In fact, his initial return from England centered around a regatta (which he abandoned before his boat broke down).
In the end, however, there were no medals or scores awaiting Callahan when he was rescued.
Callahan had to abandon his self-built ship, the Napoleon Solo, after a whale hit it
Callahan (second left) remains an avid sailor despite his harrowing experience.
“Once I landed, I got a lot of questions from press people all over the place, most of whom are non-sailors,” he said. And the inevitable question was: 'Is this some kind of album? Is this some kind of record? Know?'
'And I tried to point out (to a journalist) that it's not a sporting event, it's a survival experience.
“I told him I guess I could be the first one to go around the lighthouse upside down with my pants down, and that would be some kind of record,” he later added.
Director Joe Wein, whose film was based on Callahan's 1986 'Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea,' gave his character a little more credit, calling him an “expert sailor.”
“(Sailors) think a lot about what happens when things go wrong, because they put themselves in a position where they could go wrong,” he said. “And that's why, even when I'm reading the book, it's like I died on the first day.”
Drawing from Callahan's first-person account of the ordeal, small 8mm footage of him on his sailboat before the accident, and an on-screen recreation of the events (including Callahan's actual trip crew), the film shows his thorough rationing process. food and their fluctuating hopes for day-to-day survival.
The experience was an involuntary crash course in survival skills, of course, but it also marked the beginning of what turned out to be a fairly steady wave of opportunity and attention.
Callahan worked for Sail Magazine and Cruising World, consulted for safety equipment companies and even lent his knowledge to the hit movie 'Life of Pi' as everyone wanted a piece of his marine experience.
“You know, I've met people, I've been down all kinds of paths, I've had all kinds of experiences that I wouldn't have had otherwise,” he said. 'Which, again, is a reflection of being on the raft. “That's something I point out to people.”
Those subsequent experiences — namely press attention, which Callahan says increased again during Covid — have also been a double-edged sword. He called that type of publicity “horrifying” and “gratifying” and admitted that it is difficult to constantly revisit the toughest test of his life.
'It has its ups and downs. Let's put it that way. And with the release of the film, he suddenly seems to be interested and moved again. And that's both flattering and sometimes a little annoying. Of course, I don't want to relive the experience itself.'
Callahan, with Life of Pi director Ang Lee, who executive produced '76 Days Adrift.'
Callahan said his 1982 experience “never left me” more than four decades later.
This is true even for the end of a movie. Callahan says he finds the final minutes of the film, which wonderfully explores the connection between him and the dorados that surrounded his ship as it washed ashore, difficult to watch.
“The gold ones certainly, for me, were emblematic of my own spiritual belief about life and the interconnectedness with everything,” he said. That we are not fully individuals, that we are only parts of an integrated whole.
Most people will never go through a difficult survival experience like Callahan's, and many will find a completely different interpretation of their experience at sea.
However, there are some commonalities.
“Everyone has to deal with life,” Wein said.
'We are all mortal. We are all very fragile. And I think people want to do exceptional things and push themselves.”