Castaway looked sheepish when asked if he would toast his rescuer.
A castaway who survived a 6,000 mile journey adrift in the Pacific has paid tribute to his ‘brave and filling’ crew mate.
Jose Albarengo left Mexico in December 2012, only to wash ashore last month in the Marshall Islands.
But survival experts were amazed to discover that he gained three stone during his ordeal, and confused that his dinghy smelled quite so strongly of pork.
“I had little to sustain me, just the odd seagull and some dead fish”, revealed Albarengo. “Thank goodness Jose had the sense to pack a gas barbecue in his duffel bag.”
Jose, a 240 pound teenager who also started the journey, didn’t make it to shore.
Albarengo was vague when asked where Jose had gone, but suggested he ‘might have gone for a swim’ while Albarengo was sleeping off his tea.
“Jose and I spent some warm, tender moments together, just thinking of him makes me weep”, said Albarengo, as tears flowed from the corners of his mouth.
The real-life Robinson Crusoe explained how he managed to catch a few turtles, which he survived on once Jose was gone.
“They can be tricky to trap, but I worked out a way eventually”, he said. “I hit them over the head with an old thigh bone, that I justhappened to find laying around.”
Albarengo was keen to be reunited with his family in Mexico, but confounded officials when he refused a return flight.
“No thank you, I’ll sail” said the seasoned fisherman.
The crowd cheered as they watched him walk bravely to his vessel; one arm around a crate of mesquite sauce and lime marinade, the other around the shoulders of Rafael, his newly recruited plump cabin boy.
Naughty but nice