One such story comes from the memoir Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost At Sea. The author, Steven Callahan, was sailing solo around the world on a sailboat he had designed himself. As he neared the coast of Africa a violent storm destroyed his vessel. He was able to save himself by abandoning the ship and jumping aboard an inflatable raft.

Callahan had limited supplies on the raft-some food, a sleeping bag, a speargun, and a solar still which allowed him to distill drinking water from seawater. For the next two and a half months, he struggled to stay alive, knowing that the trade winds would eventually blow his raft across the ocean where he would encounter land. There were many days when he wanted to give up. And yet, he persevered, knowing that each day he stayed alive brought him closer to his destination.

Then, one day, his solar still permanently broke down, leaving him with only three cans of freshwater. At the very moment that he had resigned himself to death, his raft was spotted off an island in the West Indies by a group of fishermen. In the battle between death and rescue, rescue had won.