The fictional Robinson Crusoe spent 28 years as a castaway; that creation of Daniel Defoe was based on the 4 years and 4 months that Alexander Selkirk spent in the South Seas beginning in 1704 after requesting his captain to be dropped off there. Then there is Tom Hanks who has played many a role in his long and storied movie career, but the grungiest role he ever played was that of Chuck Noland in the movie “Castaway.” This was a fictional movie about a FedEx executive whose plane goes down in the Pacific; unlike the rest of the crew, he is the only survivor and spends months on a remote island by himself.

Hanks’s fictional castaway stay was surpassed 12 years ago when Jose Alvarenga was finally rescued from solitary surviving status after 438 days of being adrift and on a remote island. From November 17, 2012, until January 30, 2014, there were minimal interfaces with other humans. True, his solitary state is minor when compared to Alexander Selkirk, but Alvarenga’s tribulations are so modern in these days of airplanes, GPS, satellites, and other such inventions.

Alvarenga and his crew mate Ezequiel Cordoba embarked on what was supposed to be a two-day trip leaving Chiapas, Mexico, (on the Pacific Ocean) back in November 2012, but a storm knocked them off their intended course. The storm also ruined their communications systems meaning they were unable to call for help when they needed it most.

Tragically, Alvarenga was the only one who survived the 400+ days at sea, and 22-year-old Cordoba died several months into their drastically prolonged trip. The duo had survived for some time by eating birds and fish, but Cordoba became sick after eating a bird that had a poisonous snake in its stomach. Before his death, Alveranga promised his friend that he wouldn't eat his body. Instead, he says he kept his friend's dead body with him for six days before deciding to throw the corpse overboard. Ultimately, Alveranga washed up in the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, in January 2014.

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While Alveranga always denied eating Cordoba, the young man's grieving family believed he did, in fact, eat him, and proceeded to sue Alveranga for a million dollars for alleged cannibalism. As well as the large sum of money, the Cordoba family demanded 50 percent of the proceeds of Alvarenga's book called “438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea,” which was published in October 2015.

The reason for this filing was that the family of the deceased believed they should be entitled to a share of royalties made from the book, as they claimed that if their relative were alive, he and Alvarenga's story would be worth a great deal of money. Hmmm.

In any event, may our collective cabin fever in Greater Boston be coming to a quick end with St. Patrick’s Day on the near horizon.