Two men from the Solomon Islands were rescued after being lost at sea for 29 days, but they didn't sound completely psyched to be back in civilization. "It was a nice break from everything," said Livae Nanjikana, who, along with Junior Qoloni, drifted astray for weeks when the GPS tracker on their small motorboat stopped working, forcing the duo to live on oranges, coconuts, and rainwater.
Read on to discover how they were rescued and how another sailor who got lost for weeks survived only on kitchen condiments.
Nanjikana and Qoloni set out from Mono Island in early September 2021 in the 60-horsepower motorboat, according to the Guardian. They planned to sail just 124 miles south to the town of Noro on New Georgia Island, using familiar islands on the east and west to gauge their progress.
"We have done the trip before, and it should have been OK," said Nanjikana. But bad weather broke out a few days into the trip, and the strong rains and heavy winds made it difficult to see the coastline and stay oriented. But what happened next was downright frightening.
"When the bad weather came, it was bad, but it was worse and became scary when the GPS died," said Nanjikana. "We couldn't see where we were going and so we just decided to stop the engine and wait, to save fuel."
Surviving on oranges they'd packed, coconuts they pulled from the sea, and rainwater they trapped using a piece of canvas, they floated nearly 500 miles northwest in 29 days.
Eventually, the pair spotted a fisherman off the coast of New Britain, Papua New Guinea, and shouted for help. "We didn't know where we were but did not expect to be in another country," said Nanjikana. The two men were so weak and dehydrated that they had to be carried off the boat.
After medical attention, they recovered and stayed on the island for a while. Nanjikana ultimately said he was able to find the positive in the life-threatening experience—it was a forced vacation from the disconcerting drama of the global pandemic.
"I had no idea what was going on while I was out there," Nanjikana told the Guardian. "I didn't hear about COVID or anything else," he said. "I look forward to going back home, but I guess it was a nice break from everything."
Sailors becoming lost at sea have been more common than you'd think over the past few years. Last December, Elvis Francois, 47, was adrift for 24 days in the Caribbean Sea and survived by eating little more than ketchup, CNN reported. "I had no food. It was just a bottle of ketchup that was on the boat, garlic powder and Maggi (broth cubes) so I mixed it up with some water," said Francois.
Francois, from the island nation of Dominica, was rescued 120 miles northwest of Puerto Bolivar, Colombia, by Colombian army ships after they saw the word "help" carved into the hull of his boat. Francois had been making repairs to his boat near the island of Saint Martin when bad weather pulled him out to sea. He lacked the nautical knowledge to navigate back to shore.
"Twenty four days—no land, nobody to talk to. Don't know what to do, don't know where you are. It was rough," he said. "At a certain time, I lose hope. I think about my family." But after being rescued, Francois received medical treatment and promptly returned home to his loved ones, CNN reported.
