Solomon Islands: Two men survived 29 days adrift in the Pacific with fruit and rainwater | The story of a shipwreck that ended well

Two residents of the Solomon Islands were rescued safe and sound off Papua New Guinea after getting lost aboard a ship in the Pacific Ocean for 29 days and surviving drinking rainwater and eating coconuts and oranges.

Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni drifted more than 400 kilometers, before being found by a fisherman on October 2 off Papua New Guinea.

The pair were traveling between two islands in the unpredictable Solomon Islands Sea when their seven-meter ship was caught in a storm on September 3.

“We got lost in torrential rains, dense dark clouds and high winds”Nanjikana told Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation television in the past few hours.

In addition, they could barely make out the cape due to the bad weather, the GPS device they were taking with them to find their bearings had run out of battery and under these circumstances and late at night, they decided to shut down their boat’s engine to save fuel and wait for the storm to pass.

The food problem

For the first nine days, they ate the oranges they brought for the trip, but when the food ran out, they survived on rainwater and coconuts.

In their account, the men detailed that by collecting the rainwater in a canvas bag, the two started their engines as soon as they saw a coconut in the sea and rushed to retrieve it. .

“After several days, God gave us the idea to build a device to navigate. So we built a mast-like structure with oars and canvas and set up the sails following the direction of the wind,” he said. explained Livae Nanjikana.

The sail took them to the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea where they saw a fisherman from afar, so they restarted the engine to get closer, at which point they ran out of fuel.

Finally, on October 2, they reached the district of Pomio, where they received medical treatment and food. For now, they remain in Pomio, on the island of New Britain, while steps are taken to transfer them to the Solomon Islands.