Finally found after drifting ashore on remote island
Two men lost at sea for over a month have been found on a remote island 300 miles away from where they set off.
The pair set sail from Kiribati, one of the Gilbert Islands in Micronesia, on October 22 2011.
The men, aged 53 and 26, were left drifting helplessly in the Pacific Ocean for 33 days before washing up on Namorik Atoll in the Marshall Islands last week.
Medical checks found the pair were weak from a lack of food, but in a ‘reasonable condition’, according to ABC Australia.
Giff Johnson, the editor of the Marshall Islands Journal, told Radio Australia that the islands often shelter Kiribas drifters who become lost during long voyages.
“It’s not that it happens all time time,” he said. “Let’s just say people from Kiribati are very hardy individuals. They get lost in a little tiny boat and somehow manage to persevere. It is an amazing thing.”
The two men were picked up by U.S Coastguards after a three-day air and sea search and are due to be taken to the island’s capital Majuro before returning home to Kiribati.