Boaties use the old Sos-in-the-sand trick
The two mariners left Weno Island en route for Tamatam Island in a 5.5-metre vessel over a week ago with ‘‘limited supplies and no emergency equipment’’.
When they failed to arrive at their destination a day later, a search effort was launched in the western Pacific on August 19, according to the United States Coast Guard in Guam.
In recent days, Coast Guard crews searched nearly 44,000 square kilometres using 15 boats and two aircraft.
They had their work cut out for them.
The Coast Guard 14th District covers an area of responsibility of more than 31 million sqkm of land and sea, an area almost twice the size of Russia.
‘‘Oftentimes, we are thousands of miles away from those who need help and because of that our partnerships with the Navy, other search and rescue organisations, partner Pacific nations and AMVER are essential,’’ Jennifer Conklin, search and rescue mission co-ordinator at the Coast Guard Command Centre Honolulu, said.
AMVER is a voluntary Coast Guard-sponsored global ship reporting system.
Last Wednesday, rescuers caught a break after a search vessel spotted flashing lights on an uninhabited island in Micronesia. When a helicopter was sent to investigate, the pilots noticed ‘‘SOS’’ etched into the sand.
The castaways were spotted on the beach near the makeshift sign.
The men – identified by the US Embassy in Kolonia, Micronesia, as Linus and Sabina Jack, both in their 50s – were picked up on Friday and transferred to Nomwin atoll.
‘‘The search and rescue operation for Linus and Sabina Jack has been successfully completed,’’ the embassy posted on Facebook on Thursday. ‘‘They are found and are waiting for a ship to take them home.’’
It is the second similar rescue in the region in recent months.
In April, three men were rescued from the uninhabited Micronesian island of Fanadik after a large wave capsized their 5.8m skiff 3km offshore.
Stranded several hundred kilometres north of Papua New Guinea, the men arranged palm fronds in the sand to spell out ‘‘HELP’’.
It would take three days for a crew aboard a navy plane to spot them waving lifejackets next to their sign.
Once found, their families were notified and, in the end, they were put on a small local boat back to Pulap, from where they initially set out to sea. No injuries were reported.