SURVIVORS’ STORIES
Two remarkable tales of high seas drifters, plus the woman lost for a month in the Alabama wilderness
ALL AT SEA
At 9am on Christmas Day, a Polish sailor was rescued by the French coast guard near the island of Réunion, east of Madagascar, after he was spotted by a yacht crew. Zbigniew Reket, 54, claimed he had been drifting in a rudderless lifeboat across the shark- and pirate-infested waters of the Indian Ocean for seven months. He was thin, sickly and confused, but otherwise in good health. He said that he and Samira, his cat, had survived on half a packet of Chinese soup per day, along with any fish he managed to catch.
His marine adventures started in 2014 when he travelled to India from the United States, where he had lived for a decade. He bought the modified lifeboat, originally from a cruise ship, with the intention of sailing it back to Poland. He spent time modifying it, but it broke down soon after leaving port because of a problem with its mast. He drifted for days in the Indian Ocean before washing up on the Comoros Islands off the coast of Mozambique, where he stayed for about two years and adopted Samira.
He had left the Comoros Islands in May 2017, bound for Durban in South Africa 2,000km (1,200 miles) to the south. This would have involved him sailing through the Mozambique Channel, a busy shipping route with strong currents. The instruments on his boat had been smashed because of big waves and he had no means of communication. He had provisions for only one month.
“We drifted towards the Somali coast, then towards the Maldives, and then Indonesia again,” he said. “Several times I could see land, but I could never steer towards it. I spotted several ships but the battery on my radio was dead.” The authorities are checking out his story, which local media say appears to be plausible. He said he would consider staying on Réunion, which as an EU citizen he is entitled to do. “I want to have a normal life, find a job, and why not stay here?” he said. [AFP] D.Mail, Times, D.Telegraph, 28 Dec 2017.
• A young fisherman flew home to the Philippines on 29 March 2017 after being given up for dead at sea, battling hunger, thirst and despair for nearly two months on a tiny boat that drifted all the way to Papua New Guinea. Rolando Omongos, 21, recounted an astonishing tale of survival, three weeks after his rescue by a Japanese fishing vessel. “I cried non-stop when I was finally rescued. I was too weak to stand up and they had to carry me,” he told reporters. He said he survived on rainwater and moss growing at the hull of his 2.5m (8ft) long boat, finding respite from the heat of the tropical sun by diving into the water frequently. His 31-yearold uncle Reniel Omongos, who was on a second small boat, died from hunger and exposure after a month. The nephew lashed the body on to his boat for a few days but later let it sink into the water when it began to smell.
The men had set off on 21 December 2016 with other fishermen from General Santos, a southern Philippine port facing the Celebes Sea. The port lies more than 3,200km (nearly 2,000 miles) northwest of the PNG island of New Britain, where rescuers later dropped off the survivor. A storm separated Omongos and his uncle from their mother boat on 10 January, and they ran out of fuel five days later. They later tossed their small boat engines overboard so they would float higher and avoid being swamped by huge waves. “No fewer than four vessels would pass us by each day,” said Rolando. “I would wave at them but they would not stop for us.” He said the ships and fishing boats apparently failed to see their tiny vessels bobbing about 3km-5km away. “I never lost hope. I was always praying,” he added. “I told myself, at least one of us had to get back home.”
When the Japanese fishing vessel Wakaba Maru found him, Omongos said he was very weak and emaciated, having been reduced to eating moss once every few days. He was down to just over 20kg (44lb), from his original weight of 61kg (134lb). The fisherman, who quit school after sixth grade, said he planned to rest after flying home to General Santos, but vowed never to set foot on a boat again. “Maybe I will go back to school instead,” he added. [AFP] theguardian.com, 31 Mar 2017.
• For the saga of José Salvador Alvarenga, the first person in recorded history to survive in a / small boat lost at sea for more / than a year, see FT312:20, 340:22. For other high seas drifters and tales of survival, see FT48:16, 53:18, 156:17, 166:10, 198:9, 323:25, 328:26.
LOST IN THE WOODS
• A woman who went missing in the wilderness was found alive on 12 August after nearly a month living off berries and wild mushrooms with no shelter. Lisa Theris, 25, had reportedly lost 50lb (23kg) and was covered in scratches and bug bites after she got lost amid acres of dense forest in Midland, Alabama, without any shoes, phone or bag. She was finally reunited with her family after being spotted by a motorist on Highway 82, who turned around after seeing “something moving in the bushes”. Before she disappeared, Ms Theris, a radiology student from Louisville, had been with two men who later robbed a hunting lodge in Bullock County, Alabama. She fled from the men because she did not want to be part of the robbery. Sheriff Raymond Rodgers said: “She’s not familiar with this area and apparently on the night she ran, she went into the woods at night and got lost… She said she was drinking water out of a brook and eating berries and mushrooms. The bugs had really been on her and she had a lot of scratch marks.” More than half of Alabama is covered by forest. independent.co.uk, 15 Aug; Times, 16 Aug 2017.
“Several times I could see land, but I could never steer towards it”