Rescued Polish sailor claims he was adrift at sea (with his cat) for nearly seven months

A POLISH sailor claimed yesterday that his boat drifted for more than six months in shark- and pirate-infested waters before eventually washing up on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion.

Sceptics are doubtful about Zbigniew Reket’s story, but others argue that his emaciated state and badly damaged boat point to an ordeal of some kind on the high seas. He told reporters in Réunion, a French island east of Madagascar, that he was left adrift with just a one-month supply of noodles to keep him alive after his engine failed in May and a storm destroyed his radio. His claims are impossible to verify.

Mr Reket, 54, said he had been living in the US but left in 2014 for India, where he bought a boat. He could not return to the US because his “green card” had expired, so he set sail for Indonesia in a large, covered lifeboat of the kind carried on cruise ships, which he had equipped with a mast, an engine and a rudder.

The mast soon broke and the wind carried him west. He landed on the Comoros Islands, off the east coast of Africa and claims to have spent two years there. He said he contacted the Polish embassy in Kenya, which allegedly rejected his request to be repatriated. “They gave me €150 (£133) and that was it,” Mr Reket told local reporters. He set out again in May, along with

‘ I sighted land several times but I never managed to steer towards it. I spotted ships but the radio was dead’

Samira, a cat he had adopted in the Comoros. His destination this time was Durban, in South Africa, but he was left drifting again following engine failure.

He said he survived by eking out the one-month supply of Chinese noodles he had taken along, which he supplemented by catching fish.

“We drifted towards the Somali coast, then towards the Maldives, and then Indonesia,” he said. “I sighted land several times but I never managed to steer towards it. I spotted several ships but the battery on my radio was dead.”

A local charity is looking after him, and he says he is considering staying in Réunion, which he is entitled to do as an EU citizen. “I want to have a normal life, find a job,” he said.

Doctors said he was undernourished but otherwise healthy.