(Nov. 25) -- Three teenagers given up for dead nearly two months ago have miraculously turned up alive -- albeit with a bad case of sunburn -- adrift in the South Pacific 800 miles from where they got lost.
The boys survived on coconuts and rainwater and by slaughtering a seagull they managed to catch while bobbing along in their tiny tin dinghy. Their families held funerals for them weeks ago, after a massive search by sea and air failed to find them, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
But then a tuna fishing boat spotted them Wednesday in a remote part of the Pacific north of Fiji -- waters the vessel normally doesn't venture across. Tai Fredricsen
Tokelauans Filo Filo, 15, Samuel Pelesa, 15, and Edward Nasau, 14, survived nearly two months adrift in the Pacific Ocean before they were spotted by a tuna fishing boat on Wednesday. Here, they are shown after their rescue.
"We drew up next to them, and we asked if they needed any help and their reply was a very ecstatic 'yes!'," the fishing boat's first mate, Tai Fredricsen, told the BBC. "We immediately deployed our rescue craft and got them straight on board and administered basic first aid."
"In a physical sense, they look very physically depleted, but mentally ... very high," Fredricsen told New Zealand Radio, according to The Associated Press. A bit thin and dehydrated, the boys' worst ailment appeared to be severe sunburn, he said.
The boys -- Samu Perez and Filo Filo, both 15, and Edward Nasau, 14 -- set off Oct. 5 from their home in the Tokelau Islands, a remote archipelago that's part of New Zealand. They were attempting what some called a foolish teenage challenge, trying to row nearly 60 miles between two remote islands, just for the adventure of it.
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Over 50 days, they drifted some 800 miles from their starting point. And their rescue came not a moment too soon: Fredricsen said the boys told him that for a while, they managed to capture rainwater with a tarp from their boat. But two days before their rescue, they began drinking salty seawater -- which could have dehydrated them to death if they'd continued much longer.
"It's unbelievable. Had we been a kilometer either side of that course, we would have missed them," the fishing company's managing director, Eric Barratt, told the New Zealand Herald. "An amazing story."
The boys gave the tuna fishermen phone numbers for their families on the Tokelau Islands, and Fredricsen put in a call to one of the boys' grandmothers from a satellite phone aboard his tuna boat.
"I didn't understand what she was saying," he told the Herald. "But I could tell she was ecstatic and over the moon to find out they were still alive."
Re: On a very happy note (this story made me smile)
That's such a great story!
Thanks for sharing it, Lily.
I have great admiration for these guys who managed to keep their spirits high and remain positive throughout their ordeal. I wonder how they did it?
Apparently, a positive outlook is an important factor to increase the chances of survival.
Peace glo
Here I stand.
I can do no other.
May God help me.
Amen.
Come, let us worship and bow down •
and kneel before the Lord our Maker
[Psalm 95]
Re: On a very happy note (this story made me smile)
ah the lure of women..
follow up to the story and a moral to take home:AOL News
(Nov. 27) -- There seems to be only one explanation for why three Pacific island boys set off on a precarious voyage in a tin dinghy that ended in their miraculous rescue this week after more than 50 days adrift at sea: teenage love.
Details are emerging about what happened on the night the 14- and 15-year-old teens pushed off from their home in the Tokelau Islands with only a bundle of coconuts and a few beers between them. Their island had hosted a sports competition that day, drawing visitors from neighboring islands -- including a girl who caught the eye of one of the boys.
Pita Ligaiula, AP
Two of three teenagers from Tokelau islands are escorted on their arrival at the Stanley Brown Naval Base in Suva, Fuji, Friday. The trio survived 50 days adrift in a tiny boat in the South Pacific by drinking rainwater and eating raw fish.
The mysterious girl sailed home to her own island that night. But her admirers decided to go after her.
Pacific island folklore is rich with tales of lovers making epic voyages or swimming from island to island in search of love. At about 2 a.m. under starry skies and under the influence of alcohol, the boys decided they couldn't let the girl go.
The boys' cousin, Kuresa Nasau, said no one saw them leave, but it wouldn't have been that unusual anyway.
"Young kids go out fishing all the time, nobody questions that," he told The Dominion Post newspaper. "They were seen at midnight and nobody suspected they were going to take off."
Nasau said he'd heard about the late-night love quest, and said the boys would have some explaining to do once they get home. "I heard there was some alcohol involved. I will investigate but all I was concerned about was their safety."
The boys -- Samu Perez and Filo Filo, both 15, and Edward Nasau, 14 -- haven't commented publicly on the reasons for their voyage, but friends and fellow villagers gave accounts about the sports competition and the boys' love interest to The Sydney Morning Herald and the Dominion Post.
"We drew up next to them, and we asked if they needed any help and their reply was a very ecstatic 'yes!'," the fishing boat's first mate, Tai Fredricsen, told the BBC. "We immediately deployed our rescue craft and got them straight on board and administered basic first aid."
They were brought ashore and hospitalized in Fiji, where relatives also traveled to greet them. Now they're waiting for a ferry home to the Tokelau Islands, in time for Christmas.
"I thank God for keeping us alive all this while, while were drifting out in open sea," Nasau told The Associated Press. "We prayed every day that someone will find us and rescue us. We thought we would die."
There's no word on who the girl is.
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Tai Fredricsen
Pita Ligaiula, AP
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article..._lnk3%7C186610
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