Posted on 08/19/2006 2:24:19 PM PDT by Valin
Three Mexican fishermen who disappeared in the Pacific Ocean nine months ago have been rescued nearly 8,000 kilometres from their home, saying they survived by eating seagulls, drinking rainwater and reading the Bible.
A Taiwanese tuna boat scooped the men out of the water about halfway between Hawaii and Australia on Aug. 9. They had drifted all the way from San Blas, a fishing village about 160 kilometres north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where they were last seen in late October or early November, 2005.
Fishermen in San Blas, a hamlet of about 8,000 people, are celebrating the men's astonishing survival. "God is so great that he helped them all the time. Everybody is excited. They are surprised. They don't know how it happened that they are alive," Antonio Aguayo, a sport fishing guide in San Blas, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
"Nobody has ever been lost for so long and been alive to tell about it."
"Not even Christopher Columbus stayed on the ocean so long," Mr. Aguayo said.
Salvador Ordonez Vasques, Jesus Eduardo Vidana Lopez and Lucio Rendon Bacerra left San Blas on a short shark-fishing trip on Oct. 25, according to Mr. Aguayo. They took an eight-metre fibreglass boat.
Mr. Aguayo said the men took only enough fuel for a few days and unexpectedly ran into a storm. They may have used up their fuel travelling in the wrong direction, thinking they were headed back to shore, according to Mr. Aguayo.
The men's families concluded they had perished at sea.
"Once one week went by, two weeks, a month, three months, we all lost hope that they would be found alive," said Raul Rendon Perez, Mr. Rendon's uncle. He received the joyous news on Tuesday morning at the family ranch, where his nephew has lived for 15 years.
"That kind of life in the high seas, without food or water, you can't last more than a month," said Saul Ordonez Ceja, cousin to both Mr. Rendon Bacerra, 27, and Mr. Ordonez Vasquez, 37. "It was a miracle."
As the months passed at sea, the men's boat drifted farther and father west, until they reached the waters north of Baker Island -- between the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, and about 8,000 kilometres from the Mexican fishing village they left.
Crew members aboard a Taiwanese trawler spotted the men's small boat and realized they were alive, said Eugene Muller, manager of Koo's Fishing Company Ltd.
"They seemed to be in very good health, given what they just went through," Mr. Muller said in an interview from Majuro, the capital city of the Marshall Islands. "Other than being very hungry and having lost a lot of weight, our crew said they didn't need any medical attention."
The survivors told a Mexican radio station that it rained nearly every day of their ordeal, providing them with fresh water to drink. One of the men had a watch that kept track of the days. They passed time by reading a copy of the Bible one of the men brought along.
"We ate raw fish, ducks and seagulls. We took down any bird that landed on our boat and we ate it like that, raw," Mr. Vidana, 27, said from aboard the trawler. He said they frequently saw ships during their months at sea, but were lucky to be picked up because they were asleep when trawler's crew saw them.
"We never lost hope," Mr. Vidana said. "They passed us by, but we kept on seeing them. Every week or so, sometimes we'd go a month without seeing one, but we always saw them so we never lost hope."
Some reports said five fishermen were originally aboard the Mexican boat, but only three survived. Others said the men had only been at sea for three months. Friends and relatives of the men gave the National Post varying reports of when they had set out, saying it was in late October or early November, 2005. They agreed only three men were on board.
Both of their boat's 200-horsepower outboard motors were disabled.
"It looks like they had engine problems because their motors had been dismantled and it seemed like they were trying to salvage parts from one to get the other working," Mr. Muller said.
He stressed there is confusion about the survivors' ordeal because there is a language barrier between them and the trawler's crew.
"What details we have are from the Mexican fishermen through our Chinese crew," Mr. Muller explained. "Some of the details are murky right now."
The Mexican government is flying an official to the Marshall Islands to greet the men. The tuna boat is expected to be at sea for another 10 days to two weeks before returning to Majuro.
Meanwhile, celebrations in Mexico are already underway. Dozens of Mexican newspapers carried stories of the men's tale.
Mr. Ordonez Ceja described his cousins as "adventurers" who are still bachelors. Both are hard workers, he said. The family is planning a party and Roman Catholic Mass to mark the rescued fishermen's return.
"I lived so sad," Francisca Perez, Mr. Rendon's grandmother, told the Televisa news station.
"Now that my grandson is alive, I just want him to come home."
Mexicans lost two crewmates
Mexico City
August 19, 2006
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/mexicans-lost-two-crewmates/2006/08/18/1155408020608.html
Mexico City: THE miraculous story of three Mexican fishermen who survived nine months adrift in the Pacific Ocean in a small boat has taken a new turn after it was revealed there were five men on board the vessel when it began its voyage.
Joel Hernandez Garcia, an official with the Mexican foreign ministry, said there were five people on board the boat when it set off on October 28 from the village of San Blas on Mexico's Pacific coast to fish for shark in local waters.
The boat was blown off course by a storm, and after running out of petrol, drifted for more than nine months and 8000 kilometres until the three survivors were rescued last week by a Taiwanese tuna trawler.
"Two of (the missing fishermen) apparently died after the passage to the open sea, as they were drifting," Mr Garcia said. "The survivors have mentioned the probable time of death of the first person as January and the second person a month later."
No mention was made of the dead fishermen during interviews with Mexican broadcasters earlier this week.
But the operator of the Taiwanese boat said he thought the men said there had been five men, media reports said.
The missing trio said they survived on raw fish, raw ducks, raw seagulls and rainwater. They caught the fish with hooks attached to the end of electric cables from the boat's motor.
"At one point, we went for 15 days without anything to eat," one of the survivors, Jesus Vidana, 61, said.
Mr Garcia made his remarks after talking to Mr Vidana, who indicated "there was little to eat and that the other two refused to eat".
Mr Garcia said the bodies of the two dead fisherman had been thrown overboard.
The men said a Bible on board gave them hope and strengthened their faith. "We never lost hope, because we prayed day and night," Mr Vidana said.
The nine-metre-long, three-metre-wide boat was nearly sunk by huge waves that swamped the vessel, and survived several storms, the men said.
On August 9, the Taiwanese fishing crew spotted the crippled boat on their radar.
The Mexican Government said the men would be brought home as soon as possible.
They are now guests on the trawler, which is due to arrive in the Marshall Islands tomorrow.
That's amazing.
Wow! That's a little more than a "three hour tour".
"Garcia's Island"?
John 4:12-14 (Amplified Bible)
12Are You greater than and superior to our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well and who used to drink from it himself, and his sons and his cattle also?
13Jesus answered her, All who drink of this water will be thirsty again. 14But whoever takes a drink of the water that I will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling) [continually] within him unto (into, for) eternal life.
Hire some ghostwriters, play up the Christian angle, get it published in the next 6 months, and blammo! Instant best seller.
Being a fishing boat, wouldn't they have better suited equipment to catch fish with?
After 15 days, maybe the other two guys started to look like seagulls????
Great story!
I can't wait to hear the one-liner Jay Leno will have for this one......
I'm a born skeptic and the length of time reported here...I just don't know. I mean, Cap't. Bligh and company, were in that longboat only 41 days with a couple of landfalls thrown in and that feat was called unbelievable.
I also wonder if cannabalism enters into this story as well. A not unheard of event whith men adrift at sea for long periods.
Believe it or not PING!
I'm sure the journey just got all the worse when the toilet paper ran out.
It says they were shark fishing on an 8 meter(about 25 foot) boat and with 5 guys onboard you gotta wonder where they were going to put the shark!
You'd think they could of afforded some rods and reels if they could afford twin 200 outboards huh? ;-)
I witnessed a rescue at sea. Three men were drifting in a small fishing boat for almost 3 weeks when the cruise ship we were on spotted them. It was quite exciting watching the rescue.
Maybe. But my hope someone in Hollywood will reward them by paying for their story.
I agree. The story also seems to morph into an epic with each passing day.
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