Nine passengers expected to be at sea for about sixty minutes. Their small boat left Murilo, an island in Micronesia’s Chuuk state, bound for nearby Ruo at the end of July, ran into bad weather and was never seen again, until this weekend. It turned up some 5,400 kilometres away with five of them still alive.
Villagers on Fanning Island, an isolated atoll belonging to Kiribati, spotted the drifting craft and brought three adults and two children ashore. Nothing has been said so far about what happened to the other four passengers. American rescuers had given up long ago: after ten days of flights over an area of about 25,000 nautical miles, backed by military planes, the Coast Guard stood down in early August.
Kaotitaake Rakoroa, who represents the area in Kiribati’s parliament, said island health workers had already treated the group and that the local Uniting Church pastor had taken them in. He advised putting them on the first available flight to Kiritimati, the nearest larger island, for more care. The five have asked for privacy and have not spoken publicly, though relatives back in Micronesia say they have been in touch with some of them.
Back in Chuuk, governor Alexander Narruhn thanked God that five had come through, and wants the national government to agree with Kiribati quickly on bringing them back.
Such stories are becoming oddly familiar in these waters. Days earlier, a young man of 18 from Bougainville, whose motor had failed on a fishing trip, was rescued near Tarawa after 41 days on the water; the cousin travelling with him did not survive. In October, three other men from Bougainville were found near Kiritimati after around 70 days at sea.
