Ask anyone who spends a lot of time on the water and they will tell you, it’s a great way to get away from it all. It just seems as if all of your troubles wash out to sea when the water is underneath you.
That being said, we also would probably not appreciate the opportunity to spend almost a month on the Pacific Ocean, lost and wondering if we will ever get back to land again.
Two men recently had that experience and they spent their time on the water surviving on coconuts and any rainwater they were able to collect. It happened when Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni set out from the Solomon Islands on September 3 in a 23-foot Yamaha boat.
According to The Guardian, their goal was to travel 124 miles to the town of Noro, which was not out of the ordinary. They had made the trip before without any difficulty. When they left their island, they used the West Coast of Vella Lavella as a guide.
Unfortunately, bad weather got in the way of their journey and it got even worse when their GPS died. Livae said the weather was so bad they couldn’t see where they were going so they decided to save fuel and stop the engine.
At first, they had oranges they had packed for the trip to eat and they collected some coconuts from the ocean. A piece of canvas provided the opportunity to trap some rainwater so they could drink while they were lost at sea.
Fishermen off the coast of Papua New Guinea found them on October 2. Over the course of 29 days, they had floated on the open water some 248 miles. They didn’t know where they were, but they weren’t expecting to be in a different country, The Guardian reported.
Although it was undoubtedly a frightening experience, they were in good spirits after being found. They didn’t know what was happening on the mainland while they were gone. In the end, they were happy to be heading back home but they said it was a nice break from everything.