Men survive 29 days on the sea, but didn’t mind: ‘Haven’t heard anything about corona for a while’ | Abroad

Gentlemen, Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni, of the Solomon Islands have been rescued off the coast of Papua New Guinea. That’s about 400 kilometers from where they started their journey. They got lost because their GPS stopped working.

Nanjikana and Qoloni departed in the morning of September 3 from Mono Island, located in the western province of the Solomon Islands. They had a small motorboat (60 hp).

The men planned to travel 200 km south to the town of Noro on New Georgia Island. They were in good spirits: “We’ve made the trip before, so it should have worked out well,” says Nanjikana.

But even for experienced sailors, the Solomon Sea proved to be a major challenge. After only a few hours on the road, they had to deal with heavy rain and high winds, making it difficult to see the coastline they were supposed to follow.

Then their GPS went down. “We couldn’t see where we were going, so we decided to stop the engine and wait to save fuel.”

Rainwater

The two managed to survive on the oranges they packed for the trip, coconuts they fished from the sea, and rainwater they collected with a piece of canvas. They floated on the water for 29 days and were eventually rescued by a fisherman off the coast of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

“We didn’t know where we were at all, but we didn’t expect to be in another country,” Nanjikana says.

The men were so weak when they arrived in the town of Pomio on October 2 that they had to be carried from the boat to a hospital. There they were cared for and now they reside in a home of a local.

Choas

As tough as their journey was, Nanjikana also saw positives, such as: getting away from the chaos that corona has caused. “I had no idea what was going on. I have not heard anything about corona or anything else,” he says. “I’m looking forward to going back home, but I think it was a nice break from everything.”

Mary Walenenea of ​​the Solomon Islands Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is in contact with Nanjikana to ensure that both men can return home.

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