Solomon Islands.Photo: Getty
What started off as a routine trip turned into an epic survival tale for two men from the Solomon Islands.
Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni set off to make the trip from Mono Island to New Georgia Island, a distance of about 124 miles, on Sept. 3, according toThe Guardian.
“We have done the trip before and it should have been OK,” Nanjikana told the newspaper. Instead, theywere found 29 days laterabout 250 miles away, off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
Their problems began early on, when they ran into bad weather, which not only made it hard to see the coastline they were supposed to be following, but also caused their GPS to stop working.
“When the bad weather came, it was bad, but it was worse and became scary when the GPS died,“Nanjikana explained. “We couldn’t see where we were going and so we just decided to stop the engine and wait, to save fuel.”
For the next nine days, the pair only ate the oranges they packed for the trip, according to theSolomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation.
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On their 27th day at sea, the two men spotted an island in the distance — and two days later they were able to get close enough to catch the eye of a local man, per SIBC News.
“It was then that we shouted and continually waved our hands to the fisherman that he saw us and paddled towards us,” Nanjikana recalled to the outlet.
While they were happy to be rescued, they were also surprised to be so far away from home.
“We didn’t know where we were but did not expect to be in another country,” Nanjikana toldThe Guardian.
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Although Nanjikana is ready to go home, he was able to look on the positive side about their extended absence.
“I had no idea what was going on while I was out there. I didn’t hear about COVID or anything else,” he toldThe Guardian. “I guess it was a nice break from everything.”
source: people.com
