The eight, all family members, left their island of Lihir in Papua New Guinea for neighboring Tabar Island on September 14 — normally a three-to-four-hour boat ride — to pick up several pigs for a feast that’s traditionally held after a funeral.
“We had enough fuel to get to the island and return,” 29-year-old survivor Nick Sales, who is married with two daughters aged one and three, said in an interview Wednesday from Majuro Hospital. “But on our return we couldn’t see the island (Lihir), there was dust (fog) in the air and then we ran out of gas.”
Sales and the other four survivors — Gerard Bugngim, 19, Metatus Tikell, 17, Alfred Sniel, 19, and Gerard Nakot, 17 — were hooked up to intravenous bags to rehydrate them at Majuro Hospital after weeks of little food or water.
After the first night of drifting, Sales said they dumped the three pigs overboard.
Totally unprepared for more than a few hours on the water, the group had no safety gear on board the 22-foot boat, nor fishing gear. “We didn’t know how to do anything,” said Sales. “We did not have lines or fish hooks.”
To survive, Sales said they caught rainwater and filled a five-gallon water bottle they had on board.
“When we ran out of food we began to collect driftwood and coconuts that we found floating in the ocean,” said Sales. “We would dry the wood in the sun and eat it. If we had coconuts, we would break them open, drink the juice and eat the meat inside. Then we would dry the coconut husk and eat that, too.”
Along with dried wood, Sales says they also ate sea crabs when they could find them.
