Rescue of two boats adrift

KIRIBATI – A helicopter pilot searching for schools of tuna spotted two small boats drifting in Marshall Islands waters, sparked the rescue of four islanders who had drifted hundreds of kilometres from Kiribati. What is unusual about the rescue is that the two boats – although just eight kilometres apart when spotted – were not connected or aware of the each other’s predicament. Three Kiribati men in one boat, and a teenage boy alone in the other, were rescued by the fishing vessel Kwila 888 after its helicopter pilot spotted the two craft – both 4.5-metre open boats with outboard motors – adrift in the open central Pacific Ocean. The two boats had drifted from Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati, in separate incidents. Although the three adult fishermen in the wooden boat drifted for 28 days – and the 14-year-old boy drifted by himself for 11 days in a fibreglass boat – they ended up within kilometres of each other when spotted by the helicopter pilot from the Kwila 888, a Papua New Guinea-flagged purse seiner. The three fishermen, Arawatau Miito, 57, Toatu Tiwai, 40, and Tenanora Taiki, 22, had drifted for at least 28 days in their 4.5-metre wooden-hulled dinghy after experiencing engine problems. Meanwhile, 14-year-old Bwanikatang Tebuanna drifted for about 11 days in a 4.5-metre fibreglas- type craft after an incoming tide washed the boat away from Tarawa while he was playing on it. The boy did not know how to operate the small outboard engine on the boat. The boy alone had nothing to eat the entire 11 days he drifted out of sight of land, while the three men were able to catch fish and sharks with the fishing gear they had on board for their fishing expedition. All were checked at Majuro hospital on arrival in the Marshall Islands earlier this week. One stayed overnight for treatment of dehydration, while the rest were released after a check up. The Marshall Islands Journal reported that all four were currently still in Majuro – awaiting repatriation to Kiribati, which is expected to happen this weekend. The three men and the teenager knew nothing of each other until the Kwila 888 picked them up, the newspaper reports. The chance of the helicopter spotting the two boats was itself a small miracle. The vessel’s helicopter pilot said he wasn’t feeling well on the day of the rescue and wasn’t going to fly, but he took some pain medication and forced himself to pilot the helicopter in search of fish – which is when he spotted the two boats. Fishing master and captain Yuan Tsai Chen said that the fishing vessel’s helicopter spotted the two boats drifting about 40 kilometres away from the Kwila 888. Fishermen from Kiribati are frequently lost at sea, a fact underlined by the fact this was the second time one of the three men – 57-year-old Arawatau Miito – had been rescued after an open ocean drift. And rescuing the two boats marked the third ocean rescue –fourth if counted by boats saved – for Captain Chen. The previous two rescues were about six years ago on different fishing vessels. The first involved three people from Kiribati who were lost at sea for one month, and the latter was two people who drifted for about 20 days. - RNZI/PNC