Russian rescued after 67 days adrift in a small dinghy in the Sea of Okhotsk on Wednesday, he described how he survived by fighting off shivers from the cold and drinking rainwater.
Mikhail Pichugin (46) went whale watching with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew. However, on August 9, on the way back, the boat’s engine shut down.
Initial efforts by emergency services to locate all three were unsuccessful. Pichugin’s brother and nephew later died, and he tied their bodies to the boat to prevent them from washing away.
A fishing vessel spotted the boat this week and rescued Pichugin about 11 nautical miles from Kamchatka and about 540 nautical miles from the point of departure.
“I was saved by a boat called Angel,” he said with a smile, referring to the name of the fishing boat whose crew spotted him.
Russian Television RU-RTR via AP
Speaking to reporters from his hospital bed on Wednesday, Pichugin described how the boat’s engine failed and then one of the oars broke, causing the boat to lose control.
The phone on board was useless because it had no network coverage, but the three of them used it for geolocation for a week until the phone and power bank batteries ran out. They tried unsuccessfully to attract the attention of rescuers using the few flares they had at their disposal.
“A helicopter flew nearby, and another one three days later, but they were useless,” Pichugin said in a comment broadcast by Russian state television.
He said they collected rainwater and tried to warm the sea off Russia’s eastern coast.
“There was a camel wool sleeping bag, it was wet and didn’t dry,” he said. -Crawl under it, wriggle around a bit and get warm.
They had a limited supply of pasta and peas and were trying to catch some fish.
Russian media quoted Pichugin as saying that his nephew died in September of hypothermia and starvation. His brother began behaving erratically and at one point tried to jump out of the boat.
Pichugin said he survived “thanks to God’s help,” adding quietly that “I simply had no choice, I left my mother and daughter at home.”
Doctors at Magadan Hospital said he was suffering from dehydration and hypothermia, but his condition was stable.
Magadan deputy governor Tatiana Savchenko said his condition was “satisfactory”.
She said the administration would pay for Pichugin’s flight home and for visits from relatives.
Pichugin is from Ulan-Ude in Siberia, but worked as a driver on the far eastern island of Sakhalin.
His wife Yekaterina told the RIA Novosti news agency: “It’s a kind of miracle.” She said the men stocked up on enough food and water to last them just two weeks.
Office of the Prosecutor for Transport in the Russian Far East/leaflet via REUTERS
Transportation investigators have launched an investigation into possible safety violations, raising the risk that Pichugin could face criminal charges and face a prison sentence of up to seven years.
Russian television reported that the men should have taken a satellite phone, the only means of communication in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Last year, an Australian sailor said yes he lived for over two months he was lost at sea with his dog. Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella were sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia when rough seas damaged their boat and its electronic system, leaving them adrift and cut off from the world.
AFP contributed to this report.
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