Two men, Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni, set out from Mono Island in the Solomon Islands the morning of September 3rd in a small, single 60 horsepower motorboat.
They then spent the next month lost at sea.
Just a few hours into their journey, the men experienced heavy storms which made it difficult to see the coastline they were meant to follow. Then, their GPS died.
Nanjikana told The Guardian, "When the bad weather came, it was bad, but it was worse and became scary when the GPS died. We couldn't see where we were going and so we just decided to stop the engine and wait, to save fuel."
Well, the pair drifted in the ocean for the next 29 days, surviving on rainwater, some oranges they'd brought along, and a few coconuts they found floating in the water.
Eventually, a fisherman spotted them some 250 miles from their original location, and was able to haul them onto his boat and rescue them. Though Nanjikana and Qoloni were very weak, and had to be carried off the boat, both men survived.
The biggest takeaway from the men, however, is that that month lost at sea was just a nice break from everything going on in the world. Nanjikana said, "I had no idea what was going on while I was out there. I didn't hear about Covid or anything else. I look forward to going back home but I guess it was a nice break from everything."
Officials in the Solomon Islands are now working with New Guinea to get the men home.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
