Ketchup diet keeps man alive for 24 days adrift on leaking yacht in Caribbean Sea

Castaway Elvis Francois is attended by Colombian Navy members after he was rescued near the department of La Guajira, in the extreme north of Colombia. Photo / AP

Adrift at sea without food or a phone signal and with little sailing knowledge, Elvis Francois’s chances of survival were slim to none.

But sustained by a diet of tomato ketchup, garlic powder, stock cubes and rainwater, the 47-year-old made it home after 24 days lost in the Caribbean Sea. He told rescuers he had been repairing a yacht near a harbour on the island of St Maarten when the weather turned and he was swept away from the coast.

Francois, from the island nation of Dominica, said: “I called my friends, they tried to contact me, but I lost the signal. There was nothing else to do but sit and wait. I had no food. There was only a bottle of ketchup that was on the boat, garlic powder and Maggi [seasoning cubes]. So, I mixed it up with some water for me to survive 24 days in the sea.”

Francois is not a sailor and did not know how to navigate or use any of the equipment on the boat, which he had to keep bailing out as it was letting in water and was in danger of sinking.

He tried various ways to attract attention, including carving the word ‘help’ on the hull of the boat. Then, he tried lighting a fire on the vessel to send a distress signal to passing boats, but none of them spotted him.

Francois said: “At some point I lost hope and thought about my family, but I thank the Coastguard.

”If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be telling the story.”

He was rescued after using a mirror, angling the glass to catch the glare of the sun. The yacht was then spotted from the air 120 miles (193 km) northwest of the La Guajira peninsula, almost 1609 kilometres away from where he had started out.

A nearby container ship was asked by the Coastguard to pick up Francois and take him to Cartagena in Colombia.

Francois added: “Twenty-four days, no land. Nobody to talk to. It was very rough. I don’t know how I am alive today, but I am alive. And I am grateful for that.”

After his rescue, Francois was handed over to immigration authorities to co-ordinate his return to Dominica. The boat he had been working on was abandoned at sea.

Video released by the Colombian Navy showed a doctor examining Francois, who was said to be in good health despite having lost weight.