Pair adrift in Pacific: Rescued after five months

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Two men from Papua New Guinea have told rescuers they survived almost five months adrift in a tiny open boat in the Pacific by eating raw fish and drinking rainwater.

Michael Bolong, 54, and Ambros Wavut, 28, were eventually picked up by a fishing vessel after trying for months to catch the attention of passing ships.

The two men were taken to Pohnpei in Micronesia's Caroline Islands. They were said to be suffering from severe sunburn but were otherwise well and have been discharged from hospital.

They said a third person who had been in the boat, named as Francis Dimansol, 48, died from severe health problems during their ordeal. It is unclear what became of his body.

The islanders are thought to have drifted at least 1500km after setting off in July from Lihir island, east of the Papua New Guinea mainland, in a motorboat.

The men said they had weathered a number of severe storms. "We were convinced that everyone had given up looking for us," Bolong told the crew of the Yap Seagull fishing boat, which picked them up.

"We know from other instances of boats being lost that after a while searchers give up, convinced that no one can survive after many weeks in an open boat.

"There is no doubt that after weeks, which turned into months, we were forgotten, except by our families."

The rescue was reported by the Micronesian government information service on the island of Yap, but details remain scarce. Describing their survival as miraculous, the report said the men were swept out to sea after they were caught in a storm and ran out of fuel while making a short trip from Lihir to a nearby island.

The men, believed to be construction workers rather than fishermen, were picked up on November 23.

Carl Apis, the assistant secretary of foreign affairs for the Micronesia government, said efforts were under way to repatriate them to Papua New Guinea. He said PNG authorities were trying to contact the men's families to confirm their identities. Bolong is believed to be Wavut's uncle.

Earlier this year Mexican fisherman Jose Alvarenga drifted across the Pacific for 13 months before his boat washed ashore in the Marshall Islands.