Three New Zealand boys rescued after 50 days lost at sea with no food or water

[News_Editor]

Three New Zealand boys rescued after 50 days lost at sea with no food or water

2010-11-25 14:42:08 GMT+7 (ICT)

WELLINGTON (BNO NEWS) -- Three teenagers from New Zealand have been found alive after being missing at sea for nearly two months, local media reported on Thursday.

The three boys, two aged 15 and one 14, went missing from the atoll of Atafu on October 5 while on their small craft with no water and little food. Despite a search, rescue workers eventually gave up and assumed the boys had been killed.

But on Wednesday, around 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) from where they went missing, a New Zealand fishing boat noticed the small vessel. "Yesterday we saw a small vessel, a little speed boat on our bows, and we knew it was a little weird," First Mate Tai Fredricsen of the Bay of Islands told the Stuff news portal.

Fredricsen said they knew there were people on the vessel and approached them, after which the boys started waving to them. "I pulled the vessel up as close as I could to them and asked them if they needed any help," he said. "They said 'very much so', they were ecstatic to see us."

The boys were found just west of Uvea in the French territory of Wallis and Futuna and north east of Fiji, according to Stuff.

Fredricsen described the boys as being very skinny but physically in good health. "They are in incredibly good shape for the time they have been at sea," he told Stuff.

According to Fredricsen, the boys were able to survive because they had several coconuts on board and later were able to capture a seagull who had landed on their boat.

"Somehow they caught a bird, I don’t know how, but they caught it. They ate it, that is what is recommended," Fredricsen added.

During the last few days, however, the boys had been drinking seawater because it had not rained for several days. "They were having little sips of seawater, which wouldn’t have been a great idea, but they had only done it for the last couple of days," Fredricsen said.

Although the relatives of the boys did not immediately talk with journalists, the news must have come as a shock to them. Some 500 people had already held memorial services to remember the boys.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-11-25

[cdnvic]

The Kiwis need some good news right now. It's been a rough week for them.

[LaoPo]

The Kiwis need some good news right now. It's been a rough week for them.

The bad news is that the 3 boys followed -1 or 2 girls; stories differ, LP- from another island in their neighbourhood, after they met them during a rugby tournament and decided to follow the girls after the girls returned to their own island.

The 2 eldest boys (15 and 16 and brothers) were drunk and the 3rd boy (14, a cousin) didn't believe they would really do the trip to the other island.

They ran out of fuel and the rest is history.

..Hormones.........and they should consider themselves very very lucky to be rescued and alive.

LaoPo