American rescued during failed sailing trip to Thailand from Philippines

By Staff Reporter

Vietnamese fishermen have rescued an American yacht sailor who had been drifting in the ocean en route to Thailand for over a week.

54 year old Kenneth Putney had been steering one of 3 ships sailing from the Philippines to Thailand when the rope joining the three broke during a storm on December 15th. In addition to losing contact with his pals, he found himself on the completely empty yacht without a working radio or navigation system.

Fisherman Trieu Van Oai spotted the vessel in the waters sine 15 miles off the coastline and saw that the single passenger was in distress. When the fishermen approached they could see that he had severe problems and, once on board, was so hungry that he ate 3 packs of Mama noodles without even adding water to them.He had had no food or fuel for over a week.

Full story: http://www.pattaya10...ng-to-thailand/

--Pattaya 103 FM 2012-12-25

Now that's a true sex tourist. Going from P.I to LOS in a boat. Tres old school.

(Yes, i know...he was really handing out bibles.)

BTW...what are Mama noodles? Anything like Ramen?

Edited December 25, 201213 yr by KuhnPaen

Some people are just plain crazy to sail without radio.

@KhunPaen Mama noodles are the dehydrated cheap noodles. I think Mama was the most popular brand name and the name just stick for all this kind of noodles.

P*ss poor report. What happened to the others?

I once sailed a Piver 38 (trimaran) all over the Indonesian Archipelago with only

a sextant and a handheld HF radio (Icom), had lots of Indo Mee (instant noodles)

and always had a longline with 10 hooks over the stern for the occasional catch.

I did this alone...had a blast. Wouldn't do it again mind you.

And yes...piss poor reporting concerning the other "boats"

Lucky to be alive. At least a GPS distress radio would have gotten him immediate assistance. They are not very expensive when you consider your lifes on the line. I'm sure he's grateful for the Vietnamese fishing boat finding him.

Three boats connected by a rope, sounds like two were under tow.strange indeed.