A Russian man rescued after 67 days adrift in a small inflatable boat in the Sea of Okhotsk described Wednesday how he survived by battling shivering cold and drinking rainwater.
Mikhail Pichugin, 46, had set off to watch whales with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew. But the boat’s engine shut down on their way back on Aug. 9.
Initial efforts by emergency services to locate the trio failed. Pichugin’s brother and nephew later died, and he tied their bodies to the boat to prevent them from being washed away.
A fishing vessel spotted the boat this week and rescued Pichugin about 11 nautical miles off Kamchatka and about 540 nautical miles from its departure point.
“A boat called Angel saved me,” he said, smiling, referring to the name of the fishing boat whose crew spotted him.
RU-RTR Russian Television via AP
Speaking to reporters Wednesday from his hospital bed, Pichugin described how the boat’s engine broke down and then one of the oars broke, making the boat uncontrollable.
The phone on board was useless as there was no network coverage, but the trio used it for geolocation for a week until the phone battery and a power bank ran out. They tried unsuccessfully to attract rescuers’ attention using the few flares they had.
“A helicopter flew past close, than another one after three days, but they were useless,” Pichugin said in comments broadcast by Russian state television.
He said they collected rainwater and struggled to get warm on the sea off eastern Russia.
“There was a sleeping bag with camel wool, it was wet and didn’t dry,” he said. “You crawl under it, wiggle a little and get warm.”
They had a limited stockpile of noodles and peas and tried to catch some fish.
Russian media quoted Pichugin as saying his nephew died of hypothermia and hunger in September. His brother started behaving erratically and tried at one point to jump off the boat.
Pichugin said he survived “thanks to God’s help,” adding softly that “I simply had no choice, I had my mother and my daughter left at home.”
Doctors at the Magadan hospital said he was suffering from dehydration and hypothermia but in stable condition.
Magadan deputy governor Tatiana Savchenko said his condition was “satisfactory.”
She said the administration would pay for Pichugin to fly home and for relatives to visit.
Pichugin comes from Ulan-Ude in Siberia but was working on the far eastern island of Sakhalin as a driver.
His wife Yekaterina told RIA Novosti news agency: “It’s a kind of miracle.” She said the men had taken enough food and water to last only two weeks.
Russia’s Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office/Handout via REUTERS
Transport investigators have launched a probe into possible breaches of safety rules, raising the prospect that Pichugin could face a criminal charge and risk a jail term of up to seven years.
Russian television reported the men should have taken a satellite phone, the only means of communication in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Last year, an Australian sailor said he survived more than two months lost at sea with his dog. Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella were sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia when rough seas damaged their boat and its electronics system, leaving them adrift and cut off from the world.
AFP contributed to this report.
