Man drifts for 67 days in rubber boat with bodies of his two relatives

A Russian man who had been drifting for two months in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk with the bodies of his relatives was rescued. His boat was discovered by the crew of the fishing vessel "Angel".

When the fishermen found the boat, the man was conscious and was even able to shout a few words. The first phrase spoken by the survivor was: "Not enough strength."

In response, the crew of the vessel that found the man, a Sakhalin resident, said that they had taken this information into account and promised to save him quickly.

The boat was drifting in the Sea of Okhotsk for 67 days.

Videos of the rescue show the fishermen throwing a rope towards the boat and trying to get closer to it. The recording ends as the crew find that the man is not alone in the boat.

The surviving traveler, 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin, lived in Ulan-Ude and worked on Sakhalin. More than two months ago, the Russian decided to take his brother and his 15-year-old son whale-watching. They planned the trip for the summer holidays and prepared everything in advance. They took warm clothes, life jackets, flares, food supplies and 20 liters of drinking water. They also bought an inflatable Baikal 470 catamaran motorboat and brought it to the shore of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The Russians planned to fish and watch bowhead whales.

Mikhail (the only survivor) had the license to drive the boat. However, on the way back to the city of Okha in the north of Sakhalin, the boat went off course and got caught in a storm.

The connection with the group was lost about two months ago. The 15-year-old teenager last called his mother when he was on the Shantar Islands. On August 14, after the travelers did not arrive in the Okha District, a search operation was started. Four aircraft, including three helicopters, were involved in the search.

The missing boat was accidentally discovered by the crew of the Angel fishing boat. The fishermen saw it on the radar, but mistook it first for a buoy or debris.

As a result, the boat with the only survivor and the bodies of his two relatives was found 1,000 kilometers from Okha. The rescued man lost 50 kilograms. It is believed that it was his extra weight (he weighed about 100 kilograms) and food supplies that helped him survive. His condition is stable, he was hospitalised. The man remains in a state of shock, he is unable to talk yet. For the time being, it is unclear how the man could survive.

Details

The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and north. Its northeast corner is the Shelikhov Gulf. The sea is named for the port of Okhotsk, itself named for the Okhota River.