Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - A Russian man who survived 66 days adrift at sea in a small inflatable boat, spoke about his ordeal on Wednesday, October 15 from his hospital bed.
Mikhail Pichugin, 46, was rescued by a fishing boat on Monday off the coast of the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, more than two months after he set off on a boat trip with his brother and 15-year-old nephew, both of whom died aboard.
Pichugin comes from Ulan-Ude in Siberia but was working on
the far eastern island of Sakhalin as a driver
He set off from the coast of the Khabarovsk region on August 9 with his
visiting brother Sergei, 49, and nephew Ilya, 15, on a crossing to Sakhalin
meant to take a few hours.
When they failed to arrive, Russian
rescuers surveyed the area by helicopter and plane, suspecting the boat had
drifted towards Kamchatka, but found nothing and the search was eventually
called off.The boat was found around 1,000 kilometres (670 miles) from its
starting point.
Taken to a hospital in the city of Magadan,
Pichugin was well enough to speak briefly to journalists while lying in a
hospital bed.Looking pale, he gave a few details of how he managed to survive
in the Sea of Okhotsk.
“With God’s help, how else? If a boat
called Angel saved me,” he said, smiling, referring to the name of the fishing
boat whose crew spotted him.
“I collected rainwater,” he said. He also
credited a sleeping bag filled with camel hair for helping him survive.“It’s
wet, it doesn’t get dry but you crawl under it, you wriggle around a bit and
you get warm.”
“I had no choice. I have my mother at home, my daughter,” he added on his motivation to live.
Magadan city 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 may have survived because of his
portly 100-kilogramme (220 pounds) stature, according to his wife. Russian
television reported he weighed only 50kg when found on Monday.
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.
Russian television reported the men should
have taken a satellite phone, the only means of communication in the Sea of
Okhotsk. Police say they will give a press briefing after concluding
investigations into the incident.
Russian man, Mikhail Pichugin is recovering in a hospital after being stranded at sea for 67 days.
— Dailymailin (@dailymailin) October 16, 2024
Pichugin reportedly survived due to his weight - despite losing 50kg on the tiny boat.
He also revealed that his nephew Ilya succumbed to starvation onboard and Ilya's distres pic.twitter.com/0dtjYHK6Hu
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