Kiribati Villagers Rescue 5 Who Drifted 3,355 Miles in Skiff

Five people, including two children, were rescued Nov. 1 off Fanning Island in Kiribati after about three months adrift in a 20-foot skiff, authorities said. Four others who set out with them are still missing.

Villagers spotted the boat and brought the group ashore after it had drifted an estimated 5,400 kilometers (3,355 miles) east from the Federated States of Micronesia, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The U.S. Coast Guard in Guam confirmed Nov. 3 that the skiff, with nine people aboard, had been reported missing after it failed to return to Ruo Island in Micronesia on July 30.

A one-hour crossing between Murilo and Ruo

The trip was supposed to take an hour. Nine people left the island of Murilo on July 30 headed for Ruo, a short hop within Chuuk state in the Federated States of Micronesia, when a storm hit the small boat during the crossing.

The storm left the skiff adrift. When the boat did not arrive at Ruo, it was reported missing.

Look at a map of that part of the Pacific and the islands are specks. Murilo and Ruo sit close enough together that the crossing is routine. Fanning Island, where the boat finally washed up, is in Kiribati's Line Islands, thousands of miles east.

Villagers on Fanning Island brought them ashore

Residents of Fanning Island, also known as Tabuaeran, spotted the drifting boat on Sunday and pulled the five people off it. A local Uniting Church pastor took them in, and island medical officials treated them.

A lawmaker in Kiribati, Kaotitaake Rakoroa, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the survivors were being cared for by the pastor. Rakoroa said the group should be flown to Kiritimati Island for further treatment.

Fanning Island is a remote coral atoll with limited medical facilities and limited transport options. No date for a move has been announced.

On IV drips, and asking for food

Nursing officer Paukin Tororo told the Australian broadcaster on Nov. 2 that all five were severely dehydrated and malnourished when they reached shore. All of them were put on intravenous drips and were showing signs of recovery.

“They can give a smile face, they show the sign they want to eat,” Tororo said.

The five have not spoken publicly about what happened on the boat. They have asked that their privacy be respected.

A 10-day search covered 33,000 square miles and found nothing

After the skiff was reported missing, the U.S. Coast Guard searched for 10 days with help from U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft. The search covered 85,700 square kilometers (33,000 square miles) and turned up no sign of the boat or anyone aboard. It was suspended on Aug. 9.

“Incredible and wonderful news these five folks were found and are receiving care,” the U.S. Coast Guard told The Associated Press in an email.

“Our profound condolences to family and friends of those who did not arrive with them,” the email added.

Three months passed between the day searchers gave up and the day the boat turned up on a beach in a different country.

Four people are still unaccounted for

Asked by the AP what happened to the four missing passengers, the Coast Guard said it was continuing to gather and confirm information and would reply as soon as possible.

Nothing has been released publicly about how or when the four were separated from the others, or where they were last seen.

The governor of Micronesia's Chuuk state, Alexander Narruhn, addressed the missing four in a statement issued Sunday evening. “There were nine people aboard the boat that went missing. Thanks be to God for his love and mercy that five of the nine have been found,” Narruhn said through an interpreter.

“We continue to pray for their four companions,” he added. Narruhn did not immediately respond to the AP's request for comment.

Talks have started to bring the five home

Narruhn said in the same statement that he had begun talks with the Kiribati government about returning the survivors to Micronesia. He also asked the president of the Federated States of Micronesia to open diplomatic discussions with Kiribati on getting them home.

The five were identified as Wanis Weita, Wboy Weita, Akinis David, Paul Paul and Tedwin Paul, according to Islands Business.

Fanning Island sits roughly 5,400 kilometers from where the boat was supposed to land. Getting the five back to Chuuk means crossing that same stretch of ocean, this time by plane and with two governments involved.

Two other long drifts ended in Kiribati waters this fall

On Oct. 27, Kiribati fishermen near Tarawa found an 18-year-old from Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, named Luka Rahan, who had drifted for 41 days. His cousin died during the ordeal.

In late September, three people from Nissan Island, Papua New Guinea, reached Kiritimati Island after roughly 70 days at sea. They survived on dried coconut, fish, turtle and cocoa beans, and flew home on Oct. 26.

Kiribati's islands are scattered across an enormous stretch of ocean, which makes them the first solid ground a disabled boat drifting east from Micronesia is likely to meet.

Pacific survival stories that ended the same way

Tim Shaddock, 51, an Australian, survived more than two months lost at sea in 2023 with his dog Bella after rough seas damaged his boat and its electronics. He had been traveling from Mexico to French Polynesia. Shaddock said the two stayed alive on rainwater and raw fish he caught. A helicopter spotted them, and they were rescued in July 2023.

In 2017, two American sailors and their two dogs were found 900 miles southeast of Japan by a Taiwanese fishing ship after five months at sea, the U.S. Navy said at the time. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiaba lost their engine in bad weather and could not reach land under sail. The Navy said water purifiers and a year's supply of food aboard the vessel kept them alive.

Three fishermen stranded on a remote Micronesian island for more than a week in 2024 got out by spelling HELP in palm leaves across a beach in letters big enough to see from the air.

Why short crossings turn into months at sea

Small boats in this part of the Pacific make short crossings constantly, and they go out light. This one carried no locator beacon, the Coast Guard said.

Once an engine quits or a rudder goes, the current decides the route. The skiff that left Murilo on July 30 was pushed east across open ocean for about 90 days before anyone saw it again.

Travel between these islands is not optional. Fishing and family both sit on the other side of the water, and the crossings are made constantly, usually without incident.

What has not been answered

Officials have not said what the five ate or drank during the drift, how the boat stayed afloat, or when the group last had contact with the four who are missing.

Photos and video of the survivors were posted online soon after they were carried up the beach. Family members in the Federated States of Micronesia have been in contact with some of the group, according to reporting from the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

For now the five are on a coral atoll roughly 3,355 miles from where they meant to land, waiting to be moved to a bigger island with a better clinic, while two governments work out how to get them the rest of the way home.