You’d be surprised what you can do with just tomato sauce, garlic powder and Maggis cubes.
You might not be able to make a slap-up meal, but one 47-year-old sailor survived for 24 days at sea with only those three items.
Elvis Francois from Dominica said his ordeal began in December while he was making repairs to his boat off the island of St Martin in the Netherlands Antilles. Currents suddenly swept his sailboat out to sea.
In a video, he said he had no food aboard the vessel – just ketchup, stock cubes and garlic powder.
“So I mixed it up with some water,” he said.
In the video, released by the Colombian navy, Francois said he called his friends. He said they tried to contact him back.
“But I lost the signal. There was nothing else to do but sit and wait.”
He had to constantly remove water from the boat to prevent it from sinking. He also tried to light a fire in an effort to send a distress signal – without success.
But luckily a plane passed by and he signaled it with a mirror.
AP News described Francois’s rescue by the Colombian navy.
A statement issued by the navy on Wednesday said the sailboat was spotted from the air 120 nautical miles northwest of La Guajira Peninsula.
Officials said the word “help” in English, which he scrawled on the boat’s hull, was key to his rescue.
Once spotted, he was rescued and taken to the port city of Cartagena by a passing container ship.
Colombian Commander Carlos Urbamo Montes said Francois was found in good health, but he had lost weight.
On a video that the navy released, Francois said at some point he had lost hope and the only thing that was keeping him alive was his family; just the thought of it gave him strength, he said.
And he thanked the coast guard.
“If it weren’t for them I wouldn’t be telling the story,” he said.
The navy said Francois received a medical check on shore and then was handed over to immigration authorities for his return home to Dominica.
Compiled by Mashudu Mabila
Pictured Above: A man lost in the Caribbean Sea for 24 days
Image Source: AP News
