Survival Of The Fittest!

Two Gilhertese who lost their boat off Nauru at Christmas survived after marathon swims lasting 72 hours.

The hair-raising adventure began on Saturday, December 21 at 3 p.m. when a fishing boat capsized eight miles off Anibare Bay with the two men, Tekaero ,and Biritake Kairo, both of Abaiang, GEIC. They righted the boat but lost an oar, and, hoping to drift towards Nauru, they made their boat lighter by throwing the outboard motor overboard.

By Sunday morning the two men were still drifting—but now they were 12 miles from shore. They decided to swim for it.

Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, the alarm had been raised.

Early on Sunday morning, six BPC barges (both men worked for the BPC) put to sea in search of them, and an Air Pacific Beechcraft was flown in from Fiji to join the search. It arrived at noon on Monday, December 23.

Throughout Sunday and Monday the two Gilhertese swam together.

Several times they saw the Beechcraft but were unable to attract attention.

On Tuesday they became separated.

Early on Wednesday morning (Christmas Day) Tekaero stumbled ashore in Anibare Bay, too exhausted to call for help. When he was found lying on the beach the search was renewed and a few hours later Biritake was found offshore by a local boat—still swimming.

Both men recovered quickly in hospital and were discharged in a few days.