Tahitian recovers after 133 days at sea

A TAHITIAN man who drifted for 133 days across the South Pacific was recovering in hospital in the Cook Islands after his boat ran onto on a reef and he was found by local fishermen.

Raeoaoa Taurae, 55, "looks like a prisoner of war," said Dr Mata Strickland, who was treating Mr Taurae in Aitutaki, one of the northern Cook Islands. "He's thin, he's dehydrated, with sunken cheeks and sunken eyeballs and he has very loose skin."

Last November, two Western Samoan fishermen washed up in Papua New Guinea after surviving almost six months adrift in a small metal boat.

Two other men died during the torrid journey, which saw them drift nearly 2,480 miles west from Western Samoa to Papua New Guinea. The survivors caught fish and birds to eat and drank rainwater to stay alive.

Only one day after his voyage ended on the reef, Mr Taurae was already taking semi-solid food and trying to strengthen his legs after more than four months aboard his 25-foot boat.

"He's dying to have some meat and sausages," Dr Strickland said. "He's a strong man, (even though) he's lost a lot of weight."

Mr Taurae told the doctor through an interpreter he had gone fishing on March 1 from his home village at Fa'a near the airport at Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, and more than 685 miles across open sea from Aitutaki. After "going a bit further out" he ran out of gasoline.

With no motor, sail or paddle, Taurae drifted helpless, rationing himself to a single glass of rainwater a day and ate raw fish to stay alive. "Police helped him into the hospital and when he tried to walk he almost fell over," said Dr Strickland. After just one day of intravenous drip feeding "he managed to speak properly, weeping and thinking of his family and thanking God," he added.