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.