Men rescued after 20 days adrift in Atlantic

The crew of a merchant ship rescued two men whose boat had been adrift in the Atlantic Ocean south of the Canary Islands for 20 days.

The men, who were on a fishing trip and ran out of drinking water eight days ago, were spotted yesterday while drifting without power 160 miles south of Tenerife by a Cypriot merchant ship, which took them aboard.

Rescue officials could not immediately explain how they survived for eight days without water.

A Spanish helicopter was scrambled from Tenerife to winch the men up and fly them to a hospital, the Canary Island rescue service said.

The air crew reported the two men, Cristo Rey Herrera, 64, and Jose Quevedo, 61, were in good physical condition despite their ordeal.

They had no radio aboard and had not filed proper paperwork for the trip, a spokesman said.

Their boat, the 33ft Saulo, was reported missing on March 15 by relatives, the spokesman said.