Villagers rescue five in Kiribati after 3,355-mile Pacific drift

Five people, including two children, were rescued by villagers off Fanning Island in Kiribati on Nov. 1 after three months adrift in a 20-foot skiff, and four others who set out with them remain missing.

The boat had drifted an estimated 5,400 kilometres (3,355 miles) east from the Federated States of Micronesia, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Nine people were aboard when it set out on July 30 for what was meant to be a one-hour crossing between the islands of Murilo and Ruo. A storm caught the group and pushed the skiff off course.

The U.S. Coast Guard in Guam confirmed on Nov. 3 that the skiff, carrying nine people, had been reported missing after it failed to return to Ruo Island on July 30.

A 10-day search, then nothing

Coast Guard crews, helped by Navy and Air Force aircraft, searched for 10 days after the boat was reported missing. They covered 85,700 square kilometres (33,000 square miles) of ocean and found no sign of the skiff or of anyone who had been aboard. The operation was suspended on Aug. 9, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard set out its response in an email to The Associated Press after the five were found. "Incredible and wonderful news these five folks were found and are receiving care," the agency said. The group had been missing since the end of July.

Villagers on Fanning Island spotted the drifting boat on Sunday and brought the five people aboard ashore, the ABC reported.

Fanning Island, also known as Tabuaeran, is a remote coral atoll in Kiribati's Line Islands, with limited medical facilities and few transport options. It lies far to the east of the Micronesian islands the group set out from, across open ocean. The five came ashore there on Sunday.

Dehydrated and malnourished on arrival

Paukin Tororo, a nursing officer, told the ABC on Nov. 2 that all five were severely dehydrated and malnourished. All were put on intravenous drips and were showing signs of recovery. She spoke a day after the five came ashore.

A lawmaker in Kiribati, Kaotitaake Rakoroa, told the ABC that the survivors were being cared for by a local Uniting Church pastor.

Rakoroa recommended the five be moved to Kiritimati Island for further treatment. No date for the transfer has been announced, and officials have not said how they would travel.

Two of the five are children. The boat they came ashore in is a skiff 20 feet, or six metres, long, and it was carrying nine people when it left Murilo on July 30 for a trip that should have taken about an hour.

They can give a smile face, they show the sign they want to eat.

Chuuk state's governor, Alexander Narruhn, issued a statement on Sunday welcoming the news that five of the nine had been found, and said families continue to hope for the others. Chuuk is one of the states of the Federated States of Micronesia.

The four still missing

Four of the nine who boarded the boat have not been found. When the AP asked the Coast Guard what had happened to them, the agency said it was continuing to gather and confirm information and would reply as soon as possible.

Officials have not said whether the four were still aboard the skiff when the storm struck. Nor have they said when the group was separated.

In the same email, the Coast Guard offered its "profound condolences to family and friends of those who did not arrive with them."

Neither the Coast Guard nor officials in Kiribati have said how the five found food and drinking water across three months at sea, and no account of the drift has come from the survivors themselves.

Talks on bringing them home

In the same statement, Narruhn said he had begun talks with the Kiribati government to bring the survivors home. He spoke through an interpreter. He gave no timetable and did not say what form the talks were taking.

"There were nine people aboard the boat that went missing. Thanks be to God for his love and mercy that five of the nine have been found," Narruhn said. He added: "We continue to pray for their four companions."

Narruhn did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, which published his statement on Nov. 3.

No date has been set for the five to return to Micronesia, and the governments have not described what the arrangements would involve. The move to Kiritimati Island is the next step officials have recommended.

The skiff left Murilo on July 30. The search for it ended on Aug. 9. Villagers found the boat on Sunday, and the Coast Guard in Guam confirmed the details of the case on Nov. 3.

People have gone missing at sea before among the small island chains scattered across the Pacific Ocean, the AP reported.

Earlier rescues in the Pacific

Tim Shaddock, 51, an Australian, survived more than two months lost at sea in 2023 with his dog, Bella, after rough seas damaged their boat and its electronics system. He had been travelling from Mexico to French Polynesia, and said the two lived on rainwater and raw fish he caught. A helicopter spotted them, and they were rescued in July 2023.

Two American sailors, Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiaba, were rescued with their two dogs after five months at sea in the Pacific in 2017. A Taiwanese fishing ship found them 900 miles southeast of Japan. Their boat's engine died in bad weather, and water purifiers and a year's supply of food kept them alive, the U.S. Navy said at the time.

In 2024, three fishermen were stranded on a remote Micronesian island for more than a week. They were rescued after using palm leaves to spell out "HELP" in large letters on a beach.