On 3 September, two men, Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni were travelling in the Solomon Sea. Few hours after they began their journey, their seven-meter boat got caught in the rough weather.
Before they were being rescued 400 kilometres (250 miles) away off the coast of Papua New Guinea. They were lost in the sea for 29 days. The two of them survived on coconuts, oranges, and on their prayers to God. On Friday, Nanjikana told the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation that they both lost sight of land due to heavy rainfall, dark clouds, and strong winds.
The survivors switched off their boat engine at night to save the fuel as the battery in their GPS died, and they lost sight of land. Both of them spent the first night in the strong wind and heavy rain. Their boat was droved further out to sea. The two of them survived for 9 days by eating the oranges that they packed. Nanjikana said that when they ran out of oranges, they survived on rainwater, coconuts, and their faith in God. Both of them prayed day and night.
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They Collected rainwater in a canvas bag for drinking, and whenever they came across a floating coconut, they would power up their engine. Nanjikana said, “we prayed to God, and after several days he gave us an idea of making a device to sail. So we both made a mast-like structure, and we set sail using paddles and canvas and following the direction of the wind.
Nanjikana said, “They sail and went towards the New Britain island in Papua New Guinea. They saw a fisherman in the distance, and they started the engine for one final push and motored towards him, but they ran out of fuel. They started shouting and waving their hands, thankfully the fisherman saw them and came towards them. He reached to them, and they asked, where are we now? The fisherman replied, PNG.”
While the arrangements were being made to return them to the Solomon Islands, both of them (Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni) remained in Pomio.
