A man who spent 24 days adrift in the Caribbean Sea says he survived on little more than ketchup.
Elvis Francois, 47, was found 120 nautical miles northwest of Puerto Bolívar in Colombia after a plane spotted the word “help” etched on the hull of his sailboat, the Colombian navy said in a statement on Thursday.
“I had no food. It was just a bottle of ketchup that was in the boat, garlic powder and Maggi (bouillon cubes), so I mixed it with some water,” Francois said in a video provided by the Colombian army.
Francois, from the island nation of Dominica, said he had been repairing his boat near the Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin in December when adverse weather conditions pushed his boat out to sea.
He said he lacked navigational knowledge and was unable to maneuver his boat back to shore, spending weeks lost at sea.
“Twenty-four days, no land, no one to talk to. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know where you are. It was hard,” he said. “At a certain point, I lose hope. I think of my family.”
After being rescued, he was transferred to the port city of Cartagena where he received medical attention and was later turned over to immigration authorities for his return home, Colombian officials said.
The CNN Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
EL ALAMBRE-CNN ™ & © 2023 CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC., A TIME WARNER COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
