After 67 days adrift at sea, man found alive in tiny boat next to bodies of brother and 15-year-old nephew

A Russian man was rescued in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk after surviving for more than two months in a tiny inflatable boat that lost its engine, but his brother and nephew have died, officials said Tuesday.

The prosecutor’s office in the far east of Russia said that the man was rescued Monday by a fishing vessel off the Kamchatka Peninsula.

It didn’t name the survivor, but Russian news reports identified him as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin, who in early August set on a journey to watch whales in the Sea of Okhotsk together with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew. Their bodies were reportedly found in the boat when the Angel fishing vessel rescued Pichugin.

Media reports said the three men traveled to the Shantar Islands off the northwestern shore of the Sea of Okhotsk in early August. They went missing after setting off on their way back to Sakhalin Island on Aug. 9. A rescue effort was launched but failed to locate them.

Russian media reported that the trio had a small food ration and about 5.2 gallons of water when their engine failed and they found themselves adrift.

Rescuers leave a vessel while carrying a man, who was reportedly saved after his sailboat had drifted for 67 days in waters edging the northwestern Pacific and discovered by fishermen in the Sea of Okhotsk though his brother and nephew had died during the ordeal, upon their arrival in the port city of Magadan, Russia, in this still image taken from video released on October 15, 2024.

Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

Pichugin weighed just about 110 pounds when he was found, having lost half of his body weight, news reports said.

He didn’t immediately say how he managed to survive in the Sea of Okhotsk, the coldest sea in East Asia and known for its gales, and how his brother and nephew died.

When the crew of the fishing vessel spotted the tiny inflatable boat on their radar, they initially thought it was a buoy or a piece of junk, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said, but they turned on the spotlight to make sure and were shocked to see Pichugin.

A video released by the prosecutor’s office showed an emaciated man in a life jacket desperately shouting “come here!” and the crew working to pull him back to safety.

“I have no strength left,” Pichugin said as he was taken to safety.

A view shows a man on a sailboat, who was reportedly saved by Russian rescuers after drifting for 67 days in waters edging the northwestern Pacific and discovered by fishermen though his brother and nephew had died during the ordeal, in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia, in this still image taken from video released on October 15, 2024. 

Russia’s Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office/Handout via REUTERS

Alexei Arykov, the owner of the fishing boat that found the survivor said he was “in a serious condition, thin, but conscious,” RIA Novosti reported.

The boat docked around 0830 GMT in the far eastern city of Magadan and the survivor was carried off on a stretcher, the news agency reported.

The survivor’s wife Yekaterina told RIA Novosti: “It’s a kind of miracle,” adding that the men had taken enough food and water to last only two weeks.

An expert questioned by RIA Novosti recalled that in 1960, four Soviet soldiers survived 49 days adrift on a small boat in the Pacific Ocean that was found by the U.S. aircraft carrier Keersarge.

Prosecutors said that they launched an investigation into the incident on charges of violation of safety rules that resulted in deaths.

Last year, an Australian sailor said he survived more than two months lost at sea with his dog. Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella were sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia when rough seas damaged their boat and its electronics system, leaving them adrift and cut off from the world.

AFP contributed to this report.

Haley Ott

contributed to this report.

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