Three stranded boaters rescued from remote Pacific island thanks to clever ‘HELP’ sign
It’s a modern-day “Castaway.”
Three stranded boaters were rescued from a remote Pacific island this week thanks to their clever “help” sign spelled out in palm fronds.
The men were fishing off the Pikelot Atoll, which is part of Micronesia, on March 31 when their 20-foot boat was overtaken by swells, US Coast Guard officials said in a statement.
The skiff’s outboard motor was damaged, and the men were forced to abandon ship on Pikelot, the outlet explained.
Once they made it to the uninhabited island, however, the trio’s radio ran out of battery.
Despite their desperate situation, they were able to come up with a viable alternative: Spelling the word “HELP” in large palm fronds on the island’s sandy beach, the Coast Guard said.
They subsisted on coconut meat and fresh water from a small well, which was installed by fishermen who occasionally stop by the island.
A search for the men started on April 6, after a relative reported to officials in Guam that they had not returned from the fishing trip.
The relative told authorities that the three men started their journey from the Polowat Atoll – which is more than 100 miles away.
Pikelot is even more remote, as the over 600 islands that make up Micronesia are dispersed across about 1.5 million miles of ocean between the Philippines and Hawaii, officials noted.
A US Navy P-8A jet set out from the Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, and spotted the palm frond sign on April 7, the Coast Guard said.
The sign was “crucial” to finding the three men in the search area that spanned over 103,000 square miles, Lt. Chelsea Garcia said.
“This act of ingenuity was pivotal in guiding rescue efforts directly to their location,” Garcia said.
The Navy dropped survival packs for the stranded boaters. One day later, a Coast Guard HC-103 from Hawaii dropped them a radio.
Finally, on Tuesday, the Coast Guard cutter Oliver Henry reached Pikelot.
One of the first officers on the island was Petty Officer 2nd Class Eugene Halishlius, who is from Micronesia and speaks the native language, CNN reported.
“I could see on their faces, ‘Whoa! Who’s this guy pulling up that can speak our language?’” Halishlius told the outlet.
When Halishlius told the men his name, the group quickly realized they were all related.
“It’s a crazy world, I actually found out I’m related to them!” Halishlius gushed of the serendipitous moment. “[They] couldn’t believe I’m with the Coast Guard trying to rescue them.”
One of the men is his third cousin, while the other two are his fourth cousins, he explained of the family relationship.
As of Thursday, all three men had been safely returned to Polowat. Their names have not been released.
The US Coast Guard did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for a comment on the rescue.
