BOGOTA, Colombia, CMC – The Colombian navy has rescued a man from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) island of Dominica who says he survived 24 days adrift in the Caribbean on a sailboat by eating ketchup, garlic powder, and seasoning cubes.
Officials said that Elvis Francois, 47, had scrawled the word “help” in English on the boat’s hull that was spotted from the air 120 nautical miles northwest of the La Guajira peninsula.
Francois was taken to the port city of Cartagena by a passing container ship, the Colombian navy said in a statement.
It said Francois told Colombian authorities that his ordeal began in December when currents swept the sailboat out to sea while he was making repairs off the island of St. Martin in the Netherlands Antilles, where he lives.
“Without knowledge of navigation, he was lost and disoriented at sea. His efforts to maneuver the ship and the equipment on board were useless”, the release said.
“I called my friends, they tried to contact me, but I lost the signal. There was nothing else to do but sit and wait,” Francois recalled in a video released by the navy, adding that he subsisted on a bottle of ketchup, garlic powder, and Maggi cubes.
“I could do nothing but sit and wait. 24 days away from the earth, with no one to talk to, without knowing what to do or where I was. It was hard. At times I lost hope. I thought of my family”, Francois said.
According to the press statement, on January 15, he saw an aircraft, and using a mirror and the sun’s reflection, he started sending signals to it.
“When I saw it pass twice, I understood they had seen me,” he said.
A Colombian naval vessel came to assist him with the support of a merchant ship.
“At some point, I lost hope and thought about my family, but I thanked the coast guard. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be telling the story,” Francois said.
The Colombian navy said the sailboat was abandoned at sea when Francois was picked up by the merchant ship.
It said Francois received a medical check on shore and then was handed over to immigration authorities for his return home to Dominica.
In the video, Francois says he is from Anse de Mai, a fishing village in the northeast of Dominica,
“My mother must be worried. So I am trying to let them know that I am alive.”
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