 "After drifting at sea for over two months, the Russian sailor was miraculously discovered alive, floating in a tiny boat before being rescued by a fishing vessel. AP")
The adventure voyage of 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin took a perilous turn after he and his two relatives found themselves lost in the bitterly cold waters of the Sea of Okhotsk in the far east of Russia.
After drifting at sea for over two months, the Russian sailor was miraculously discovered alive, floating in a tiny boat before being rescued by a fishing vessel. Unfortunately, the journey was not a safe return for all. Both his brother and nephew could not survive the ordeal and were found dead.
What happened during their adventure? How was Pichugin rescued? Here’s a closer look.
Lost in the sea
In August, Pinchugin and his brother, Sergei, 49, and 15-year-old nephew Ilya set out on an adventure from the Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia.
According to BBC, the trio was headed home from a multi-day trip to the remote Shantar Islands, a renowned feeding ground for whales on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, when the engines of their inflatable boat gave out. Soon, they were adrift in the vast frigid sea with limited supplies for their survival.
Pinchugin’s wife told Russian state media that they carried food that could only help them survive for two weeks and had roughly 20 litres of water.
When family members reported the group missing, Russian authorities initiated a month-long search but eventually halted efforts, assuming survival was impossible in the turbulent, icy waters. The Sea of Okhotsk has claimed countless lives, and their odds appeared bleak.
A miraculous rescue
After surviving over two-month-long ordeal, Pichugin was finally discovered by a fishing vessel, more than 1,000 km from his initial destination, near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
Initially, the fishing crew mistook Pichugin’s boat for a buoy or debris when it appeared on their radar, reported the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. But they turned on the spotlight, just in case, and were shocked to find a man in an orange life vest waving for help.
“I have no strength left,” shouted Pichugin as the rescuers brought him aboard, in a video of his rescue posted by the prosecutor’s office. The man had reportedly lost more than half of his weight during this harrowing ordeal and was only 50 kg when he was found.
The fishing vessel brought both Pichugin and the bodies of his brother and nephew back to Magadan, a port city, where Pichugin was immediately taken to an emergency care unit. Doctors noted he was severely dehydrated and hypothermic but was in a stable condition.
His ex-wife, Ekaterina, expressed her relief to The New York Post: “When they said [Mikhail] was alive, I thought we were waiting for a miracle, and it happened.”
As to how he was able to survive for so long in the Sea of Okhotsk - the coldest in East Asia - a representative from the Russian seafarers’ union suggested a supply of fish may have played a part. The rescued man’s wife believes that his weight could have played a role in his survival, given he weighed about 100 kg.
In light of the tragic deaths of Pichugin’s family members, Russian prosecutors have opened an investigation, examining possible violations of safety protocols. According to Russian law, inflatable boats are not authorised to venture more than two nautical miles from the shore.
If found guilty of breaching these regulations, Pichugin might face legal consequences, including possible jail time in the future. For now, though, he remains in recovery.
With input from agencies