Miraculous rescue of a man carried away at sea: the English word became the key

ate bouillon cubes

A sailor rescued by the Colombian navy after 24 days drifting on the high seas miraculously survived on bouillon cubes. Elvis François, 47, from Dominica scrawled the word “Help” in English on the hull of the boat.

The Colombian Navy has rescued a Dominica man who claims to have drifted on a sailboat in the Caribbean for 24 days, subsisting on ketchup, garlic powder and bouillon cubes.

Elvis François scrawled the word “help” in English on the hull of the boat, which Colombian officials say was the key to saving him.

The sailboat was spotted from the air 120 nautical miles northwest of the Guajira Peninsula and François was flown to the port city of Cartagena by a passing container ship, the Colombian Navy said in a statement Wednesday.

François told Colombian authorities his trial began in December, when currents swept the sailboat out to sea while it was being repaired off the island of Saint Martin in the Netherlands Antilles, where he lives.

He says he lacked navigational knowledge and was unable to steer his boat back to shore after spending weeks alone on the high seas.

“I called my friends, they tried to contact me, but I lost the signal. There was nothing left to do but sit and wait,” recalls François in a video released by the Colombian Navy.

The man said that he ate a bottle of ketchup, garlic powder and Maggi cubes. He mixed these products with a small amount of water – that’s what he ate.

François says that he collected rainwater with a rag. Although Colombian officials say the man, who spent about a month on the high seas, was found in good health, he has lost a lot of weight.

François said in the video that he had to constantly pump water out of the boat to keep it from sinking. He also unsuccessfully tried to start a fire to send a distress signal.

Finally, a plane flew by, and he honked his mirror. He said the Navy told him he was spotted as the plane flew by again.

“Twenty-four days – no land, no one to talk to. Don’t know what to do, don’t know where you are. It was hard,” Francois says. “At a certain point, I lost hope and thought about my family, but I thank the Coast Guard. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be telling this story.”

Urbano Montes said the sailboat was abandoned at sea when François picked up a merchant ship.

The Navy said Francois underwent a medical examination ashore and was then handed over to immigration authorities to return home to Dominica.