47-year-old Elvis Francois had only planned to fix his boat for a moment when suddenly he was swept out to sea with it without equipment or supplies.
Elvis lives on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, but during the repair of the boat he stayed on the nearby island of St. Martin and due to the stormy weather he quickly drifted out into the middle of the sea to an area without cellular reception.
Although he had no food on the boat, Elvis describes how he managed to survive for 24 days feeding on a bottle of ketchup, garlic powder and seasoning cubes that happened to be with him. In the hope that a nearby ship would recognize him, Elvis engraved on his boat Help and according to him he even tried to set fire to the boat but no ship passed in the area.
Finally, after 24 days Elvis saw a plane in the sky and with the help of a mirror was able to signal to him that he was in distress. The pilot forwarded the report to the Colombian Coast Guard who rescued him and then also uploaded the story to social networks.
In a video taken after the rescue, Elvis describes being at sea “There is no land, there is no one to talk to. You don’t know what to do, you don’t know where you are – it was hard.” According to him, there were times when he too lost hope but the thought of his family encouraged him. Regarding the food, he says that “I had no food, only a bottle of ketchup that was on the ship, garlic powder and Maggi cubes (seasoning cubes) so I mixed everything with water and it helped me survive 24 days at sea.”
The Coast Guard reported that Elvis is in good health and that they plan to bring him home soon.
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