WELLINGTON: Four people who survived a month adrift in the Pacific were recovering in the Solomon Islands on Wednesday after an ordeal that claimed the lives of eight of their companions, including a baby, reports said. The group, from Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville province, said they survived by eating coconuts found floating in the sea and collected rainwater in a bowl during their 32 days adrift. The Solomon Star News reported the group set off from Bougainville on Dec 22, intending to celebrate Christmas in the Carteret Islands, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) away. “We could do nothing with their dead bodies, we just have to let go of them at sea,” he told the newspaper. Epic tales of survival are not uncommon in the Pacific, where tiny islands are separated by vast expanses of ocean.

Source: New Strait Times February 12, 2020 03:22 UTC