Five fishermen who spent 55 days adrift at sea arrive in the Galapagos Islands after rescue

Five fishermen who spent 55 days adrift at sea arrived Saturday at a port in the Galapagos Islands after being rescued by a tuna boat, the Ecuadorian navy said on X.

The three Peruvians and two Colombians had been missing since mid-March and were found on May 7 by an Ecuadorian boat called Aldo.

Vladimir González, 32,  José Albines , 52, José Gabriel Albines, 31, and Jhonny García Jorge Ugarte, 40, arrived at the San Cristobal Navy Base in the morning and their conditions were stable, the navy said.

The fishermen had reported damage to the boat’s alternator two days after setting sail from Pucusana Bay, to the south of Peru’s capital Lima, the navy said in a separate post on Friday.

The navy said it is coordinating with local and foreign authorities to ensure their safe return to their respective countries.

Earlier this year, another Peruvian fisherman, 61-year-old Máximo Napa, spent 95 days at sea alone. He was also rescued by an Ecuadorian vessel and returned to Lima mid-March to be reunited with his family.

Napa told local media he survived the ordeal at sea by eating cockroaches, birds and turtles, according to Agence France-Presse.

Several dramatic rescues have been made at sea. In October, Russian Mikhail Pichugin was rescued after spending more than two months adrift in a small inflatable boat, drinking rainwater in the Sea of Okhotsk, off the coast of Russia. His brother and nephew died while at sea and he tied their bodies to the boat to prevent them from being washed away.

In 2023, Australian sailor Tim Shaddock survived more than two months lost at sea with his dog, Bella. The pair were sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia, the 51-year-old said, when rough seas damaged their boat and its electronics system, leaving them adrift and cut off from the world.