Two men, aged 53 and 26, from the Pacific Ocean island nation of Kiribati, who had been missing for 33 days, came ashore over 300 miles away on the on Namorik Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. The men were reported to be weak, but otherwise not in bad shape, considering their ordeal. Apparently their arrival was not entirely unusual.

“As odd as it may seem, the Marshall Islands hosts Kiribas drifters quite frequently,” said the editor of the Marshall Islands Journal, Giff Johnson, “It’s not that it happens all the time. Let’s just say people from Kiribas are very hardy individuals. They get lost on a little boat and manage to persevere. It is an amazing thing.”

Castaways found on Pacific atoll after 33 days at sea

Almost exactly a year ago we posted about three teenage boys  from the Atafu atoll, near New Zealand who drifted for fifty days across nearly 1,000 miles of ocean in a small aluminum dinghy before being spotted by a fishing boat.

The record for time spent adrift is believed to be set by three Mexican fisherman in 2006 who drifted for almost ten months over 5,000 miles of ocean.  The Mexican fishermen were finally picked up very near Kiribati, where the men found this week will be returning as soon as transport can be arranged. Unfortunately, for the recent castaways, the plane that would normally have flown them home has been grounded due to maintenance. Kiribati was once the British colony of the Gilbert Islands.