Island Castaways Rescued; Signaled for HELP with Palm Leaves
A joint US Navy and Coast Guard operation conducted on Tuesday successfully rescued three mariners who had been stranded on a remote Pacific Ocean islet for over a week. The trio had found themselves marooned on Pikelot Atoll, part of Micronesia, after their 20-foot skiff encountered rough swells and sustained damage to its outboard motor on March 31.
Unable to summon help via their radio due to depleted battery power, the stranded men resorted to a creative solution. They gathered palm fronds from the island and arranged them to form the word “HELP” on the beach, a distress signal that caught the attention of search teams.
During their ordeal, the men sustained themselves on coconut meat and utilized fresh water from a small well on the island.
The search for the missing mariners commenced on April 6 after a concerned relative reported their failure to return to Polowat Atoll, their initial departure point located over 100 miles away. Pikelot Atoll’s extreme remoteness posed a challenge to the search effort.
Was it Gilligan’s Island?