this is amazing....
How do you survive 25 days at sea with nothing but the giant icebox you are floating in? By drinking rainwater and eating fish vomited up by seabirds, apparently.
That is the amazing tale of two Burmese fishermen who were found floating in shark-infested waters off the far North Coast of Australia in a large cooler box.
Ko Ko Oo, 22, and Haung Htaik, 24, were discovered by Australian customs officials floating in the orange-and-white cooler in the Timor Sea, about 60 nautical miles from Thursday Island, northwest of Darwin on the far north central coast of Australia, at the weekend. They said that they had been adrift since December 23 when their wooden fishing boat sank and 18 fellow crew members from Thailand and Burma drowned.
They appeared in remarkably good health considering their ordeal, during which they are said to have survived on nothing but rainwater and a few tiny fish.
Photographs taken from rescue aircraft show the bare-chested pair standing in the tall-sided cooler box waving their T-shirts in a desperate attempt to be seen. "They had no safety equipment, no beacons, no means of communication and they'd been drifting for 25 days," said Tracey Jiggins, of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. "For them to have even been spotted in a huge body of water is amazing."
Mr Oo, receiving treatment for dehydration and skin complaints at a hospital on Thursday Island, told an Australian journalist that the only food they consumed was several days after the sinking.
"For ten days, nothing to eat," Mr Oo said through an interpreter. "Then two big seabirds came and vomited some small fish - about six or seven little fish, and that's all." Terry Gadenne, the helicopter pilot who rescued the men, said he was stunned that they had lived to tell the tale. "They were dehydrated, there's no doubt about it, and very keen to get out," he said. "I think they were fairly desperate. The week before was really rough, strong winds feeding into the cyclone in the gulf and a lot of heavy rain. In the days just prior to the rescue it was fairly hot with some isolated thunderstorms."
Cyclone Charlotte had been active in the region as the pair were adrift, with gusts of up to 45 mph, but it may have brought heavy rain and fresh water that kept the men alive. At other times they would have had daytime temperatures of more than 30C (86F).
The tale of survival stunned some locals, who were amazed that the pair showed no apparent signs of skin chafing, sunburn or other effects associated with long-term exposure at sea.
An Australian Immigration Department spokesman said that the pair would be questioned. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it had no reason to doubt the story and the rest of the crew would almost certainly have perished. No search for survivors is planned. It is believed that the boat left Thailand with Burmese and Thai crew members.