New Year’s dinner for Elvis Francois It was a soup that resulted from mixing tomato sauce, sea water and a maggi bouillon cube. It was the only thing he found on the boat with which shipwrecked in the Caribbean for 24 days.
He himself admits that he knows nothing about navigation, but – even so – He ended up traveling from the island of Sint Maarten, in the Netherlands Antilles, to Puerto Bolívar, in La Guajira. But it was not a journey he took for pleasure.
It all goes back to last December 22, when Elvis was painting his boat and fixing the sail, but in a bad way drifted after losing control of the boat.
And although he tried to return to the island, weather conditions dragged it into the open sea. He tried to call his friends, but lost the signal. At that moment he knew that there was nothing else to do but sit and wait.
First hunger camealthough Elvis managed to get around the situation thanks to a old sauce bottle, a garlic powder and a bouillon cube that he found and they served him to prepare that soup that kept him alive for 24 days far from the ground. He always made the same thing when his stomach ached.
Then darkness and fear became accomplices and tried to defeat him. during his shipwreck he slept little, aware that he was in the open sea, surrounded by sharks and rough waters. Lost.
However, he remained calm for a few days until others began to pass by his side. big boats. That was something hard for him, because they did not see their little boat.
He decided to light a fire, but they didn’t see it either. Then, in a desperate measure, he scratched the front of his sailboat with the word “HELP”. And sat down to wait.
As he advanced, the swell grew and he filled his boat with waterhence he had to draw water several times to avoid sinking. She stayed afloat, but adrift.
Elvis I didn’t know where in the world I was, I had no one to talk to and I didn’t know what else to do for them to rescue him. Uncertainty took hold of him, and incidentally sadness remembering that family that she had had to spend Christmas and New Years without him.
But just as the sea is unpredictable, so is luck. On January 15, he saw a plane pass over him and, With a mirror he found on the ship, he used sunlight as a reflection to signal from the sea to the sky. The aircraft passed over his boat twice and Elvis wanted to believe that they had seen him.
after tourr 1,155 kilometers (see map), that is, almost three times the distance from Medellín to Bogotáthe rescue work finally began.
The Colombian Navy, in coordination with the General Maritime Directorate and the National Aeronaval Service of Panama, answered the call of Elvis. They saw his help sign and managed to rescue him 120 nautical miles northwest of Puerto Bolívar, in La Guajira.
After stepping on Colombian soil, in Cartagena, the castaway of Dominican nationality, He was treated by the Navy medical corps, which confirmed a good part of his health. Posteriorly, Migration began the process of returning to their country. “It was a really strong experience. I don’t know how I’m alive, but I am,” Elvis said.