A Russian man, Mikhail Pichugin, survived over two months drifting in the icy waters of the Sea of Okhotsk, the coldest sea in East Asia, in an inflatable boat. The ordeal claimed the lives of his brother and 15-year-old nephew.
Pichugin, along with his brother Sergei and nephew Ilya, set off on August 9 from the Khabarovsk region in the Russian Far East, heading to Sakhalin, a Russian island, aboard an inflatable boat, officials said.Their boat was spotted on Monday, 66 days later, approximately 1,000 kilometers from their starting point.
A fisherman found Pichugin near the drifting boat containing the bodies of his relatives.
In a video released by prosecutors, Pichugin, visibly weakened, is heard saying, “I don’t have much strength,” but he managed to grab a rope thrown by the fishermen.
Reports suggest the group had about 20 liters of water and survived on collected rainwater, dried noodles, and peas. Pichugin explained that his nephew died in early September, followed by his brother, who fell into the icy water and later succumbed, despite being retrieved.
Pichugin tied the bodies to the boat to prevent them from drifting away and used their life jackets as signals to attract attention. The family was from Ulan-Ude in Siberia, but Pichugin had been working as a driver in Sakhalin. They had planned a sea trip to watch whales, according to relatives.
Pichugin’s wife, Yekaterina, called his survival “a kind of miracle.” She mentioned that the men had packed only enough food and water for two weeks. She added that her husband’s weight was 100 kilograms before the ordeal but he had lost half his body weight by the time he was found.
Rescuers had conducted a search for the trio after they went missing, suspecting the boat had drifted toward Kamchatka.
Pichugin was taken to a hospital in Magadan, where doctors described his condition as “more or less stable,” though they expressed concerns about possible hypothermia.
Investigators are examining the inflatable boat to understand what happened, and a criminal investigation into potential safety rule breaches has been launched. Pichugin could face a prison sentence of up to seven years.
In 1960, four Soviet soldiers survived 49 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean before being rescued by the US aircraft carrier Kearsarge, according to RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency.
