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| September 17, 2012 | Shark `saves` man lost in sea after 15 weeks | | Melbourne: A policeman from an island in the Pacific Ocean who was drifting in a wooden boat for 15 weeks was helped by a shark. Toakai Teitoi from Kiribati and father of six relived his harrowing voyage in the central Pacific when he arrived in Majuro on Saturday on the Marshall Islands fishing boat which picked him up last week. The 41-year-old man told of
sleeping with the body of his brother-in-law who died during the ordeal, suffering
severe dehydration and praying to be found alive. Teitoi’s drama began on May
27 after he had flown from his home island of Maiana to the Kiribati capital of
Tarawa to be sworn in as a policeman. Following the ceremony, he watched a film
about four men from Kiribati who were lost at sea. Only two survived by the time
they were washed ashore in American Samoa six weeks later. It was then that he
changed his mind about flying home and joined his brother-in-law Ielu Falaile,
52, on what was supposed to be a two-hour sea journey back to Maiana in a 15-foot
wooden boat. But after stopping to fish along the way and sleeping overnight,
they woke the following day to find they had drifted out of sight of Maiana and
soon after ran out of fuel. “We had food, but the problem was we had nothing to
drink,” News.com.au quoted him as saying. As dehydration took hold, Teitoi said
he turned to prayer as it gave him strength, but Falaile’s health began failing
and he died on July 4. “I left him there overnight and slept next to him like
at a funeral,” Teitoi said. He buried his brother-in-law at sea the next morning.
Only a day after Falaile passed away a storm blew into the area and rained for
several days allowing Teitoi to fill two five-gallon containers with a life-saving
supply of fresh water. He continued to pray regularly and on the morning of September
11 caught sight of a fishing boat in the distance but the crew were unable to
see him. Dejected, he did what he had done most days, curling up under a small
covered area in the bow to stay out of the tropical sun. Teitoi said he woke in
the afternoon to the sound of scratching and looked overboard to see a six-foot
shark circling the boat and bumping the hull. When the shark had his attention
it swam off. “He was guiding me to a fishing boat. I looked up and there was the
stern of a ship and I could see crew with binoculars looking at me,” he said.
When the vessel Marshalls 203 pulled Teitoi on board the first thing he asked
for was a cigarette. “They told me to wait. They took me to meet the captain,
and they gave me juice and some food,” he added. With Teitoi in no physical danger,
the Marshalls 203 continued fishing for several days before returning to Majuro.
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